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5 Best Mattresses For Front Sleepers and Stomach Sleepers - 2020 and 2021
Most people who sleep on their front or stomach choose a medium/firm or firm mattress.
However, there isn't one mattress which is perfect for everyone who sleeps on their front or stomach. Sorry if that shocks you, perhaps I should have told you to sit down first before delivering the news.
Instead, you need a mattress which provides the right level of support for you, which depends on:
Generally speaking, people who sleep on their front or stomach need to choose a mattress which is a little bit firmer than someone who sleeps on their side. This is because front/stomach sleepers tend to sink into a very soft mattress too much which would leave their spine in an uncomfortable position.
You also need to consider your weight and build, as heavier people generally need firmer mattresses than lighter people.
So, someone who is heavier than average and who sleeps on their front or stomach would most likely need a firm or very firm mattress.
Just to add to your confusion, you need to realise that 'There are no universal standards of firmness in common usage in the UK' (Sleep Council). What that means is that one company's 'firm' mattress could be the same as another company's 'medium' mattress. It's a bit like buying three 'large' t-shirts and finding that only one of them fits you. Helpful, eh...?
So what should you do?
Ideally, you should either try a mattress in a shop, or buy one with a home trial period which allows you to swap it or get a refund if you aren't happy.
We've picked out five UK mattresses which are good for people who sleep on their front or stomach. They all get good reviews or have won awards. Prices are for double mattresses and are correct at the time of typing.
However, there isn't one mattress which is perfect for everyone who sleeps on their front or stomach. Sorry if that shocks you, perhaps I should have told you to sit down first before delivering the news.
Instead, you need a mattress which provides the right level of support for you, which depends on:
- how heavy or large you are
- what position you sleep in
Generally speaking, people who sleep on their front or stomach need to choose a mattress which is a little bit firmer than someone who sleeps on their side. This is because front/stomach sleepers tend to sink into a very soft mattress too much which would leave their spine in an uncomfortable position.
You also need to consider your weight and build, as heavier people generally need firmer mattresses than lighter people.
So, someone who is heavier than average and who sleeps on their front or stomach would most likely need a firm or very firm mattress.
Just to add to your confusion, you need to realise that 'There are no universal standards of firmness in common usage in the UK' (Sleep Council). What that means is that one company's 'firm' mattress could be the same as another company's 'medium' mattress. It's a bit like buying three 'large' t-shirts and finding that only one of them fits you. Helpful, eh...?
So what should you do?
Ideally, you should either try a mattress in a shop, or buy one with a home trial period which allows you to swap it or get a refund if you aren't happy.
We've picked out five UK mattresses which are good for people who sleep on their front or stomach. They all get good reviews or have won awards. Prices are for double mattresses and are correct at the time of typing.
1. Silentnight Sofia 1200 Pocket Spring Mattress - medium/Firm - good for front/stomach sleepers of average weight - £379
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This mid-priced mattress from big brand Silentnight is a good choice if you want a traditional style of mattress. A medium/firm mattress is usually about right for a front/stomach sleeper who is average weight although keep in mind my waffle earlier in this guide about there not being a completely precise way of measuring firmness.
The Sofia model uses pocket springs, which is the type of mattress which most of us go for. For the uninitiated (i.e. normal people who don't spend all their time thinking about mattresses), pocket springs are the posher type of spring you get on a mattress. The cheap mattress in your grandma's spare room uses 'open coil' springs which are much wobblier and less supportive. Silentnight is a safe choice for a mattress, as they're probably the best-known name in the UK market and have a massive range. On TrustPilot, the average score for the brand was a decent 4.2/5 when I checked. The Silentnight Sofia 1200 (also known as the Classic 1200) is worth a look as it was scoring 9/10 from about 1000 reviews when I checked. It also won an award from expert testers. Another plus point is that you can turn it over, so that will help extend its life. The warranty offered is 5 years which is OK for a pocket spring mattress - the range is anywhere from 1 year to 10 years, with a few exceptions. The 1200 number refers to the number of pocket springs on a king sized version of a mattress. Most mattress experts seem to say that good mattresses have 1000+ springs. You might want a number nearer to 2000 if you are on the larger side, but for most people 1200 is plenty of springs. Don't get too excited by those mattresses which claim to have thousands of springs, it just means they have several layers of springs, some of which will be very small. This one doesn't come with a free trial, but it is a popular mattress (based on the fact that it has 1000 reviews) from a popular brand so you might be able to try it out in a shop. |
The Silentnight Sofia 1200 is a hugely popular mattress from the UK's biggest bed brand
Pros and cons - our summary"You can put 'value for money' in the pros column with this mattress. You're buying from a trusted and established mid-priced brand. Silentnight doesn't have the Royal Warrant of a Sleepeezee Hybrid 2000 Mattress but this one is an award winner."
"Another positive is the number of reviews. We've learnt to query products with hundreds or thousands of positive reviews but this is a very popular product and so it's easy to find trustworthy opinions". "You can turn this mattress over, unlike the Sleepeezee Hybrid 2000 Mattress so it's a good choice for someone who knows they will remember to flip it over every few weeks" "The main negatives with the Silentnight Sofia 1200 are that you don't get a trial period and you only get a five year warranty. In that regard, the Nectar Sleep Memory Foam Mattress blows it out the water with its 365 night trial and 'forever' warranty." |
2. Sleepeezee Hybrid 2000 Mattress - firm - good for front/stomach sleepers of average weight or slightly above average - £549
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A Sleepeezee mattress is worth your money for a number of reasons.
The company has a Royal Warrant, meaning that Prince Charles' household uses them. That's a good start, as the Royals don't tend to buy rubbish. Customers also like the brand, giving it an average score of 4.4/5 on TrustPilot as of 2020, which makes it one of the highest rated pocket spring mattress brands in the UK (some foam based 'bed in a box' mattresses score higher). They're also one of the few pocket spring mattress companies which offer a home trial period. It's not quite as generous as brands like Simba Sleep and OTTY which allow you to return the mattress for a refund if you don't like it. However, Sleepeezee do allow you to swap it for another of their mattresses within 60 days if you aren't happy if you buy it from Mattress Online (read the Ts and Cs first). This particular model - The Sleepeezee Hybrid 2000 - won an award from expert testers in 2019 and it was also scoring a near perfect 9.5/10 from customers, after about 40 reviews from customers. It's a firm mattress and is called a 'hybrid' mattress because it combines pocket springs with a top layer of gel foam for added comfort. The downside of a hybrid mattress like this is that you can't turn it over, as the top layer is only one side. However, you can rotate it round to help extend its life. It comes with a 5 year guarantee, which is about average for a pocket sprung mattress. |
Sleepeezee supply royalty but they aren't as expensive as you might think
Pros and cons - our summary"A mattress with a Royal Warrant and a high pocket spring count for around £500? That's two solid marks in the pros column."
"Numbers aren't everything in the mattress game, but it has 800 more springs on the king size version than the Silentnight Sofia 1200 which is a definite plus if you are heavier than average". "On the downside, it's not as big a seller as the Silentnight Sofia 1200 so there isn't quite as much data to draw on." "Also, that top layer of gel means you can't turn it over unlike the Relyon Ultimate Ortho Support 1500. And the warranty is comfortably trumped by the Ergoflex 5G and the Nectar Sleep Memory Foam Mattress" |
3. Nectar Sleep Memory Foam Mattress - medium/firm - good for front/stomach sleepers of average build - £569
**Nectar Sale: 5 free gifts worth up to £385 + 365 night trial + 20% off bedroom furniture until 25/04/21**
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There are several medium/firm 'bed in a box' mattresses competing for your attention, including this one from Nectar Sleep (others which are usually called medium/firm include one by Simba Sleep).
As they are medium/firm, they are probably best suited for average weight people who sleep on their front or stomach. The idea with a 'bed in a box' is that they arrive squashed up and then expand when you open them up. Most 'bed in a box' mattresses can't be tried in shops but can be returned if you don't like them. The Simba Sleep Hybrid and the Nectar Sleep Mattress both get very positive reviews and come with generous trial periods, but Nectar Sleep makes our list because it offers the longest trial period (365 days) and the longest warranty ('forever' although, as always, it's worth checking the small print). It's also won awards from independent experts. The Nectar Sleep uses memory foam as well as other types of foam. Most guides I've read conclude that memory foam offers a more consistent level of support than pocket springs. You will find that some people find memory foam makes them feel a bit warm and they have a bit of a different feel to pocket springs. Of course, if you don't like it you can return it for a refund. |
The Nectar Sleep mattress offers a 'forever' guarantee and an industry leading 365 night trial
Pros and cons - our summary"If you can find a mattress with a longer trial period, I'll eat my hat! The whole year you get with the Nectar Sleep mattress is about 10 times longer than the Ergoflex 5G trial period whilst the Relyon Ultimate Ortho Support 1500 doesn't come with a trial at all. You'll find that this is common theme - memory foam mattresses often come with a trial period whilst pocket sprung mattresses tend not to."
"The main points that I'd put in the cons column for this one are that its overall TrustPilot score is slightly behind the Ergoflex 5G which offers something similar" "It's also a less established name in the mattress market than the likes of Silentnight and Sleepeezee" |
4. Relyon Ultimate Ortho Support 1500 Pocket Sprung Mattress - very firm - good for front/stomach sleepers who are heavier than average - £765
**Discount code: 15% off with discount code APRIL15 until 30/04/21**
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There's an old myth in the mattress world that a very firm or 'orthopedic' mattress is what you need if you want look after your back. That advice is generally accepted to be nonsense by experts like the Sleep Council which emphasises the importance of getting a supportive mattress when it says things like: "Your mattress should be firm enough to support your spine in the correct alignment while conforming to your body’s contours".
So, a very firm mattress like this one from Relyon is probably suitable for a heavier person who sleeps on their front or back. If that's you, then this Relyon Ultimate Ortho mattress is worth a look. It has 1500 pocket springs which will provide a good level of support and it's also exceedingly deep at 30cm. It's a straightforward traditional style mattress, so it doesn't have a fancy pillow top layer or anything like that. That means you can turn it over, ideally with the help of a forklift truck (the super king version weighs 75kg which is nearly 12 stone). The Relyon brand is a well known mid-priced mattress brand which holds something called the Manufacturing Guild Mark which is a sign of quality. This particular model scores highly with customers with a splurge of five star reviews. |
This Relyon mattress is one of the firmer ones on the market
Pros and cons - our summary"This mattress will appeal to sleepers who are creatures of habit. It is traditionally made and doesn't have lots of complex layers, which you will either see as a positive or a negative depending on your point of view"
"The ability to turn it over is a positive which is matched by the Silentnight Sofia 1200 Pocket Spring Mattress. On the downside, it's about twice the price of that mattress." "Dozens of mattresses can say they've won awards but having a Manufacturing Guild Mark is a plus point which the Relyon Ultimate Ortho Support 1500 can be proud of" |
5. Ergoflex 5G Memory Foam Mattress - medium/firm - good for front/stomach sleepers of average weight - £739
**Ergoflex Discount Code: up to 40% off with code SAVE40**
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The Ergoflex 5G is another memory foam mattress which gets outstanding customer reviews. When we checked, Ergoflex had a score of 4.6/5 on TrustPilot making it one of the highest scoring mattress brands we could find. That's the score for the brand as a whole, but as they only make one mattress it's fair to assume that a good number will relate to the medium-firm 5G (the name has nothing to do with the mobile phone masts, I'm guessing).
It has a 30 night 'risk free' trial so you can return it if you don't like it - not quite as impressive as the 100, 200 or 365 night trials offered by some but I reckon you have a good idea about a mattress after the first few days or weeks. It also has a 10 year guarantee. As mentioned earlier, memory foam fans like the way that it provides snug and hugging support. Some people don't like the slight 'quicksand-esque' feeling or find that it makes them a bit hot in bed (oooerrr missus) but this one has a 'specially-engineered Cool-Sleep airflow layer at its core' to try to overcome this. Foam mattresses use a number of different layers, so a good indication of quality is how thick the layer of memory foam is. Cheap mattresses sometimes make do with only 2cm of memory foam on top of other foams whilst the Ergoflex 5G has a much more generous 9cm of memory foam. |
Ergoflex reviews are outstanding and it has a home trial period
Pros and cons - our summary"There are several positive points with this mattress but the overwhelmingly positive customer reviews are the headline."
"Besides that, you're getting a mattress which offers a deep layer of memory foam which matches the Nectar Sleep Memory Foam Mattress and beats several of its rivals." "Another positive is that the brand is more established than a lot of similar mattress brands." "However, in a side by side comparison, the Nectar Sleep Memory Foam Mattress wins by some distance on warranty length and trial period" |
Further reading and research: what proportion of people sleep on their front?
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Research suggests that if you sleep on your front, you're in the minority.
A study by Skarpsno, Mork et al in 2017 looked at a group of Danish sleepers and concluded that people only spent 7.3% of their time on their front. That's about 1/13th of the time. By comparison,'participants spent 54.1%...in the side position (and) 37.5%...in the back position'. However, it's worth noting that this study looked at how we behave during the night rather than just the position that we adopt to get to sleep. There's a suggestion that we move towards more side sleeping and less front sleeping as we get older. The study notes that 'children sleep equally much on the side, back, and front, with a progressive preference for the side position when approaching adulthood'. The same study quotes work by Lorrain et al called 'Sleep positions and postural shifts in elderly persons' and says that 'the side position was the preferred sleep posture (77% of sleeping time) followed by the back position (19%); only 2% of the sleeping time was spent in the front position'. This adds weight to the theory that there is a 'continuous shift in preference toward the side position' according to Skarpsno, Mork et al. |
If you mostly sleep on your front, you're certainly in the minority (see the yellow section of the graph)
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Further reading and research: is sleeping on your front a healthy position?
There are various pieces of research which have been carried out into the advantages and disadvantages of different sleeping positions.
The Skarpsno, Mork et al research mentioned earlier, explores some interesting hypotheses around why people do or don't sleep on their front - and the possible health implications.
Firstly, it suggests that 'a possible explanation for the avoidance of the front position is that the respiratory movements of the rib cage require more energy expenditure because of the necessity of elevating the body against gravity in the front position'. Secondly, it notes that 'It has been claimed that the preferred side position with increasing age is due to loss of flexibility of the spine and/or the extra effort required for breathing in the front position'.
It quotes work by Pump, Talleruphuus et al from 2002 titled 'effects of supine, prone, and lateral positions on cardiovascular and renal variables in humans' which it summarises as finding that 'healthy males during a waking state reported reduced stroke volume and increased sympathetic nervous activity and heart rate in the front position'.
Another study, by Leung, Bowman et al in 2003 titled 'avoidance of the left lateral decubitus position during sleep in patients with heart failure' suggested that 'patients with heart failure tend to favour sleeping on their side' (Skarpsno, Mork et al's paraphrase).
Of course, back health issue is a big one to consider when deciding on a sleeping position.
This topic question was explored by Cary, Briffa and McKenna in an Australian study called 'Identifying relationships between sleep posture and non-specific spinal symptoms in adults: A scoping review'.
As the title suggests, they examined existing studies rather than carrying out their own research but it provides some useful data.
The study looked at research in Australia, Nigeria and Portugal and offered a discussion point that 'side lying was reported as protective of spinal symptoms and participants that slept in supported side lying were found to have less symptoms than those sleeping in ¾ side lying or prone'. Conversely, they also concluded that there just weren't enough 'high quality studies to adequately answer our research question'.
Clarity appears hard to find on this topic which may mean that the healthiest sleeping position depends on your personal condition and situation. I would certainly advise speaking to a specialist for your specific condition rather than assuming one-size-fits-all.
You may also be able to get some useful guidance from charities that specialise in health conditions. For example, Versus Arthritis offer suggestions for those dealing with that specific condition. For example they suggest that 'Some people find it helpful to sleep in a narrow soft foam collar. While others like to rest a pillow between their knees, while lying on their side.'
Other common conditions for which you can find specific advice include a guide to 'Sleep disturbance and waking up at night' guide from Alzheimer's Society.
The Skarpsno, Mork et al research mentioned earlier, explores some interesting hypotheses around why people do or don't sleep on their front - and the possible health implications.
Firstly, it suggests that 'a possible explanation for the avoidance of the front position is that the respiratory movements of the rib cage require more energy expenditure because of the necessity of elevating the body against gravity in the front position'. Secondly, it notes that 'It has been claimed that the preferred side position with increasing age is due to loss of flexibility of the spine and/or the extra effort required for breathing in the front position'.
It quotes work by Pump, Talleruphuus et al from 2002 titled 'effects of supine, prone, and lateral positions on cardiovascular and renal variables in humans' which it summarises as finding that 'healthy males during a waking state reported reduced stroke volume and increased sympathetic nervous activity and heart rate in the front position'.
Another study, by Leung, Bowman et al in 2003 titled 'avoidance of the left lateral decubitus position during sleep in patients with heart failure' suggested that 'patients with heart failure tend to favour sleeping on their side' (Skarpsno, Mork et al's paraphrase).
Of course, back health issue is a big one to consider when deciding on a sleeping position.
This topic question was explored by Cary, Briffa and McKenna in an Australian study called 'Identifying relationships between sleep posture and non-specific spinal symptoms in adults: A scoping review'.
As the title suggests, they examined existing studies rather than carrying out their own research but it provides some useful data.
The study looked at research in Australia, Nigeria and Portugal and offered a discussion point that 'side lying was reported as protective of spinal symptoms and participants that slept in supported side lying were found to have less symptoms than those sleeping in ¾ side lying or prone'. Conversely, they also concluded that there just weren't enough 'high quality studies to adequately answer our research question'.
Clarity appears hard to find on this topic which may mean that the healthiest sleeping position depends on your personal condition and situation. I would certainly advise speaking to a specialist for your specific condition rather than assuming one-size-fits-all.
You may also be able to get some useful guidance from charities that specialise in health conditions. For example, Versus Arthritis offer suggestions for those dealing with that specific condition. For example they suggest that 'Some people find it helpful to sleep in a narrow soft foam collar. While others like to rest a pillow between their knees, while lying on their side.'
Other common conditions for which you can find specific advice include a guide to 'Sleep disturbance and waking up at night' guide from Alzheimer's Society.
