Highest Rated Beds for Combination Sleepers – 2023 Review Guide

The first thing to consider when you look for the best mattress for combination sleepers is this: of the sleeping positions you find yourself in throughout the night, which one is the one where you spend the most time? The reason this is important is that each sleeping position has an ideal mattress type. However, you can only sleep on one bed at a time, so it’s best to buy a mattress that will be adequate for the way your body situates itself most of the time.

In addition to identifying your preferred way of sleeping, we also suggest getting a mattress that provides an ideal blend of support and cushioning. You need extra cushioning for times when you’re on your side, but if it’s too much, it’ll put your spine at an unnatural angle when you roll to your back or stomach.

No matter what position you find yourself in, proper spinal alignment is key. Unfortunately, it’s not something everyone thinks about often. When you lie down, your spine should be in a straight line.

So, if you’re on your side, your shoulders, torso, and hips should all be at the same level. A too-soft mattress could make part of your body dip out of this line. Likewise, a bed that is too firm may cause parts of your body to buckle, which is not ideal for optimal health and sleep hygiene.

While side sleepers need a softer surface to contour their denser body parts like shoulders and hips, back sleepers need a slightly firmer mattress to keep their body parts level with each other. And finally, stomach sleepers require the firmest mattress of them all in order to prevent their stomach and torso from dipping unnaturally and throwing off the curve of the spine.

Need more info? Check out our full mattress firmness guide here.

The heavier you are, the firmer the mattress you need. Along this line of reasoning, if you’re a lightweight person, you will probably need some softer mattress. Here’s why: if you don’t weigh much, you’re not going to sink into the bed as significantly as someone who weighs more. When you lie down, a firm bed could feel like concrete because you don’t have enough weight to sink into the surface.

Conversely, when you’re heavy, you’ll need a firmer surface to support your weight. Otherwise, you’ll sink too deeply, and you’re more likely to feel uncomfortable.

Soft mattresses tend to work well for people between 100 and 120 pounds. Medium-firm mattresses work best for individuals over 120 pounds and under about 250 pounds, which is most of the population. If you are hovering near the 250-lb mark, or you’re above it, you should consider seeking out a firm mattress.

When in doubt, the best choice that has universal appeal is a mattress that’s medium-firm.

Want to know more? Check out our top rated mattresses for heavy people here.

We briefly mentioned response when we discussed memory foam mattresses. This type of mattress has “slow response” because it retains its shape even when you stop putting weight on in it. And yes, memory foam mattress will go back to normal, but it’s a slower process.

Fast response is a feature of latex and innerspring beds. These have spring or bounce. You’ll find that even if you put all your weight in one area or jump on the bed, the material recovers quickly.

When we say “hug,” we don’t mean that your mattress will literally hug you, although that would be nice. Rather, hugging means that when you lie down, you’ll sink into the mattress slightly and you’ll have the sensation of being enveloped by the part of the bed where your weight is concentrated.

The sinkage and hug that is commonplace among memory foam mattresses are ideal for side sleepers, though combo sleepers need to watch out, especially if one of those preferred sleeping positions is on the stomach. A memory foam mattress can cause a stomach sleeper’s pelvis to sink downward, depending on its construction, uncomfortably arching the back. A coil bed won’t have the issue that memory foam mattress does.

Combo sleepers are known for tossing and turning, so having a bed with superior motion isolation is key. Motion isolation simply means that when one partner moves or gets up, the person on the other side of the bed won’t feel it because all of the motion is concentrated in the area where the person is moving.

Memory foam performs best here, though some hybrid and latex beds are also excellent at minimizing motion transfer. Coil beds are subpar here, so if you sleep with a partner that is easily disturbed, you probably want to avoid coil beds, which wake you up whenever someone moves.

For mixed position sleepers, buying a bed is slightly more complicated than if you have a preferred way that you sleep each night. For instance, for people who sleep exclusively on their side, they need a mattress that offers pressure relief and a mattress that is on the softer side of medium as well.

However, when you’re a combo sleeper, you need to keep in mind that this type of mattress might be too soft for those moments when you roll over to your back or stomach.

Here’s our evaluation of the different types of beds available and how we think you’ll like them as a multiple position sleeper:

This type of mattress became commercially available in the 1990s under the brand name of Tempur-Pedic. Memory foam mattress came with a hefty price tag to match. Fast forward nearly 30 years later, and memory foam has taken the bedding world by storm. It’s now very affordable (if you know where to buy), and it gets the highest satisfaction ratings among the US population.

If you’ve seen commercials for a memory foam mattress, you may recall that the spokesperson often presses their hand onto the surface of the bed and when they lift their hand off, you’ll still see the imprint that it made.

The effect is a soft and cuddly feeling bed that hugs all of your curves.

While this sounds like a dream come true for side sleepers, it’s sometimes problematic for those who toss and turn. The reason is that the nature of the memory foam means that it has a slow response time.

If you move around a lot, you’ll find that you won’t roll as easily as you would on other types of beds, depending on the brand. This increases your chances of waking up as you try to shift your body weight. And we all know that waking up a bunch of times during the night is dreadful for our beauty sleep.

Need more info? Read our complete guide for best memory foam beds.

By definition, hybrid mattresses are ideal for multiple position sleepers. Just as you like to mix up how you sleep, hybrid beds like to mix up their materials. For example, hybrid mattress combines multiple layers made up of different things. Most have a coil core combined with foam or latex comfort layers.

Some brands allow you to build a “custom” bed. The way it works is you answer a series of questions about your sleeping habits (including your go-to positions), your gender, your weight, and more. Then they put together a product based on your specific needs.

Some hybrids even allow you to customize both sides of the bed. So, if you sleep with a partner who has different preferences, you’d be able to design the bed so that each of your respective sides was built just for you.

Want to see more? Check out our top hybrid beds here.

A coil, or innerspring, mattress is made up of springs that support your weight. There are now beds with individual pocket coils that can adapt to your body’s different weight zones, and many people have had success with those.

If you’re a combo stomach/back sleeper, a coil mattress could serve you well. But, if you tend to sleep on your side during the night, some of these mattresses might be less comfortable for you. Just make sure to find out how it performs in that position.

A bed made of a continuous coil construction can be at risk for sagging within a couple of years and make any and all of your sleeping positions dreadfully uncomfortable if that is the case.

Get More Info: Top Rated Innerspring Beds

This type of bed is often a wonderful choice for combo sleepers because they have a springy bounce that combines with the ability to compress when weight is applied, allowing the mattress to support your curves without making you feel stuck.

It even comes in all-natural latex in many cases, which is sourced from the sap of a rubber tree. It’ll be one of the more expensive choices, though, so there are some brands that combine natural and synthetic components.

Check Out Our Guide: Highest Rated Latex Beds

As a combo sleeper, you have an advantage because you get the benefits of each of the different sleeping positions without the negatives that come from staying in just one spot. Switching from back to side sleeping, for example, helps your circulation. It can also prevent the numbness and pain that many Americans experience when they wake up in the morning.

As long as you’re not constantly tossing and turning, you’ll be better off as a mixed sleeper than as a static sleeper.

As we said, each position has distinct benefits, as well as some drawbacks. Here’s what we’ve found in our research:

Combination sleepers are people who sleep in two or more positions during the night. There are three main positions to sleep in: side, stomach, and back.

Among these three positions, there are variations among them, and each is associated with a set of personality traits. Who knew that the way you situate your body when you sleep is actually linked to your personality?

Here’s a brief summary of the sleeping positions and what they say about someone’s character. These fun interpretations are courtesy of a hotel chain in Great Britain that surveyed guests about their sleeping positions and personality traits.

A medium-firm mattress is the safest bet for combination sleepers, as it accommodates multiple sleeping positions. However, if you have a dominant sleeping position you lie in for most of the night, then you should choose a firmness that best corresponds to that position: softer for side sleepers, a bit firmer for stomach and back sleepers.

Your body weight will also affect your experience of mattress firmness. Heavier people do well on firmer mattresses, whereas lighter people tend to prefer softer mattresses.

Avoid a standard one-size-fits-all type of pillow. Combination sleepers need something that performs well in a variety of positions. For example, there are pillows that have raised edges. This supports the neck in both side and back sleeping positions. We also suggest considering something that’s slightly thinner than average if you ever lie on your stomach. Cervical or neck pain pillows are usually an excellent choice for all types of sleepers.