Best mattresses for side sleepers in the UK
Last refreshed . Read how we score.
Strongest BedBoy Score for side sleepers belongs to the Slumberland Air 90 Memory Mattress at 4.7 / 5. The Slumberland Air 20 Memory Mattress tracks close behind on 4.7 / 5. List prices run from £174.21 up to £1,399.99.
Side sleeping is the dominant adult posture in the UK; survey work tends to put it past half the population. It's also the posture with the narrowest contact patch and the highest local loads: the entire body is supported across two relatively small surfaces, the shoulder and the hip. That makes pressure relief the category the BedBoy rubric leans on hardest for this audience, ahead of comfort and motion isolation. The list below is the top of the resulting ranking.
Does the mattress hold the spine in a straight line from neck to tailbone, or let it bow into a curve? That is the biomechanical question side sleepers face, and both extremes hurt. Too soft and the hip drops into the surface, pulling the lower spine downward and compressing the discs through the night. Too firm and the shoulder can't dip in far enough to keep the cervical and thoracic vertebrae level with the rest of the column, which loads the joint and wakes side sleepers with a stiff neck. Published spinal-alignment work using optical tracking on adult lateral sleepers (conducted on male subjects) found significant differences in resulting spine angles across mattress firmness levels, with softer and more zoned surfaces aligning closer to the supine baseline than firm flat surfaces.
The ranking runs from aggregated review data, not from an editor lying on every product on the list. A pick scores well when side-sleeping reviewers generate strong positive signals against pressure relief and comfort across the body of reviews; the rubric leaves a category blank when the sample is too thin to score it. A few products on the list carry an editorial test badge on their own product page, but most do not, and that gets stated up front. Hip width, shoulder width, and overall body weight all shift the optimal firmness band by half a step or so, which is why the home trial matters more than the label: what suits a sixty-kilogram side sleeper with narrow hips will not necessarily suit a hundred-and-ten-kilogram one with broader hips.
Our top picks at a glance
| Mattress | Price | Firmness | BedBoy Score | Customer rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Slumberland Air 90 Memory Mattress | £899.99 | Soft | 4.7 / 5 | 4.6 / 5 (585) |
| Slumberland Air 20 Memory Mattress | £499.99 | Medium | 4.7 / 5 | 4.7 / 5 (339) |
| Silentnight Portchester 1000 Pocket Eco Pillowtop Mattress | £339.00 | Medium | 4.6 / 5 | 4.8 / 5 (176) |
| Staples Revitalise Eco Latex Pocket 3800 Mattress | £1,399.99 | Medium | 4.6 / 5 | 4.5 / 5 (65) |
| Slumberland Air 60 Memory Mattress | £799.99 | Medium | 4.5 / 5 | 4.7 / 5 (1,186) |
| SleepSoul Balance 800 Pocket Memory Mattress | £174.21 | Medium | 4.5 / 5 | 4.6 / 5 (131) |
| Silentnight London 2000 Mirapocket Memory Mattress | £429.95 | Medium | 4.5 / 5 | 4.6 / 5 (100) |
| Sleepeezee Cool Comfort Memory 1000 Pocket Adjustable Mattress | £474.95 | Medium | 4.5 / 5 | 4.6 / 5 (79) |
| Dream Team Gold Prescot Combination Mattress | £499.00 | Medium | 4.5 / 5 | 4.6 / 5 (27) |
| Silentnight Memory 1200 Pocket Mattress | £1,199.98 | Medium | 4.5 / 5 | 4.8 / 5 (21) |
The picks in detail
1. Slumberland Air 90 Memory Mattress
Slumberland mattress, soft, listed at £899.99. Weighted BedBoy Score of 4.7 out of 5 across 10 scored categories. Owner rating sits at 4.6 out of 5 across 585 retailer reviews.
Open the Slumberland Air 90 Memory Mattress product page.
2. Slumberland Air 20 Memory Mattress
Scores 4.7 out of 5 on the rubric across 9 rated categories. Slumberland build, medium, priced at around £499.99. 339 retailer reviews average 4.7 out of 5.
See category-level scores for the Slumberland Air 20 Memory Mattress.
3. Silentnight Portchester 1000 Pocket Eco Pillowtop Mattress
A medium mattress from Silentnight at £339.00. The composite lands at 4.6 out of 5 from 9 categories, with owner feedback running at 4.8 out of 5 over 176 reviews.
Browse the full review for the Silentnight Portchester 1000 Pocket Eco Pillowtop Mattress.
4. Staples Revitalise Eco Latex Pocket 3800 Mattress
At £1,399.99, this medium Staples mattress carries a weighted score of 4.6 across 8 rated categories. Owner feedback averages 4.5 out of 5 across 65 entries.
Read the full BedBoy breakdown for the Staples Revitalise Eco Latex Pocket 3800 Mattress.
5. Slumberland Air 60 Memory Mattress
Slumberland mattress, medium, listed at £799.99. Weighted BedBoy Score of 4.5 out of 5 across 10 scored categories. Owner rating sits at 4.7 out of 5 across 1,186 retailer reviews.
Open the Slumberland Air 60 Memory Mattress product page.
6. SleepSoul Balance 800 Pocket Memory Mattress
Scores 4.5 out of 5 on the rubric across 9 rated categories. SleepSoul build, medium, priced at around £174.21. 131 retailer reviews average 4.6 out of 5.
See category-level scores for the SleepSoul Balance 800 Pocket Memory Mattress.
7. Silentnight London 2000 Mirapocket Memory Mattress
A medium mattress from Silentnight at £429.95. The composite lands at 4.5 out of 5 from 8 categories, with owner feedback running at 4.6 out of 5 over 100 reviews.
Browse the full review for the Silentnight London 2000 Mirapocket Memory Mattress.
8. Sleepeezee Cool Comfort Memory 1000 Pocket Adjustable Mattress
At £474.95, this medium Sleepeezee mattress carries a weighted score of 4.5 across 8 rated categories. Owner feedback averages 4.6 out of 5 across 79 entries.
9. Dream Team Gold Prescot Combination Mattress
The Dream Team mattress, medium, listed at £499.00. Weighted BedBoy Score of 4.5 out of 5 across 8 scored categories. Owner rating sits at 4.6 out of 5 across 27 retailer reviews.
Open the Dream Team Gold Prescot Combination Mattress product page.
10. Silentnight Memory 1200 Pocket Mattress
Scores 4.5 out of 5 on the rubric across 8 rated categories. Silentnight build, medium, priced at around £1,199.98. 21 retailer reviews average 4.8 out of 5.
See category-level scores for the Silentnight Memory 1200 Pocket Mattress.
How side sleepers load a mattress
In side sleeping the body's weight passes through two relatively small surfaces (the shoulder and the hip) and the rest of the spine bridges the gap between them. The mattress's job is to let those points dip in far enough to keep the bridge level, without letting the pelvis sink so far that the spine breaks the line.
Overall firmness rating matters less than the specific layer geometry: the depth of the comfort layer determines how far the shoulder can travel before meeting resistance; the responsiveness of the support layer below determines how the hip is held through the night; and the surface contour at the waist determines whether the natural curve of the lower back has anything to support it. Pocket-spring cores with a foam comfort layer handle this geometry well for most adult body types, since the springs flex independently under broader contact areas while the foam absorbs pressure at the smaller ones. Memory-foam-only beds work for lighter side sleepers but tend to swallow heavier ones.
Frequently asked questions
What firmness is best for side sleepers?
Medium to medium-soft fits most adult side sleepers: firm enough that the hip doesn't sink unsupported, soft enough that the shoulder has somewhere to go. Heavier side sleepers above ninety kilograms often need a step up to medium-firm to stop the pelvis sinking through the comfort layer, and lighter side sleepers under sixty kilograms can sometimes go a step down to soft without losing the spinal line. UK retailer labels for medium-firm vary between brands, so check the construction rather than the label.
Why do side sleepers wake with sore shoulders?
The shoulder is the smaller and more vulnerable of the two side-sleeping contact points. Most of the body's weight passes through the hip below it, and the shoulder takes the side-loaded force on top. On a mattress that's too firm, the shoulder can't dip into the surface and the rotator cuff and acromion bear the load all night. The fix is either a softer comfort layer that lets the shoulder settle, a memory-foam top layer that contours around it, or a pillow tall enough to fill the gap between shoulder and ear and offload the cervical spine.
How thick should a mattress be for side sleepers?
Side sleepers benefit from a deeper comfort layer than back or stomach sleepers because the shoulder needs more travel before it meets resistance. Total mattress depth in the twenty-five to thirty-two centimetre range works for most adults, with at least seven to nine centimetres of that being the softer comfort layer rather than the firmer support core. Below twenty-two centimetres the comfort layer tends to compress through under the hip and the lower spine takes the load; above thirty-two centimetres rarely buys anything extra for side sleeping alone.
Memory foam or pocket sprung for side sleepers?
Most side sleepers do well on hybrid mattresses (pocket-spring cores with a foam comfort layer) because the construction handles the asymmetric loads side sleeping creates better than either type alone. Pure pocket-sprung mattresses can feel too firm under the shoulder for lighter side sleepers; pure memory foam can feel like it's swallowing heavier ones and tends to sleep warmer than a sprung core. Lighter and warmer-running sleepers often prefer latex over memory foam if a non-hybrid is wanted; heavier sleepers usually do better on a hybrid.
Does side sleeping cause back pain?
Not on its own. The lateral posture isn't inherently more or less risky than supine sleeping for healthy adults; the risk lies in what the mattress does under that posture. On a surface that holds the spine in line, side sleeping is the position the largest cohort of UK adults default to without specific issues. On a surface that lets the hip sink unsupported or holds the shoulder too high, side sleeping can drive lateral lower-back strain that wakes the sleeper with morning pain. Persistent or severe pain is a GP conversation regardless of mattress choice.
References
Verhaert V et al. Spine alignment in men during lateral sleep position: experimental study and modeling. Optical-tracking experimental study of vertebral alignment across mattress firmness levels in lateral sleepers, the academic anchor for the firmness recommendations on this page. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3265433/
Bed Advice UK (National Bed Federation consumer site). How to choose a mattress. Industry-body guidance on support, firmness and mattress construction for UK buyers. https://bedadvice.co.uk/bed-buyers-guide/how-to-choose-a-mattress/
NHS. Sleep and tiredness. Public-health overview of healthy adult sleep, hygiene practices and when sleep problems warrant a GP visit. https://www.nhs.uk/live-well/sleep-and-tiredness/
NICE. Low back pain and sciatica in over 16s: assessment and management (NG59). UK clinical guideline. Side sleepers with overlap into back pain should treat the sleeping surface as a modifiable factor in self-management. https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/ng59
Methodology in brief
Each composite is built from manufacturer spec sheets, current retailer pricing and aggregated owner reviews. A small subset of entries also carry a Home tested or Store tested badge on their product page. Category scores and the source for every number live on the how we score page.
Brands cannot pay for placement and affiliate networks do not see the running order before publication. When the inputs change, usually after the nightly refresh, the order changes with them.
Still weighing up the options?
If the shortlist above hasn't settled it, the mattress quiz narrows the full catalogue by sleep position, build and budget and hands back a shorter list shaped around those answers.