Mattress Firmness Guide

Firmness can be a tricky topic to discuss. Why? Well, everyone experiences the firmness of a mattress slightly differently. As with any feel factor, it’s subjective, and your personal preference can change a lot depending on your size, shape, and body weight. But, thankfully, there are a few benchmarks and standards you can use to better understand how to find the right mattress firmness for you.

To help you learn a little bit more about firmness and figure out what firmness you need, we’ve put together this mattress firmness guide. In it, we’ll go over what firmness is, how it’s measured by the mattress industry, and how to choose the firmness level that’s right for your unique sleeping needs. We’ll also discuss the difference between firmness and support, two terms that are often mistaken for one another.

With all that in mind, let’s kick things off by talking about what exactly firmness is!

What is Mattress Firmness?

The firmness of a mattress refers to the initial feel you experience when lying on it. Are you sinking into the mattress, or resting right on top of it? Are you experiencing a lot of push back, or do you notice that the materials are contouring to the curves of your body? These are just a few of the questions you can ask to determine whether or not a mattress is soft, medium-firm, or firm.

To help consumers understand firmness, the mattress industry will often score its beds on a “firmness scale” with a range from 1 to 10. A mattress that scores a 1 out of 10 would be the softest mattress in the world (picture sleeping on a giant cotton ball), and one that scores a 10 out of 10 would be the firmest (picture sleeping on concrete). For reference, a score of 6.5 out of 10 is widely regarded as the industry standard for medium firmness. I’ll describe the firmness scale in more detail below.

But for now, let’s go over what soft, medium-firm, and firm mattresses actually feel like.

Soft

Soft mattresses generally fall within the 3 to 6 (out of 10) range on the firmness scale. They typically utilize cushioning materials like quilted pillow tops or thick sections of memory foam in their top layers, also referred to as “comfort” layers. They’re characterized by feelings of deep sinkage, body contouring, and pressure relief.

You won’t experience too much pushback on a soft mattress, which means you’re likely to feel more “in” it than “on top” of it. Softer mattresses are generally preferred by strict side sleepers or those in need of a little extra comfort at the shoulders, hips, and lower back. Some popular examples of soft mattresses include the Layla and Helix Sunset mattresses.

For more soft options, check out our guide to the best soft mattresses.

Medium-Firm

Medium-firm mattresses generally fall right at 6.5 out of 10 on the firmness scale. These beds usually combine soft foam top layers with sturdier foundations of either high-density poly foam or pocketed coils. This establishes a balance between pressure relief and support, which is appealing to a wide range of sleepers. However, some mattresses can be in the ballpark of medium-firm but feel a touch softer or firmer than average, such as a medium-soft 6 out of 10.

While you may experience some sinkage on a medium-firm mattress, you’re more likely to feel lifted up and out of the bed. For that reason, medium-firm mattresses can be great for combination sleepers or back sleepers, as these groups can benefit a lot from a little extra mobility. Some of our favorite medium-firm mattresses include the DreamCloud Premier Rest, Saatva, and Leesa Hybrid mattresses.

Firm

And finally, firm mattresses, which usually are a 7 out of 10 or higher on the firmness scale. These beds rarely employ soft or plush materials in their comfort layers; instead, they insert a thin layer of soft foam atop high-density poly foam or springs. Therefore, firm mattresses can be highly supportive.

On a firm mattress, every part of your body should be lifted squarely on top of the bed with plenty of pushback. Strict stomach sleepers and heavy people may appreciate the extra heft that they get from these structures. A few fantastic firm mattresses on the market are the Helix Dawn, Brooklyn Plank, and WinkBed mattresses. You can also check out our best mattress for heavy people roundup for more options.

For more firm options, check out our guides to the best firm mattresses and best extra-firm mattress.

Understanding the Firmness Scale

So now that you are aware of the three major firmness groups, let’s revisit the firmness scale. This will give you a better idea of what our 3 out of 10 or 7.5 out of 10 actually feels like when you’re doing your mattress research. 

It’s important to note that terms like “medium” or “luxury firm” aren’t standardized across the mattress industry, and they can mean different things depending on the manufacturer. At Sleepopolis, we rate every mattress using the same 1–10 firmness scale, with 1 being the softest and 10 being the firmest.

How Mattress Materials Affect Firmness

Your mattress’s materials significantly impact how firm or soft it feels. Innerspring mattresses tend to feel firmer because their coils provide sturdy support and lift. Meanwhile, memory foam mattresses and models with pillow tops typically offer sinkage, contouring, and cushioning to cradle and take pressure off sensitive areas like the hips, shoulders, and lower back. 

Latex falls somewhere in between: its natural buoyancy creates a bouncy, supportive feel with less contouring than memory foam, but it can still feel softer than a firm innerspring or hybrid mattress.

What is the Best Firmness for a Mattress?

With this understanding of firmness in place, it’s time to riddle that age old question: What is the best firmness for a mattress? As you probably gathered, there is no one answer for this all-important Q. Why? Well, because firmness is such a personal thing. An ultra-firm mattress might be excellent for a stomach sleeper, but absolutely horrible for a side sleeper.

To help you better contextualize this question in terms of your own sleeping needs, let’s break down firmness by position.

Back Sleepers

Back sleepers are an interesting group, because they fall right between side sleepers and stomach sleepers in terms of their needs. They’re the easiest to please, but if their mattress is too firm, back sleepers may experience unnecessary tension and pinching at the lower back. If it’s too soft, their hips may dip out of alignment with their shoulders. For that reason, we usually recommend that back sleepers stick with a medium-firm mattress.

Why is this firmness level so good for back sleepers? Well, it helps to lift their spines into a neutral alignment, thereby establishing sound support and comfort across the back. This helps to alleviate pressure and pain, especially for those who struggle with conditions like fibromyalgia and arthritis.

As we touched on above, the industry standard for medium firmness is 6.5 out of 10, so a score around that number should work for these dreamers. One of our testers’ favorite medium-firm mattresses is the Nectar Classic. Its construction combines dense support foam and contouring memory foam to provide a broad swath of sleepers with balanced cushioning and stability.

Back sleepers can find medium-firm comfort on a variety of different mattress types, but we’d suggest they start their search with hybrid mattresses. To be classified as a hybrid, a bed must utilize both foam and coil layers, which create a nice interplay between bounce and sink.

For more, check out our best mattress for back sleepers guide.

Side Sleepers

Side sleepers are a little less universally pleased than back sleepers. This group needs a soft mattress that provides plenty of room to sink in for deep and cuddly pressure relief at the shoulders, hips, and lower back. A mattress that offers zoned support might be a good fit for these sleepers. Mattresses offering zoned support are softer at the shoulders to allow some pressure relief, but firmer at the hips to offer extra lower back support.

When we think about the softness level that’s most appropriate for side sleepers, we tend to focus on the 4 to 6 (out of 10) range. The DreamCloud Premier is a great example of what we’d recommend for side sleepers. This DreamCloud model is a 5.5 out of 10 on our firmness scale and has a plush pillow-top cover that cradles high-pressure zones; however, its innerspring coils are still supportive enough to keep these sleepers’ spines in healthy alignment at night.

Though side sleepers, of course, still need sound support, they also need to be greeted by thick layers of soft foam as soon as they hop into bed. This will help to cushion their joints as they press into the structure, ensuring that there won’t be any uncomfortable jamming or tension on their pressure points throughout the night. We recommend that side sleepers stick with memory foam mattresses or mattresses that contain cushy top foam layers, which are known for deep body contouring, sinkage, and pressure relief.

Get into our favorite side sleeper beds on our best mattress for side sleepers page.

Stomach Sleepers

We consider stomach sleepers the opposite of side sleepers because they need firm beds with plenty of lift and support. To avoid uncomfortable bowing at the lower back, these sleepers need to ensure that their hips are level with their shoulders, establishing a neutral spinal alignment. This is especially important for avoiding back pain. For that reason, we tend to steer stomach sleepers toward beds in the 7 and higher on the 1 to 10 firmness scale.

Some of our favorite mattresses in this range are the Birch Luxe Natural and Titan Plus Core Hybrid. Both models combine strong innerspring coils and other high-quality materials to create a firmer-than-average sleep surface that should provide plenty of lift for stomach sleepers and those with bigger bodies.

But just like side sleepers still need support, stomach sleepers still need comfort. The key is finding a mattress that brings together super supportive interior layers with cozy top sections for a bit of initial pressure relief. Stomach sleepers will likely do best on an innerspring or hybrid mattress built with a thin pillow top layer.

Need some stomach sleeping inspiration? Let us suggest our guide to the best mattress for stomach sleepers.

Is Firmness the Same as Support?

When thinking about firmness and support, many folks incorrectly assume that the terms are synonymous with one another. In fact, they refer to two totally different things. Firmness is all about the immediate feel you experience when first lying down on a mattress. Support, on the other hand, refers to how well the mattress keeps your spine in alignment. Therefore, you can find a soft mattress with a ton of support and a firm mattress with virtually no support at all.

It can be tricky to navigate this line between firmness and support, but it’s important to separate them in your mind when shopping for a new mattress. Remember: Firmness is simply how the mattress feels. Does it relieve pressure? Does it feel comfortable to you? Is there a lot of cushioning, a lot of pushback, or something in between? Learn more about what the most comfortable mattresses are for several sleeping styles

Support is about whether or not the mattress sets your spine in a neutral alignment. When you’re lying in your preferred sleeping position, do you feel like the mattress is doing a good or bad job of lifting your spine in a straight line all the way from your shoulders to your hips?

By focusing on each of these factors individually, you’ll be able to find a mattress that provides the support you need in your sleep position and is the right firmness level for you. Make sure to take a peek at our how to choose a mattress guide for more tips.

Signs Your Mattress is Too Soft or Too Firm

If you suspect your mattress is too soft or too firm, you’re likely onto something. Your body can often tell you whether it’s actually the right fit. If you regularly wake up sore, struggle to settle into a comfortable position, or notice that you don’t feel as rested when you wake, your mattress may no longer serve your needs.

Your mattress may be too soft if…

• You sink too deeply into the bed. Excessive sinkage can make you feel trapped and make it harder to reposition your body.
• You wake up with lower back pain. If your hips sink too far into the mattress, your spine may not be aligned, leading to aches and stiffness.
• You have trouble getting in and out of bed. A very soft surface may not provide enough pushback to help you move around easily, which can be especially noticeable for older adults or people with mobility concerns.
• You feel your hips dipping downward when lying on your stomach. Stomach sleepers generally need enough firmness to keep their midsection elevated and their spine properly aligned.
• The mattress feels less comfortable than it used to. Sagging or permanent body impressions can make an aging mattress feel less supportive.

Your mattress may be too firm if…

• Your hips and shoulders are sore in the morning. A too-firm mattress may not provide enough cushioning around these pressure-prone areas.
• There are noticeable gaps between your body and the mattress. If your mattress doesn’t mold to your lower back, it may not be providing enough cushioning where you need it.
• You frequently toss and turn. Constantly repositioning yourself can be a sign that you’re trying to relieve pressure caused by an overly firm sleep surface.
• You sleep on your side and can’t comfortably settle into the mattress. Side sleepers typically need more sinkage around the shoulders and hips to relieve tension.

How to Choose Your Mattress Firmness

Now that you’re equipped with all the know-how you could ever want on different firmness levels, let’s apply it to a real world buying experience. Below, we’re going to run through some of the tips and tricks we use to pair folks with their ideal firmness level.

1. What position do you sleep in? Above all else, this is probably the most important question to answer when considering firmness. Strict side sleepers will typically want something within the 3 to 6 range, while back sleepers will generally want to go with something in the 5 to 7 range. And, of course, anything above a 7 out of 10 should provide adequate support to stomach sleepers.
2. How much do you weigh? Weight can also be a major factor. Heavier individuals will generally want a thicker mattress that provides plenty of foam layers to press into for deep compression support. Innerspring mattresses may also provide more durability to these sleepers. Heavier folks may experience mattresses as softer than those of more average weight, so if an average weight reviewer gives a mattress a firmness rating of 7 out of 10, these folks might experience it closer to a 6 out of 10.
3. What’s your body type? Thinking about your specific body type will also help determine the firmness level you need. If you have a heavier midsection, you’ll want a firm mattress with a zoned support core to keep your spinal alignment neutral. If you’re a lighter weight sleeper, you’ll interact mostly with the top layers of your mattress, so may prefer a softer mattress that provides plenty of comfort.
4. Remember: firmness isn’t support. Don’t forget that support and firmness are not the same. You can find a mattress with great support that’s still soft and meets all of your pressure relief needs.
5. Still stumped? Go with the majority. If you still have no idea what firmness you should go with after reading through this guide, we recommend choosing a medium-firm mattress. A bed that hovers around the industry standard medium-firmness rating of 6.5 out of 10 can often provide universal comfort for most sleepers.
6. Be careful with soft mattresses. Oftentimes, sleepers see the word “soft” and naturally gravitate towards it. This makes sense — softness seems to indicate coziness or luxurious plushness. However, soft mattresses can often become quite uncomfortable because they don’t provide adequate support for many sleeping positions. In fact, “soft mattresses” are among some of the most returned mattress types in the industry. So, if you want to go soft, please make sure that your bed has a solid core of either high-density poly foam or pocketed coils. This will also increase the lifespan of your mattress!

Final Word

Well folks, that about does it for our mattress firmness guide. When thinking about how firm you want your mattress to be, remember to focus on your sleeping position, how much you weigh, how much sinkage or hug you want, and what kind of support you need. That way, you’ll be set to find the firmness level of your dreams!