You may be wondering where you can find the best mattress for front sleepers.
The most common advice is that most people who sleep on their front or stomach should choose a medium/firm or firm mattress.
However, there isn’t one mattress that 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.
Getting the correct firmness for your mattress
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. 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.
How firm is a 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. Prices and review scores are correct at the time of typing in 2024.
1. Silentnight Sofia 1200 Pocket Spring Mattress – medium/firm – good for front/stomach sleepers of average weight – £489
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. Keep in mind my waffle earlier in this guide about there not being a completely precise way of measuring firmness (i.e. don’t blame me…).
The Sofia model uses pocket springs, which is the type of mattress which most of us go for. 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.
Does a big name brand offer the best mattress for front sleepers?
Silentnight is a safe choice for a mattress. They’re probably the best-known name in the UK market and have a massive range. Their official blurb reckons that one in five mattresses sold in the UK is a Silentnight mattress.
On TrustPilot, the average score for the Silentnight brand is 4.1/5.
The Silentnight Sofia 1200 (also known as the Classic 1200) is worth a look as it scores 4.7/5 from about 1500 reviews. 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 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.
Try before you buy?
A few years ago, you wouldn’t have got a home trial period with this mattress. I managed to find it in a couple of shops, but it wasn’t easy and it went by more than one name.
The good news is that you can now get a 60 night comfort trial. The bad news – or at least the caveat – is that not all trials are equally as good as each other. I put this trial somewhere in the middle.
If you don’t like the mattress, you can swap it for another one, but you can’t get a refund. If you swap it for a more expensive mattress then you obviously pay the difference. However, if you swap for a cheaper one then you only get up to £100 back as credit. You’ve then got to find something you want to buy on a site that just sells sleep products (not a big problem as you can always stock up on pillows or bedding).
The cost of sending the mattress back is covered by Mattress Online.
There are a couple of other hoops to jump through. You need to use a mattress protector and you have to keep it for at least 30 days, so the returns window is between 30 and 60 days.
Overall, I think it’s very positive that you get any kind of home trial at all. However, it’s worth noting that with lots of modern memory foam brands (e.g. Nectar Sleep) you get a long trial and the option of a refund.
Pros: trusted and long established mattress maker, pocket sprung, double sided, Which award, huge number of reviews
Cons: warranty is only five years
The Sleep Guy’s Value Rating: ***** (see foot of page for explanation of what this means)
Pros and cons – The Sleep Guy’s 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. That makes it 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 is that you only get a five year warranty. Honestly though, that’s not too bad considering the price tag”.
“Yes, this mattress is what marketing people might ‘vanilla’. It’s not got layer upon layer of complication designs with pseudo-scientific names. But does it really mattress if you sleep well?”
2. Sleepeezee Hybrid 2000 Mattress – firm – good for front/stomach sleepers of average weight or slightly above average – £699
A Sleepeezee mattress is worth your money for a number of reasons.
The company has a Royal Warrant, meaning that the king’s household uses them. That’s a good start, as the Royals don’t tend to buy rubbish with your money (that’s just a joke…).
Customers also like the brand, giving it an average score of 4.2/5 on TrustPilot. That makes it one of the highest rated pocket spring mattress brands in the UK. Some foam based ‘bed in a box’ mattresses score higher.
Sleepeezee is another pocket spring mattress company which offers a home trial period if you buy via some retailers. 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 mattress within 60 days if you buy it from Mattress Online (read the Ts and Cs first). It’s similar to the warranty of the Silentnight Sofia mentioned earlier, in that you need to use a mattress protector and try it for at least 30 days.
This particular model – The Sleepeezee Hybrid 2000 – won an award from expert testers in 2019. It was also scoring a near perfect 4.6/5 from customers, after about 80 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 bad news about this mattress
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 but not exactly dazzling. Watch a video about the Sleepeezee Hybrid 2000.
Pros: prestigious brand which supplies royalty, high spring count
Cons: five year warranty is a little short for the price, not a huge number of reviews, single sided, trial period only allows a swap
The Sleep Guy’s Value Rating: ****
Pros and cons – the Sleep Guy’s summary
“A mattress with a Royal Warrant and a high pocket spring count for around £700? That’s two solid marks in the pros column.”
“Numbers aren’t everything in the mattress game. However, 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 on length and flexibility 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 – £600
There are several medium/firm ‘bed in a box’ mattresses competing for your attention, including this one from Nectar Sleep. Other medium/firm models include one by Simba Sleep.
As they are both 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. Their trial periods tend to be less convoluted than pocket sprung brands, who want you to use a mattress protector and will only offer an exchange.
The Simba Sleep Hybrid Original and the Nectar Sleep Mattress both get very positive reviews and come with generous trial periods. However, the Nectar Mattress makes our list because it offers the longest trial period (365 days) and the longest warranty (‘forever’ although it’s always worth checking the small print). It’s also won awards from independent experts.
How is it constructed?
The Nectar Sleep uses memory foam as well as other types of foam. Many people find 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. I’ve slept on this mattress a few times and haven’t found it to be particularly warm.
Watch a video about a customer’s experience of the Nectar Sleep mattress.
Pros: huge trial period, industry leading warranty length, deep layer of memory foam, sustainable production methods
Cons: less famous brand than Sleepeezee or Silentnight, can’t be flipped over, memory foam isn’t for everyone
The Sleep Guy’s Value Rating: *****
Pros and cons – The Sleep Guy’s 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. Meanwhile, the Relyon, Silentnight and Sleepeezee trials are less generous in their terms and conditions.“
“You’ll find that this is common theme. Memory foam mattresses often come with a long trial period whilst pocket sprung mattresses tend to offer a shorter trial with an exchange instead of a refund”
“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”
“This type of mattress doesn’t have that familiar springy bounce to it that you get with pocket sprung mattresses, so it make take a little bit of getting used to”
The Nectar Sleep mattress offers a ‘forever’ guarantee and an industry leading 365 night trial
4. Relyon Ultimate Ortho Support 1500 Pocket Sprung Mattress – very firm – best mattress for stomach sleepers who are heavier than average – £1019
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 (according to experts like the Sleep Council). They emphasise 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”.
Sleep Council
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. It’s also deeper than average at 30cm so you may also be shopping for deep fitted sheets.
This is 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. You might need a forklift truck as the super king version weighs 75kg (nearly 12 stone).
I put the Relyon brand in the upper end of the mid-priced mattress category (Ed: run that by me again…). It holds something called the Manufacturing Guild Mark, which is an impressive sign of quality. This particular model scores highly with customers with a splurge of five-star reviews. Watch a video guide to this Relyon mattress.
Does the Relyon Ultimate Ortho Support 1500 have a trial period?
Yes, you do get a ‘sleep trial’ with this Relyon mattress (via Mattressman) but it’s another one that requires you to scrutinise the small print like a lawyer trying to get a Premier League footballer off a speeding ticket.
The sleep trial is 60 nights, but you need to buy a mattress protector at the same as the mattress. Note that you need to buy one rather than just using one that you already own. That will cost you about £30 for a double mattress protector, although of course you don’t need to return the mattress protector even if you swap the mattress.
They also have the rule that you need to wait at least 30 days before you can do anything. Once you’ve decided you don’t want it, you can swap it – but you can’t get a refund. You also won’t get back any difference in price with the mattress you swap for. You won’t even get store credit, so you will almost certainly lose money unless you find an identically priced mattress.
There are other exclusions too. You can’t use the trial period outside of the mainland UK, so that would mean you can’t return a mattress if you live on the Isle of Wight etc. It also can’t be used on cot mattresses and so on.
On the plus side, you don’t have to pay a courier fee to get it sent back.
As I said earlier, it’s good that they offer a trial of some sort, but it doesn’t really compare to the trial periods offered by Nectar Sleep, Simba Sleep and others.
Pros: turnable mattress, good number of springs, accredited construction methods, tufted finish for strength
Cons: 8 year warranty is OK but less than the competition, trial period is a bit complicatd
The Sleep Guy’s Value Rating: ***
Pros and cons – The Sleep Guy’s 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 and the trial period is a bit fiddly.”
“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 – best mattress for front sleepers of average weight – £966
The Ergoflex 5G is another memory foam mattress with outstanding customer reviews. Ergoflex has a score of 4.7/5 on TrustPilot making it one of the highest scoring mattress brands in the UK. 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).
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. More importantly, the trial period includes free returns and you can get a refund rather than credit (and no, you don’t have to use a mattress protector).
A generous trial period
The Ergoflex 5G also has a 10 year guarantee, with the added benefit that they’ve been trading for longer than their warranty length. We’ve seen a couple of mattress brands cease trading in the UK after turning up with generous warranties. Your warranty is worthless if the company doesn’t exist anymore!
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.
Watch a video about the Ergoflex 5G.
Pros: longer established than similar ‘bed in a box’ brands, home trial, generous warranty length, outstanding brand review score
Cons: trial period is shorter than most, single sided, less famous brand
The Sleep Guy’s Value Rating: ****
Pros and cons – The Sleep Guy’s 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 beats several of its rivals by some distance.”
“Another positive is that the brand is more established than a lot of similar mattress brands. Interestingly, Ergoflex has also stuck to its guns and continues to offer just one mattress that it believes in. Several other brands – such as Emma, Simba, Nectar and Eve – started with this simple model but have since expanded their range so they have up to a dozen mattresses to choose from
“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?
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)
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).
Is front sleeping good for your back?
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.
What does ‘The Sleep Guy’s Value Rating’ mean?
To help you along, we’ve included our own opinion of what you are getting for your money. After all, a £1000 mattress will almost certainly be better than a £500 mattress, but is it worth the extra money?
We look at the price on the day of the different mattresses and weigh up factors such as how the mattress is made (i.e. does it use cheap or expensive materials), how long is the warranty and what do the terms and conditions say, trial periods, customer reviews, brand reputation and awards of note. We then give a score out of five.
***** = exceptionally good value
**** = very good value
*** = good value
** = reasonably good value
* = poor value