How To Find The Perfect Mattress For Side Sleepers

Are you a side-sleeper? Do you find it hard to get comfortable on your mattress? Is a good nights rest more of a myth than a reality for you? 

If you answered yes to all the above, know that you are not alone. Millions of others out there, just like you, prefer to sleep on their sides and dream of a good night’s rest. Despite this, there is still confusion about the best mattress to provide both support and comfort for side-sleepers.

The good news is, we can help. 

The Advantages of Sleeping On Your Side

Sleeping on your side might just be a comfort preference to you, but there are actually multiple pros to favouring side-sleeping. Side sleeping can help positively improve the following: 

• Elongation of the spine assists with fewer instances of lower backache.
• Less Snoring
• Improved Digestion
• Improved blood circulation
• Less Heartburn

Why Side-Sleepers Struggle With Getting Comfortable On Their Mattress

While the above advantages are significant, they are of little comfort if you sleep on the wrong mattress for your needs. 

If you are not getting proper support and comfort from your mattress, it will result in a night of tossing and turning. Disturbed sleep means you don’t wake up feeling energetic and recharged. If this continues for a few nights or more, it directly impedes your quality of life. 

This is why we can’t emphasise enough the comfort and support factors when buying a mattress. We also always encourage customers to come into the showroom, hop on a few beds and find the perfect match. 

We assure you that a good night’s rest is possible for you. If you take the following factors into consideration when shopping for your next mattress, you are guaranteed to wake up feeling rested and recharged! 

6 Factors Side-Sleepers Should Assess When Buying A New Mattress

Let’s delve deeper into the most important factors to consider when shopping for your new mattress. We’ll explain how each of these affects your sleep and guide you on the optimal conditions to benefit side sleepers. 

1. Choose The Right Firmness

When you sleep on your side, most of your body weight is distributed to your shoulders and hip area. That’s why these areas feel the most pressure from your mattress. 

If your mattress is too firm, expect pressure point pain and blood circulation issues, especially in the shoulder and hip areas. 

On the other hand, too soft a mattress will cause your body to sink into the mattress. This could lead to your spine resting at an odd angle and result in backache.

Ideally, you would want a mattress that offers somewhat medium support, gentle enough to allow your shoulders and hips to settle slightly into the mattress while still keeping the spine well-aligned.

Our 4 Popular Medium comfort options are:

2. Weight Capacity Is Key

Not many know this, but your weight actually plays a huge role when choosing a new mattress. Heavier people make a bigger impression and exert more downward force on their mattresses. Therefore, it is imperative to get a mattress that supports their weight and provides optimal comfort.

It is also worth noting that mattresses feel softer to a heavier person; hence firmness ratings on mattresses are always subjective.

Firmer, heavy-duty mattresses are more suited for heavier side-sleepers. These mattresses are more likely to provide conformability for side sleepers without sacrificing support and durability.

We recommend the following good quality heavy duty mattress options, which are ideal for side sleepers:

3. Consider Partner Preference 

While some claim you cannot control who you love (and share a bed with), you can certainly control what you sleep on! We all have unique needs, and we find that often partners have varying ideas of what is comfortable and naturally different support requirements. Partners also sleep in specific positions, which further complicate things.

While it’s true that you sometimes cannot please everyone, experience tells us that most folks tend to be happy and willing to compromise on a gentle-Firm / Medium comfort mattress. The partner who prefers a firmer mattress will likely feel it has adequate support, while the partner who likes a softer feel will tend to adapt to the slightly firmer comfort.

4. Don’t break the bank

Let us be honest, times are tough! We have just gone through an unprecedented year of lockdowns, pandemic and economic crises. Now more than ever, value for money is vitally important.

It would be naïve to believe everyone can afford a Top Quality mattress. And fortunately, you need not break the bank or budget to get a good quality mattress option that would offer the proper support. And as we highlight in point 6, the brand is not everything when choosing the perfect mattress for your needs. 

These are the best value options we can recommend for side sleepers:

5. Mattress Type Preferences For Side Sleepers 

We believe the Pocket Coil mattress offers the best solutions for both pressure point relief and spine alignment, which are significant factors to consider if sleeping on your side. Since each coil reacts independently, it conforms better to the unique shape of your body.

Mattresses with memory foam layers or PillowTops would also conform to the body to some degree, offering optimal pressure point relief.

6. Don’t Be A Victim Of Brand Bias

As with any products, some customers have a preference for specific brands. While more prominent bed brands are more trusted and have a proven track record, it’s worth noting that all the companies we deal with at The Sleep Gallery are well established and offer quality mattress products and excellent backup service.  

Each brand will undoubtedly have its various models with unique comforts and finishes ideal for side sleepers. But when choosing a new mattress, it’s always more important to consider your specific needs and comfort over and above your preferred brand.

We often get customers who choose a brand over comfort, and most of the time, we get feedback that their mattress is just not their perfect fit. 

Is Buying a mattress more complicated than you thought?

We hope we helped give you a slightly better understanding of what side sleepers might need to look at when shopping for their next mattress!

As mentioned above, however, there are other factors to consider, so there can never be one blanket solution for everyone.

To avoid waking up with aches and pain, we recommend this tried and tested formula:

1. Come into the store and try a few mattresses’ out.
2. Try out all our brands; Simmons, Cloud Nine, Rest Assured, Truform, Contour.
3. Take a nap if you need to, but don’t leave without getting the right mattress for you. 

And if you have any more questions, simply contact us here or give us a call on 021 671 3220. 

See you around the showroom, 

Ebrahim