Choosing a new mattress is something that most people will only do a handful of times throughout their life. Due to this, many people often find it hard to understand which mattress they should pick (and why they should pick it).
Today we are going to do our best to improve your chances of getting a great nights sleep for the next decade or so by divulging the secrets of the wonderful world of mattresses.
This is going to be a long article, but over time you’re going to be using your mattress more than any other object in your home (literally). So it’s worth taking 10 minutes to read it all.
Let’s get started.
Matching Your Sleep Style To Your Mattress
Many people are surprised to learn that the most important factor that determines if a mattress is right for you or not is your sleeping position. Different positions put pressure on the mattress in different ways. Different positions also require different levels of support and firmness for the best nights sleep possible.
Picking a mattress that “feels right” might seem like a common sense approach to take, but if you don’t take your sleeping position into account – you’re potentially going to have suboptimal sleep for the next decade or so.
Matching your mattress to your sleeping position is important regardless of your preferred style of sleeping, but for stomach sleepers, it’s particularly important.
Stomach sleeping is widely regarded by medical researchers and doctors to be the least healthy sleeping position. It puts pressure and stress on your joints that over time can lead to chronic pain issues. However, with a properly picked mattress, a lot of these health issues can be avoided.
What To Look For In A Good Stomach Sleeper Mattress
Like all sleeping positions, the two main factors that determine if a mattress is right for you are support and firmness. It’s important to note that these are two different concepts (albeit closely related ones).
Support – To be honest, all sleeping positions need decent levels of support for a healthy night’s sleep. However, for stomach sleepers, it’s extra important. This can seem a little bit counter-intuitive at first (because stomach sleepers are less likely to move and roll around during the night). However, the slightest change in a stomach sleepers position can result in a severe misalignment of the spine and neck. Over time this can cause serious damage to your joints.
Firmness – Stomach sleepers should avoid soft mattresses at all costs due to the flat profile the sleeping position provides. A softer mattress will increase the curvature of your spine as you sink into it which again causes joint issues over the long run. Ideally, you should be looking at mattresses that are on the firmer side of medium (as a minimum). Very firm mattresses are the best option, but for many people they are uncomfortable.
Recap: Stomach sleepers need mattresses with incredible levels of support that are as firm as possible (no softer than medium firmness).
Overall Best Stomach Sleeper Mattress
We can confidently say that we honestly think we have found the best mattress on the market right now for stomach sleepers. We looked at many different options (and will list some respectable runners-up below), but in our opinion, this product from Tuft and Needle should be at the very top of your shortlist.
As you would expect, this mattress is highly supportive thanks to the quality materials it uses (and the advanced design patterns it benefits from). Additionally, its medium-firm nature ensures that it’s perfect for side sleepers (while being soft enough to be enjoyable for most people). Here are a few features we particularly like:
Contours To Your Body – The adaptive Viscolatex that is used in this Tuft and Needle product as the uppermost layer has contouring capabilities that are not dissimilar from memory foam. However, unlike memory foam, Viscolatex is much firmer. This is perfect for stomach sleepers as it allows you to be comfortable, yet keeps your spine and neck aligned.
Cooling Capabilities – The Tuft and Needle has highly impressive heat dissipation abilities thanks to the high-quality foam used. Cheaper foam traps warm air throughout the night which can dramatically heat up your mattress and result in an uncomfortable night of tossing and turning in the heat. With the Tuft and Needle, you’re pretty much guaranteed a good night’s sleep, even in hot summer months.
Luxurious Feel – Tuft and Needle are well known within the mattress world for creating products that have a “luxurious feel”. They market this product (and all their other mattresses) as “resort” style products. They claim that sleeping on their mattresses makes you feel like you are spending the night at a 5-star hotel, and their customers tend to agree.
30 Day Trial – We think that trials are one of the most important features of a good mattress that shouldn’t be overlooked. When you’re shopping for a mattress online (like most people do these days) it’s hard to be sure you are going to be picking something you’re going to enjoy sleeping on. With the 30-day trial from Tuft and Needle, you can “test drive” this product for 30 days. If you don’t like it, you can simply return it (with no questions asked) for a full refund.
Long Warranty – Tuft and Needle are well known for producing quality products (and putting their money where their mouth is). This product has a long 20-year warranty against manufacturing defects (which is about as long as mattress warranties get).
To be totally honest, most of the mattresses in the “runner-up” section below don’t even come close to this product from Tuft and Needle. It’s got everything that a stomach sleeper needs, and as an added bonus it’s very reasonably priced.
Pros And Cons
- Pro – Medium firmness
- Pro – Long Warranty
- Pro – Contours to your body
- Pro – 30 Day trial
- Pro – Cooling capabilities
- Con – Could be a little cheaper
7 Other Recommendations For Stomach Sleeper Mattresses
The Tuft and Needle above should be at the very top of your shortlist. However, we recommend you continue reading and look at the runners-up below to get an idea of what else is on the market (they are all worthy of your consideration).
Zinus Memory Foam 12 Inch
This firm mattress from Zinus hits the sweet spot between functionality and affordability. It’s a super supportive, medium-firm product (despite being made from memory foam). It’s made from several layers of different material which combine to provide the support and firmness that are essential for stomach sleepers.
There’s a 1 inch quilted cover on the top (which makes the product feel super luxurious) followed by a 1-inch layer of Viscolatex foam (the same as the Tuft and Needle above). This is followed by a thick and responsive layer of 2-inch memory foam, a 3-inch layer of comfort foam, and a final layer of 5 inches of high-density foam.
The end result of this 5 layered foam sandwich is a product that is perfect for stomach sleepers (and is more than worthy of your consideration).
Pros And Cons
- Pro – Multilayer design
- Pro – Memory foam
- Pro – Very supportive
- Pro – Affordable
- Con – No cooling gel in the memory foam
Olee Sleep 13 Inch Box Top Hybrid Gel Infused Memory Foam Innerspring Mattress
We don’t usually recommend that many coiled or sprung mattresses when we are reviewing products. They are a reasonably outdated technology in the vast majority of cases and can be easily improved upon by the various modern foams that are available. However, every once in a while we come across a coiled product that meets our expectations.
This mattress is perfect for stomach sleepers with its almost unbeatable levels of support (it’s possibly the most supportive on this list). It’s topped with a layer of memory foam that’s reasonably firm (for memory foam) which provides an overall medium-firm feel. Most importantly the memory foam is cooling gel infused which removes many of the “heat trap” issues that plague standard memory foam mattresses.
Pros And Cons
- Pro – Memory foam
- Pro – Very supportive
- Pro – Cooling gel infused
- Con – Uses coils
Ultimate Dreams Short Queen 7″ Verona Firm Mattress
This is one of the most affordable mattresses on our list today, but don’t let that put you off – this is a great product that’s under-priced in our opinion. It’s a little on the thin side which does remove the luxurious feel that many people enjoy. But, this being said, if you’re just looking for something that’s going to give you a great night’s sleep – it’s more than worthy of your consideration.
This is one of the firmest mattresses on this list and has a reasonably simple (yet effective) dual-layer design. The bulk of the mattress is made from 6.5 inches of high-density foam that provides more than acceptable levels of support. The top layer is a wafer-thin layer of 0.5 inches of comfort foam. The super thin nature of this traditionally soft foam allows for excellent comfort while keeping things nice and firm.
Pros And Cons
- Pro – Very affordable
- Pro – Comfortable yet firm
- Pro – Reasonably supportive
- Con – The thin feel is not very luxurious
Zinus 10 Inch Performance Plus
This is the second product from Zinus on our list and it’s a great option for those who like things as firm as they can possibly be. This rock-hard bed provides unbeatable support with a super firm feel. Due to this firmness, it’s one of the healthiest mattresses on this list. So if you can handle a hard mattress, we strongly recommend you add it to your shortlist.
This mattress has 2 fewer layers of foam than the Zinus we talked about earlier. The main thing that makes this so firm is that it doesn’t use memory foam for the upper layer and instead relies on comfort foam alone to get the job done. There’s a 1-inch support foam layer underneath with a 7.5-inch coiled base layer to complete the product. The end result is one of the most comfortable super firm mattresses on the market.
Note: You need to be sure you can handle a mattress like this before you order it – because honestly, it’s super firm.
Pros And Cons
- Pro – Super firm
- Pro – Reasonably priced
- Pro – Reasonably thick
- Pro – Very healthy
- Con – Could be too firm for many people
Signature Sleep 12 Inch Memory Foam Mattress
This is one of the softest mattresses on this list, it’s a medium firmness but provides excellent support. Ideally, you should get something a little firmer than this product for optimal spinal health. But if you can’t stand the thought of a rock hard night’s sleep, then this is about as soft as we can responsibly recommend. As it’s one of the softest on the list, it’s also one of the most comfortable, this is all down to the super thick 3.5 inches of memory foam that make up the top layer.
There’s a thick high-density foam layer underneath the memory foam that makes up the bulk of this mattress. These two layers combined give this product its super thick 12-inch profile (and creates a wonderfully luxurious feel). The only issue we have with this mattress is that the memory foam is not cooling gel infused. So if you get very hot during the night (or live in a warm area) then this may not be the best product for you.
Pros And Cons
- Pro – Super thick memory foam
- Pro – Very supportive
- Pro – Luxurious feel
- Pro – Respected brand
- Con – No cooling gel in the memory foam
Zinus Responsive Memory Foam 10 Inch
This product is the third (and final) Zinus mattress on our list. It’s a good middle ground between the other two products we have mentioned and as such, we thought it was well worth adding to the list. It’s a 10-inch thick version of the first memory foam Zinus product we talked about earlier. It’s a little firmer than the memory foam Zinus above (but not as firm as the non memory foam version).
Instead of the advanced 5 layer foam sandwich design of the other memory foam Zinus, this product only has 4 layers. It has a thicker 2-inch layer of Viscolatex foam as the upper layer which is supported by a thinner layer of 1-inch thick memory foam. As a base, there’s 2 inches of support foam and 5 inches of high-density base foam. If you liked the sound of the original Zinus we mentioned but like things a little more on the firmer side, this is a product that is more than worthy of your consideration.
Pros And Cons
- Pro – 4 Layer design
- Pro – Firm and healthy
- Pro – Supportive
- Pro – Reasonably thick
- Con – Could be too firm for some tastes
LINENSPA 5 Inch Gel Memory Foam Mattress
This product is one of the cheapest on this entire list and is great for stomach sleepers that are on a budget. There’s no getting around the fact that this is a super thin mattress, it’s certainly not what you’d call “luxurious”. It’s comprised of two layers that make up the 5-inch total depth. The top layer is 1 inch of reasonably firm memory foam that provides supportive comfort. (We’re super impressed that Linenspa have managed to gel infuse the memory foam with cooling gel at this price point).
The bottom layer underneath the memory foam is 4-inches thick and is made from high-density foam (that delivers the bulk of the support this mattress provides). This is a durable and well-made product despite it being a budget option, we highly doubt you’ll be disappointed with it.
Pros And Cons
- Pro – Very affordable
- Pro – Gel infused memory foam
- Pro – Supportive
- Con – Not very luxurious
Best Stomach Sleeper Mattress that is Cheaper but Maintains Quality – LUCID 5 Inch Gel Memory Foam Mattress
To be totally honest we had trouble deciding which product should get the special mention in this section. The Linenspa and the Lucid are almost exactly the same price and are reasonably similar in terms of specification. However, the Lucid is a little bit cheaper (and a little bit better), and as such – it wins the “cheaper but maintains quality” title.
Again this is a super thin 5-inch mattress, but when you’re paying this little for the product you can’t really complain. Like the Linenspa above its very supportive but also very firm. The structure of the mattress is also very similar with its 1-inch layer of memory foam on the top being supported by a 4-inch layer of high-density foam on the bottom.
One of the main differences between the Lucid and the Linenspa is the nature of the memory foam itself. Like the Linenspa the memory foam in this mattress is cooling gel-infused, but this product also uses an open cell design (which the Linenspa doesn’t). Without getting too technical this essentially means that heat isn’t tapped in the air inside the closed cells that make up traditional memory foam. Instead, it’s free to flow (which removes heat much more effectively).
(As an added bonus this product has a huge 25-year warranty, which is almost unheard of in this price bracket)
If you’re on a budget, we recommend this product over the Linenspa above. They are essentially the same price, and very similar in terms of support and firmness. But the additional cooling capabilities of the open cell memory foam and the longer warranty make this our budget recommendation.
Conclusion
So there you have it, all you ever needed to know about stomach sleeping and a few products you should take into consideration.
We’d like to remind you that every single product on this list is worthy of your consideration (and is perfect for stomach sleeping). We looked at many more products that were easily beaten by the mattresses we have talked about today.
You can buy any of them with confidence.
Sweet dreams!
