Best Mattresses for Neck Pain (2024)

It’s important that you aren’t uncomfortably digging into your mattress or sinking too low into it. You want to have just the right support.

A supportive bed should also keep your spine properly aligned. Basically, there’s a sweet spot that your spine should be in (essentially a straight line) to ensure that neck pain doesn’t set in or worsen.

For this roundup, we made sure to pick beds that earned at least a 4 out of 5 in our support tests.

Some degree of pressure relief is essential for offsetting soreness (in side sleepers, especially). If your bed is too firm to allow any cushion, you may exacerbate existing neck pain. 

Therefore, we picked beds that earned at least a 4 out of 5 in our pressure relief tests. The one exception is the Plank Firm, which takes pride in its very, very firm feel.

Aside from being the middle-of-the-road, most-recommended firmness option, a medium firmness level should also benefit folks with neck pain. This firmness tends to provides the right balance of comfort and support.

We tried to pick beds within our medium firmness range, from 5 to 6.5 out of 10. There are two exceptions—the Titan Plus and the Plank Firm—for folks who may want a firmer mattress, such as stomach sleepers or heavyweight sleepers.

Hybrid beds can be any combination of materials. Usually, they’re a blend of a coil unit on the bottom and latex or memory foam (or both) on top. If you’re on the fence about whether you should get a foam mattress or an innerspring bed, one of the best hybrid mattresses could be a happy compromise.

Hybrid beds combine the best of both worlds: support from the coils, and pressure relief from the foams, both of which are essential for neck pain relief. Many hybrids are equipped with zoning in the coils to promote proper spinal alignment, too.

Finally, it’s easy to find medium-feel hybrid mattresses, as they tend to hover around this firmness level or have multiple options available.

Memory foam beds are also good for neck pain as they tend to excel in pressure relief. They are also good if you’re a side sleeper or a back sleeper wanting a softer feel. These may contour best to the shape of your body, preventing joint pain and promoting spinal alignment.¹

But make sure you find a bed with a strong support core to back it up. The best memory foam mattresses have thick and dense foam support layers. The big downside is that they may not provide a lot of bounce or cooling.

Latex has some of the same pressure-relieving properties as memory foam, so it could be a good option for neck pain. Instead of being mostly made out of synthetic materials, it’s derived from rubber tree sap. This “natural” aspect can make these beds more expensive, but there are some added perks.

The best latex mattresses are known to provide a cooler sleeping experience than memory foam. Latex also provides more responsiveness, or bounce, making it great for those who want more mobility.

Innerspring beds can be highly supportive, which is great for body alignment. And a happy spine makes a happy neck.

However, they don’t have the extra foams and cushioning offered by hybrids. They also might use interconnected coils rather than pocketed coils, so their spring units may be less durable and motion-isolating.

If you’re someone who doesn’t need much cushioning, such as a firm mattress fan or a stomach sleeper, maybe an innerspring could work for you; especially if it’s a fancier one with specialized coils. But for neck pain, we recommend hybrids over innersprings for their added pressure relief.

The best beds for back sleepers are ones that provide balanced support, and this can typically be achieved with mid-level firmness, which is also recommended for neck pain.

Since these folks are usually the easiest to please, they might have the largest selection to choose from. Just make sure you feel supported and that your spine is aligned—no uncomfortable digging or sagging as you lay on top of your mattress.²

Side sleeping is one of the most common sleeping positions.³ It’s not necessarily bad for neck pain, but again, you’ll want to ensure your spine is in the proper alignment—it’s easy for side sleepers to have a bend in their neck, depending on the height of their pillow. Ideally, you want your neck and spine to look like a straight line, from your head to your tailbone.

You also might want to invest in a softer mattress that contours around their shoulders and hips to prevent pressure buildup. The best mattresses for side sleepers all prioritize pressure relief.

Sorry, fellow stomach sleepers, but we’re at the most risk for developing or aggravating neck pain. If you sleep on your stomach (and refuse to change, like me), a bed that is relatively firm will keep your hips elevated.

The best beds for stomach sleepers with neck pain, then, might be firmer than the medium firmness we’ve recommended elsewhere in this article. You might even consider sleeping without a pillow, as one that’s too high can throw your neck out of alignment.

Combination sleepers switch between positions throughout the night, so they can be difficult to please. And, on top of that, if you’re struggling with neck pain, you’ll need to consider beds with plenty of support and pressure relief.

It’s important to find a bed that not only accommodates each position, but that also allows you to switch between them easily. You’ll want a bed with plenty of responsiveness. Usually, this is achieved through sturdy coils or firmer foams. The best bed for a combination sleeper is likely a hybrid or an especially bouncy foam mattress.

When we lie on top of a mattress, we make note of how straight and aligned our spines feel. We judge by sensation and also by looking at one another as we each test a bed.

We want to ensure that no part of our bodies is dipping or buckling, and that our backs and necks look level while feeling comfortable. We rate a bed between 0 (not supportive at all) and 5 (very supportive) depending on the level of support it offers.

We have testers with different body types lie on a bed and report how firm it feels, on a scale of 1 to 10. One means the bed is a literal cotton ball, and ten means it feels like concrete.

We then agree on an overall firmness rating that takes everyone’s notes into account. Medium-firm beds are those that fall between a 5 and 6.5 on our scale.

We generate motion on top of each mattress we test by rolling around on top of it, and by getting in and out of the bed. We measure the motion that travels by using a seismograph app.

The readings the app produces let us know how good the bed’s motion isolation is: a very spiky seismograph means poor motion isolation, whereas a flat one means the motion isolation is excellent.