Best Medium-Firm Mattress

Medium-firm beds provide excellent support to sleepers without causing pressure build-up around your back, hips, or shoulders. On the mattress firmness scale—which ranges from 1 to 10—medium-firm beds are roughly a 6.5.

For those of us who struggle with back issues, medium-firm mattresses are some of the best for back pain relief. Not only that, but they’re a good option for back sleepers, stomach sleepers, and plus-sized adults.

Rather than struggling to find the perfect medium-firm mattress through hours of searching, we’ve summed up the 6 best medium-firm mattresses right here, so you can upgrade your bed and relieve pain.

Best Medium-Firm Mattresses

	Mattress	Highlights
	Amerisleep AS2	Best Mattress Overall
	Amerisleep Organica	Best Latex Mattress
	Nolah Evolution 15	Best Luxury Mattress
	Avocado Green Mattress	Best Cooling Mattress
	Purple Hybrid	Best Mattress for Plus-Size Sleepers

The top layer of the AS2 is made from Bio-Pur®, a plant-based memory foam. Compared to traditional memory foam, Bio-Pur® is both cool and durable, so you can sleep comfortably and the foam won’t sag quickly.

The AS2’s Affinity layer with HIVE® provides extra support and bounce to the mattress. HIVE® is a targeted support technology with five zones to help sleepers stay aligned at night. Your head, back, and legs, receive more support, while your shoulders and hips are extra cushioned.

The base of the Amerisleep AS2 is Bio-Core®. This sturdy base is built to be long-lasting, preventing your mattress from developing sags or going soft. It also helps keep your spine in healthy alignment, ensuring you don’t wake up in pain.

The Amerisleep AS2 is CertiPUR-US® certified, meaning the foam is free from harmful chemicals including formaldehyde, phthalates, heavy metals, and more. CertiPUR-US® certified foam is less likely to smell when you first open it.

Amerisleep offers a 100-night sleep trial and a 20-year warranty for the AS2.

The Organica Mattress cover is made from GOTS-certified organic cotton. Cotton is soft, breathable, and durable to ensure you stay cool and your mattress lasts long.

Underneath the cover is a thin layer of New Zealand Joma Wool®. This cushiony wool layer acts as a natural fire retardant while offering another layer of comfort.

The mattress’s comfort layer is made from natural Talalay latex, a buoyant and supportive foam. Unlike other foams, natural latex produces very little off-gassing and is also very breathable.

The mattress features a pocketed coil support layer. Pocketed coils respond to your movements independently to provide targeted support to your body, prevent motion transfer, and enhance edge support. Coil support systems are both long-lasting and allow for lots of airflow.

The base of the mattress is a thin layer made from Dunlop latex, a durable foam.

The Amerisleep Organica is Standard by OEKO-TEX®, Rainforest Alliance, and eco-Institut certified. The Organica comes with a 100-night sleep trial and a 20-year warranty. Amerisleep offers free shipping and returns for all of their mattresses.

The Evolution is designed for cooling, so the first thing you’re bound to notice about it is its cool touch surface. This pleasantly chilly feel is all thanks to the Evolution’s multiple cooling technologies that provide breathability and temperature regulation.

You’ll also notice incredible contouring all the way through this mattress. It features a plush topper, a memory foam comfort layer, and zoned coils. These layers ensure adaptability from the top to the bottom of this mattress.

The first layers of the Evolution are all about cooling. The ArcticTexTM cover and quilted Euro top offer an ultra-cool sleep surface. The AirBreathTM heat escape gusset keeps cool air flowing and ensures the cool surface stays that way. And graphite-infused comfort foam below draws your body heat away from you all night long.

Below all this cooling comfort rest two layers of ultra-buoyant transition foam to ensure you don’t sink into the contouring comfort foams above.

Finally, a layer of HDMaxTM Tri-ZonedTM coils supports all the layers above, as well as your body. These coils offer 25 percent more support than the average coil support layer, so they keep you lifted despite the comfort foams above. They also offer each zone of your body the ideal support for its needs.

The top of the bed is made from GOLS organic certified latex. Latex is not only good for the environment but offers great temperature control so you won’t overheat. The mattress also contains GOTS organic certified wool, a naturally antimicrobial material designed to regulate your temperature and stay fresh.

The Avocado Green Mattress contains up to 1414 steel coils. The coils are arranged in five separate zones to promote good posture, relieve pain and pressure, and evenly distribute body weight.

The mattress cover is made of GOTS organic certified cotton—a cool and durable fabric.

Avocado mattresses are made in the USA and ship to your home for free. The Avocado Green Mattress comes with a 1-year sleep trial and a 25-year warranty.

Purple mattresses are famous for the Purple Grid™ layer in each of their models. Purple Grid™ is a temperature neutral gel memory foam in a grid pattern. This layer responds to your movements and relieves pressure while being supportive. Unlike traditional memory foam, Purple Grid™ is much more buoyant and longer-lasting.

As a hybrid bed, the Purple Hybrid contains support coils. Each spring is wrapped in fabric to minimize noise and enhance the layer’s durability. The coils add bounce to prevent sleepers from feeling trapped.

The Purple Hybrid contains a thin transition foam on either side of the support coils to act as a barrier for the coil layer.

You have 100 nights to test out the Purple Hybrid. After that, the bed is backed by a 10-year warranty. In case you don’t like the Purple Hybrid mattress, Purple offers free and easy returns.

One of the Bear Original’s unique features is its cover. The mattress cover is made from Celliant®, an FDA-determined textile with unique infrared technology.

Celliant® absorbs your body’s heat, transforms the energy into infrared light, and releases it back to you to boost muscle recovery, improve sleep, and heighten your overall well-being. Since the cover absorbs body heat, it also helps you sleep cool. This technology works even if you have a mattress protector and sheets over your bed.

Beyond this, the mattress contains a graphite-gel infused memory foam to alleviate pressure points and draw heat away from your body. The transition layer is responsive and flexible, making it easier to switch positions and get in and out of bed. The mattress’s supportive base foam keeps your body aligned and supported, alleviating pain upon waking up.

Bear mattresses are CertiPUR-US® certified. The Bear Original is backed by a 100-night sleep trial and a 10-year warranty.

SEE ALSO: Most Comfortable Mattress

Benefits of a Medium-Firm Mattress

Medium-firm mattresses are great because their support can improve your spinal alignment, in turn leading to reduced back pain. Along with that, the minimal cushioning on a medium-firm mattress isolates motion and prevents poor circulation.

Improves Circulation

When your mattress is too soft and causes you to sink in bed, it can potentially block circulation to parts of your body. The lack of circulation can cause body parts to feel stiff, tingly, and numb.

Firmer surfaces cause you to sink less and evenly distribute your weight, ensuring no part of your body is left numb or in pain.

Excellent Motion Isolation

For those of you who share your bed, a mattress with good motion isolation is crucial to a good night’s sleep. Medium-firm mattresses reduce the amount of motion that transfers from one side of the bed to the other. This way, you and your partner won’t disturb each other when getting in and out of bed or switching sleeping positions.

Promotes a Neutral Spine

A neutral spine is essential to sleeping comfortably and preventing pain when you wake. A misaligned spine potentially leads to aches and pains around your back and neck. The extra support of a medium-firm mattress reduces the risk of throwing your spine out of alignment. For this reason, medium-firm mattresses are also one of the best firmnesses for relieving back pain.

Who Should Use a Medium-Firm Mattress?

While medium-firm beds can be great, they’re not for everyone. We suggest back sleepers, stomach sleepers, plus-sized sleepers, and people with back pain sleep on medium-firm mattresses.

Back Sleepers

The best mattresses for back sleepers are medium-firm because these beds are soft enough to prevent pressure points, but also prevent the hips from sinking and throwing the spine out of alignment. Medium-firm mattresses provide enough support to help back sleepers’ spines stay neutral.

Stomach Sleepers

Mattresses for stomach sleepers should also be medium-firm or firm to prevent uncomfortable sinkage around your lower backs and hips. Sinking in an overly soft bed also curves the spine unnaturally, eventually leading to lower back pain and discomfort.

Plus-Sized Sleepers

According to a 2014 study, people who weigh over 230 pounds sleep less, have a lower sleep quality, and struggle with fatigue during the day compared to lighter people.

If you weigh over 230 pounds, we suggest you use a firmer mattress than what’s recommended for your sleeping position to prevent you from feeling unsupported. In most cases, the best beds for heavier individuals are medium to firm because they support your body without causing painful pressure points. (Although, it’s not impossible to find soft mattresses for plus-size sleepers.)

Hot Sleepers

If you tend to get too hot at night, thick cushioning on soft mattresses can trap your heat and increase your discomfort. Mattresses for hot sleepers are often medium-firm since they have minimal cushioning to relieve pressure without causing you to feel too warm.

People With Back Pain

When struggling with back problems, a firmer sleep surface is best to improve your posture and get pain relief. At the same time, an extra firm surface may be too stiff to sleep comfortably and can cause pressure build-up around the lower back.

Mattresses for back pain are typically medium-firm since they offer enough firmness to support your back and reduce pain while having enough cushioning to prevent pressure points. According to a 2009 study, sleepers who switched to medium-firm mattresses noticed reduced back pain and improved sleep quality within just 4 weeks.

FAQs

Is a firm or medium-firm mattress better?

There’s no best firmness level for everyone, so it’s hard to say which of the two is better. Firm mattresses offer little to no cushioning, while medium-firm mattresses have several inches of cushioning to ease body pressure.

Choosing between the two firmnesses comes down to your sleeping position and body type. For larger adults and stomach sleepers, we recommend choosing a true firm bed. Conversely, average-sized back and stomach sleepers will likely do better on a medium-firm mattress.

Will a medium-firm mattress get softer?

When you first get a mattress, it takes about 30 days to break-in the bed and for your body to get accustomed to the new sleeping surface. The mattress will loosen up and become more comfortable during this time, but it won’t necessarily go soft within the first few months.

However, all mattresses eventually grow soft and lumpy after years of use. At this point, the beds are no longer comfortable, so we suggest replacing your mattress roughly 7 to 10 years after you purchase it.

Can side sleepers use a medium-firm mattress?

We don’t recommend side sleepers use a medium-firm mattress.

Side sleepers need a lot of cushioning to prevent shoulder and hip pain or arm stiffness. The best mattresses for side sleepers are medium or medium-soft, while medium-firm mattresses are better suited for most back and stomach sleepers.

Still, some plus-sized side sleepers may enjoy the pushback of a medium-firm bed as sleepers will put more pressure on the bed.

What mattress firmness do 5-star hotels use?

Most hotels use medium-firm mattresses, coupled with high-quality bedding. Medium-firm mattresses work well for hotels since they’re suitable for a wide variety of sleepers and are also durable.

If you notice yourself sleeping better at hotels and want to emulate that comfort at home, replicate their beds by choosing similar mattress firmnesses, sheets, blankets, and pillows.

Do firmer mattresses sleep cool?

Mattress firmness doesn’t necessarily play a role in the breathability of your mattress. Instead, your mattress’s materials impact its cooling properties.

Regardless, if you struggle with hot sleeping, the cradling feel of a soft or medium mattress may potentially worsen your discomfort. Medium-firm and firm mattresses have very minimal cushioning, so when you get hot, they won’t absorb much heat and sweat.

Conclusion

With our guide, we hope you found the right medium-firm mattress to help you start sleeping peacefully. Medium-firm mattresses are some of the best for those struggling with pain at night, along with being a solid mattress choice for people who are overweight, sleep hot, or prefer sleeping on their stomach or back.