Everyone can benefit from a supportive mattress, but if you’re someone who rolls onto their stomach in bed and sleeps on their chest all night, you may need more specialization. Expert advice on the best mattresses for stomach sleepers is pretty much unanimous: “A firm mattress is usually best.” Kevin Lees, DCsays Director of Chiropractic Operations at The Joint Chiropractic. “A mattress that is too soft or unsupportive can cause the abdomen to sink deeper, creating more pressure on the lower back.”
Stomach sleepers will get the best support from a bed that can support your hips while supporting and holding them in line with your shoulders, Leese explains. But you need more than just a very firm bed — you’ll also need good airflow, pressure relief across your lower body, responsive bounce, and a few other features that we’ll detail below.
To help you find a firmer-than-average mattress for the best stomach sleeper of your life, our team tested dozens of memory foam, latex, innerspring, and hybrid beds to find the best mattresses for stomach sleepers. Here’s what you should look for in your new mattress so it doesn’t ruin your carefully curated sleep routine.
Our favorite all-around mattress for stomach sleepers
We made a choice Helix Dawn As the best mattress for stomach sleepers because it is the firmest model in the brand’s lineup and provides plenty of support to keep your hips elevated and your spine in a neutral position. It also has a comfortable layer of latex foam with plenty of bounce, so it’s easy and comfortable to move or jump out of.
Best mattresses for stomach sleepers: At a glance
Check out our picks for the best mattresses for stomach sleepers, all of which have been personally tested by our sleep team.
How we found the best mattresses for stomach sleepers
Our team has tested and evaluated over 500 mattresses in our sleep labs. We score each bed for firmness, level of support, cooling and pressure relief, so all you have to do is get the bed that best suits your needs. To learn more about our testing and evaluation process, take a look at this guide.
Are you looking for something specific?
The Helix Dawn features soft memory foam and internal spring coils that provide the right balance between contouring and bounce. As Helix’s strongest model, Dawn gives stomach sleepers the hip and pelvic support needed to get a good night’s rest.
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If you’re a strict stomach sleeper, you’ll find a lot to love with the Helix Dawn. Thanks to its firmness, enhanced by hundreds of individually wrapped coils, this mattress has enough support to prevent your hips from sliding down out of alignment with your shoulders while lying on your stomach, which helps prevent Accumulation of lower back pain over time.
Our testing team appreciated the breathable fabric in the pillow top surface, which seemed to “keep air flowing throughout the night.” They also noted the Dawn’s bouncy feel and responsiveness, which made it easy to move around or move into different positions. The edges of the bed provide good stability, so we didn’t feel like we were sliding off the sides at any time of the night – even when sleeping starfish-style.
As its name suggests, the Brooklyn Bedding Plank Firm is an extremely firm mattress made of ultra-dense foam. You can flip it to either side: a firm side fits most stomach sleepers and sturdy bed fans, and an extra sturdy side that works especially well for stomach sleepers over 230 pounds. The thin polyfoam top layer adds a bit of cushion so you don’t feel like you’re sleeping on a hardwood floor.
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If you want to take your bed’s firmness to the next level, this reversible foam mattress is the perfect solution. Of the hundreds of mattresses we’ve tested, Plank Firm is the firmest—especially when placed with the firmer side facing up. We gave this side a 9 out of 10 for firmness, while the regular firm side received an 8 out of 10 (still impressive). That’s why this bed works best for stomach sleepers, those sleeping over 230 pounds, and those who don’t consider the relative lack of cushioning in high-density foam.
In our tests, we found that the Plank Firm did a really great job at keeping the hips from sinking, which is crucial for stomach sleepers. These results are supported by American Chiropractic Associationwhich has been called the bed that relieves back pain, in part because of its hip and lumbar support, which helps keep your spine in a more neutral position throughout the night.
Something the testing team also discovered is that the Plank Firm isn’t the most breathable mattress, simply because it’s made of high-density foam that doesn’t leave much room for airflow. You can offset this downside by adding the optional cooling cap and perhaps adding some cooling sheets.
The Saatva Classic offers breathability, high-quality materials, and stress relief on your joints in one package.
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Stomach sleepers and side sleepers have different and often conflicting mattress needs. This means that if you tend to alternate between sleeping positions, it’s difficult to find a bed that isn’t a form of compromise. A softer mattress may feel comfortable on your hips and shoulders when you’re lying on one side, but it won’t be firm enough to support the lower half of your body when you’re lying on your stomach.
