Best Mattresses | There’s One Clear Winner

After thousands of hours of testing, Forbes Vetted mattress experts have named the Helix Midnight Luxe the best mattress for 2024. This bed earned high marks during our analysis, plus it’s a personal favorite among several of our team members who sleep on it every night. While it’s especially great for side sleepers, the Midnight Luxe’s medium feel, plush pillow top and breathable construction make it suitable for most sleep styles—meaning we think just about anyone could be happy with this bed in their home. We also have suggestions tailored to more specific sleep needs, whether you want a cooling mattress, have a preference for memory foam, or struggle with health concerns such as back pain. These picks are based on our rigorous testing criteria, which you can read more about below.

• Best Mattress Overall: Helix Midnight Luxe
• Best Memory Foam Mattress: Nectar Premier
• Best Mattress For Pressure Relief: The DreamCloud Premier Rest
• Best Hybrid Mattress: Leesa Sapira Chill Hybrid
• Best Firm Mattress: Plank Firm
• Best Mattress For Back Pain: Saatva Rx
• Best Cooling Mattress: Brooklyn Bedding Aurora Luxe
• Best Soft Mattress: Amerisleep AS5
• Best Mattress For Couples: Bear Elite Hybrid
• Best Mattress For Heavy People: Helix Plus
• Best Organic Mattress: Avocado Green
• (PAID PLACEMENT) You May Also Like: Nolah Evolution 15-Inch Mattress

All of our picks are either beds-in-a-box mattresses or include complimentary white glove delivery so you don’t have to struggle with moving the mattress yourself. Most come with generous trial periods during which you can return the mattress, no questions asked.

At 13.5 inches thick, the Helix Midnight Luxe is a couple of inches taller than the average bed-in-a-box, plus it comes with a strong pocketed coil layer underneath the pillow top and foam comfort layers. We found that this base layer provides great support under the hips and around the perimeter of the mattress, which is important for maintaining spinal alignment. The coil layer also makes this mattress easy to move around on—an essential feature for combo sleepers and folks with mobility concerns.

On top of all that support, the plush pillow top is a major differentiator between the Luxe and the flagship Midnight model. This was the first thing that stood out to us during testing, and gives the bed a soft feel that cradles the joints without being too cushy. You can read a deeper analysis of this mattress in our Helix Midnight Luxe review.

Other mattresses we considered for the best overall title were the Saatva Classic and the DreamCloud Premier Rest. The Saatva Classic comes in three different firmnesses, is extremely supportive and well built. We found it doesn’t offer as much pressure relief and motion isolation as the Midnight Luxe, but we still recommend it for an array of sleepers in our Saatva Classic Mattress review. The Premier Rest is also a high-quality option that’s accommodating for a range of sleepers, but we found it to be less cooling and supportive along the perimeter than the Midnight Luxe. Since it shined with pressure relief in testing, we decided to name it the best for that instead.

Expert tip: If you’re a hot sleeper, the extra $249 splurge on the optional cooling cover for the Midnight Luxe is worth it.

Nectar says both the foam and hybrid models are medium-firm mattresses, but we found the memory foam option to be softer and the best match for those wanting a traditional foam feel. Because its marshmallowy foams contour your pressure points while still offering support, we’d recommend it for side and back sleepers. Memory foam is known for trapping heat, but the Premier features polyethylene fibers and phase change materials that are designed to absorb and disperse body heat. We also love the Nectar Premier because of its budget-friendly price tag—it’s often on sale for less than $1,000 for a queen size.

Expert tip: Expect the Nectar Premier to get softer after the first month of sleeping on it.

Another reason it topped the list out of all the pressure-relieving options on the market is its high-quality, durable build. The Premier Rest’s cashmere-blend cover, contouring gel-infused memory foam and sturdy innerspring steel coils work together to give a luxury feel. It also tested well for motion isolation, cooling and overall support—though the edge support is just okay. If edge support is important to you, we recommend the Saatva Classic since its perimeter barely budges when you sit on it. Read more about how the Premier Rest performed after nearly a year of testing in our full DreamCloud Premier Rest Mattress review.

Expert tip: If you want a slightly firmer feel that still offers pressure relief for back and stomach sleepers, consider the original DreamCloud Hybrid or DreamCloud Premier Hybrid Mattress instead.

The Plank Firm tested well for motion isolation, ease of movement and edge support (for an all-foam design). There’s zero to very little sinkage between the two sides of this mattress, but it’s not to the point where you feel like you’re sleeping on the floor. Rather, it keeps you entirely lifted on the bed with slight cushioning for comfort. Its all-foam design isn’t the best for cooling (nor the worst), but you can pay for an additional cooling cover if you tend to run hot at night.

Although there are other mattresses on this list offered in firm models, none compare to the Plank Firm’s more extreme level. If you’re transitioning from a soft or medium mattress and want a firmer feel that still offers solid contouring and plushness, the firm models of the Aurora Luxe or Bear Elite Hybrid may be better picks.

Expert tip: If you weigh more than 250 pounds, check out the Plank Firm Luxe because it has a more supportive pocketed coil base layer.

The Saatva Rx is packed with materials that are designed to promote proper spinal alignment and pressure relief—from durable coils and microcoils to pressure-relieving and spinal support foams. Along with featuring CertiPUR-US-certified memory foam, the Rx has endorsements from the American Chiropractic Association (ACA) and Congress of Chiropractic State Association Seal Of Approval. It’s also worth noting the Saatva Rx comes with free white glove delivery, which means the mattress is never compressed in a box. Instead, movers deliver it, set it up and remove your old mattress for you if needed. Our full, in-depth Saatva Rx Mattress review is coming soon.

The main runner-up for the best mattress for back pain was the Saatva Classic, the brand’s luxury innerspring offered in three firmnesses and two heights. It features a supportive coil-on-coil design with zoned quilting for lumbar support and a layer of memory foam in the center third of the bed for extra contouring. However, it’s designed for more general aches and pains rather than chronic ones.

Expert tip: If you prefer a firmer feel over the Rx’s plush one, the Saatva Classic in the luxury firm or firm model may be a better choice.

The three different firmnesses (soft, medium, firm) offer different amounts of pressure relief, with the medium model offering strong pressure relief for back sleeping in our testing. The Aurora Luxe also isolated movement well, which is important for anyone who doesn’t want to feel their partner (or pet) moving around in the night. Since the Aurora Luxe is offered in multiple firmnesses and comes with the option of adding a “Cloud” pillow top, it can cater to most sleep styles and preferences.

The medium firmness is on the cushier side of medium-firm, but we found it to be supportive and comfortable for all sleep positions. We think back sleepers should do best on the medium or firm model, stomach sleepers on the firm model and lightweight and/or side sleepers on the soft model. See more of our insights in our in-depth Brooklyn Bedding Aurora Luxe Mattress review.

Although we didn’t find them to be more cooling than the Aurora Luxe, the Helix Midnight Luxe (with the cooling cover upgrade), Leesa Sapira Chill Hybrid and Bear Elite Hybrid are three others worth noting on this list with impressive cooling materials and abilities.

Expert tip: If you prefer a firm feel but want a little plushness, the firm Aurora Luxe model with the pillow top is the way to go.

Our testing found the advertised firmnesses for the different Avocado Green models to be accurate for all three, so you can pick the right one for your sleeping position. The firm base model tested well for responsiveness, cooling and edge support. The medium and plush models also tested well in these categories but with much plusher feels. In fact, the plush model is one of the plushest beds we’ve come across. You can read more about its performance in our Avocado Green Mattress review. Due to the latex in its construction, the Avocado Green offers a more buoyant, lifted feel than other options on this list like the Nectar Premier or Helix Midnight Luxe.

Expert tip: Choose the plush model if you’re a strict side sleeper or in need of deep pressure relief, the medium model if you’re a back, side or combination sleeper, and the firm model if you’re a back and/or stomach sleeper.

Why You Should Trust Forbes Vetted Mattress Experts

Thanks to our editorial team’s expertise in researching, testing and writing about mattresses and sleep, we’ve built a robust library of sleep guides including our top mattress picks for different sleepers and budgets, top bedding choices for various aesthetics and material preferences and expert-approved tips for better sleep. Here is specific information on why you can trust the team members who created this mattress guide:

About the Authors

• Senior mattress and sleep editor Bridget Chapman, who wrote this story, oversees our sleep-related content. She has decade of experience as a journalist and holds a sleep science coach certification, which she leans on to weed out false advertising claims and real benefits in the online mattress industry. She has three years of mattress and product testing experience, and has analyzed all types of sleep products, from mattresses to weighted blankets, sleep trackers and pajamas. Because she’s used various tools for mattress testing, like pressure mapping devices and heat radar guns, she is adept at assessing firmness and feel, and knows how to accurately test for motion transfer, cooling, ease of movement, support and pressure relief.
• Mattress and sleep editor McKenzie Dillon, who contributed testing and research insights for this story, is a certified sleep science coach and prolific mattress tester with five years of experience. Before writing and editing mattress stories for Forbes Vetted, she contributed mattress reporting to outlets including CNET and My Slumber Yard. She has personally tested dozens of mattresses from top brands, including hybrid, latex and memory foam models.
• Forbes Vetted contributor Alison Barretta, who has experience with back pain and has written over two dozen mattress and sleep articles for Forbes Vetted, contributed reporting and testing feedback for this story. Our network of contributors test mattresses for at least 30 nights at a time to provide insights for our mattress guides. We arrange for them to test mattresses best suited for their needs to gather the most accurate feedback for recommendations, allowing us to speak to the experience of different sleep positions, body size, and considerations such as pain management.

About Our Editing Process

• Cory Baldwin, who edited the latest version of this mattress guide, is an editorial leader with over a dozen years of experience editing product reviews and shopping guides. She is the director of commerce content and strategy for Forbes and reviewed this story for accuracy, flow of information and consistency across our mattress guide content.
• We continuously monitor new developments in the mattress industry and keep tabs on the latest product recalls to verify that none of our picks have been affected. Like all our shopping guides, we routinely update this story to bring you the most current information. This story was refreshed in May 2024 to expand our shopping guide with tips on body weight and motion isolation, and again in June 2024 to pare down recommendations and make sure information was presented in the most helpful way possible for our readers.
• Executive strategy editor Lindsay Boyers and senior strategy editor Katie Simpson, who oversee our mattress content updates, both have backgrounds in mattress testing and analysis. Boyers, who performed a final review of the latest content update after Baldwin, is a certified sleep science coach and has personally tested more than two dozen mattresses.

How We Tested And Chose The Best Mattresses

To determine a list of contenders for the best mattresses of 2024, our team first researched reputable mattress brands and compared aspects of bestselling models, as well as newly released versions of top-sellers and improved models released by brands we trust. We considered which mattresses are most sought after and which sleep needs are most frequently clicked on among Forbes Vetted readers (both in this story and others) and sifted through hundreds of customer reviews to check that they’re overwhelmingly positive and there are not any disqualifying negative reviews.

We also drew on our deep previous experience testing mattresses for specific sleep needs including all of the preferences outlined in this guide: firmness preferences from soft to medium to firm; sleep style needs such as side sleepers, back sleepers and stomach sleepers; construction preferences such hybrid, inner coil, memory foam and latex; and other considerations such as organic materials or mattresses specifically designed to relieve back pain.

We then identified which models on our list of contenders had previously been slept on and tested by our team and which would need to be tested and considered for inclusion on the final list. We prefer to test every mattress the best way possible—by sleeping on them for at least 30 nights and reporting our findings. However, sometimes it is not possible to include insights for one month of testing for all newly released or updated models. To ensure mattresses tested for a few hours at a time and models tested for 30 nights at a time are both analyzed accurately and fairly, we have developed specific criteria and testing procedures for evaluating the most important performance factors. Below is a breakdown of the categories we test and how we measure them.

Pressure Relief

Pressure relief is a measure of how a mattress alleviates pressure points on your body. Different sleeping positions require pressure relief in different areas. Side sleepers need pressure relief along their hips and shoulders, while back sleepers benefit from it most along their back and hips. Stomach sleepers shouldn’t be as concerned about pressure relief, since spinal alignment is more important for healthy sleep posture in this position (more on this later), but it’s still helpful to know if a mattress can provide light pressure relief beneath the shoulders.

To test pressure relief, we lie on the mattress in each sleeping position and document where we notice pressure building—or on the contrary, where we feel relief. It’s common for a mattress to provide good pressure relief for the hips but not the shoulders for side sleeping, so we make sure to pay attention to each individual area in different sleep positions. Since varying body types and weights experience pressure relief differently, we compare and discuss results to make sure we’re confident in our recommendations.

Motion Transfer

Motion transfer is the degree of movement that travels through a mattress. This is important for people sharing the bed since you don’t want a restless partner to wake you up. Couples usually want to look for mattresses that isolate motion well instead of transferring it. We first test motion transfer by getting comfortable in a sleeping position on one side of the mattress. Then, we have another person mimic common movements sleepers make—rolling around, getting in and out of bed and even jumping into the bed with force. We take note of the amount of impact we can feel with each action and aim to have multiple people perform this test in order to compare results.

To supplement these testing results, we place a glass of water on one side of the mattress and perform all the movements mentioned above to see how it affects the water. It’s typical for large movements—like plopping into bed—to travel across the mattress. However, you shouldn’t feel the tossing and turning or getting in and out if a mattress has strong motion isolation.

Support

Along with how supported you feel in each sleeping position, support refers to the overall weight capacity and durability of a mattress. We take into account how much weight the brand says a mattress can support and test it by documenting how the support compares in the center to the edges. We also sit and press into the sides of the mattress while shifting our bodies to see how much sinkage or stabilization there is. Then we lie in a sleeping position near the edge of the mattress to document sinkage. Some mattresses have reinforced edges to enhance edge support, but we don’t always find it delivers.

Finally, we test for spinal alignment on a mattress in each sleep position. We pay attention to whether our hips are dipping in a mattress while stomach sleeping, whether our hips and shoulders sink too far into the bed while side sleeping or if our hips and back are curving too much while back sleeping—(these are all signs of poor support for these sleep positions). We ask testers to bring in another person to watch how our tester’s spine is impacted and whether it remains in a neutral line, which is the key for healthy sleep posture and pain prevention.

Ease Of Movement

Ease of movement is how easily you can move around on a mattress, or whether it takes effort to do so. We test this by settling into a sleep position and assessing the level of difficulty to move around into different positions or to get out of bed. If a mattress is bouncy it can help with ease of movement, so we also test bounce by jumping on the mattress and/or dropping large items on it to monitor the air they get. Keep in mind bounciness is not a necessary factor for ease of movement, but it can help. Mattresses with an “on top” feel are typically the best for ease of movement. If you sink too deeply into a mattress and the comfort foams are slow-moving, it may not be the best fit for combination sleepers or anyone with mobility issues.

Cooling

Mattresses can be actively cooling due to materials with high thermal conductivity that work to pull heat away from the body, or they can promote airflow and breathability with open-cell designs and lightweight fabrics. We first examine the materials in the mattress and see whether they live up to any cooling claims. For example, organic cotton is more breathable than polyester. If a mattress has pocketed coils, this naturally allows for air to flow through the bed more easily than a construction solely consisting of foams.

We examine whether the mattress’s cover has a cool-to-the-touch sensation and how long that sensation lasts. It’s common for the cooling feel to go away after about 15 minutes. We find the ultimate best way to test cooling is by sleeping on a mattress and documenting whether we wake up in the night feeling warm, how our body temperature feels in the morning and how the mattress’s cooling abilities compare to other models.