Best Mattresses for Side Sleepers of 2025

Innerspring mattresses consist of a layer of steel coils topped with fiber padding or (in the case of hybrids) foam. The coils offer contouring support and a buoyant feel, while the padding or foam provides some level of pressure relief for a side sleeper’s shoulders and hips.

Foam mattresses offer a cuddling feel as well as high stabilization scores, which means you’re less likely to wake up your partner when you shift positions. Like the foam or fiber layers in innerspring mattresses, all-foam mattresses provide pressure relief for a side sleeper’s shoulders and hips.

Adjustable air mattresses allow couples to adjust each side of their bed individually by pumping air into and out of the air chambers. While adjustable airbeds allow sleepers to fully control the firmness of their mattress, they’re often the most expensive options on the market.

Our mattress lab tests assess a range of factors, including support for back and side sleepers. But in this roundup, we focus on each mattress’s ability to support side sleepers specifically.

To test this, we map points on the spine while subjects lie on their side on each mattress. We then connect those dots and compare how much the spine diverges from a horizontal line. The better the spinal alignment, the better the support. This test is done for small and large side sleepers; we then use those data points to calculate a score for average-sized sleepers. 

In addition to support, we also test mattresses for firmness level, heat retention, stability, and durability. And we consider scores for mattress comfort and owner satisfaction according to data from survey results based on 75,137 mattresses.