The best memory foam mattress will give you consistent all-over support. But that’s not all you should look for when choosing a memory foam mattress.
Nowadays, you often get a long warranty and a risk free trial period. These guarantees and trials often surpass traditional pocket spring mattresses.
Memory foam mattresses are also good because you can use them on a divan or a bedframe/bedstead. You just need to make sure you aren’t using a flimsy old divan which can’t take the weight. If you’re using a bedframe, check it doesn’t have massive gaps between the slats.
Memory foam isn’t for everyone
On the downside, some people don’t like the odd sinking feeling of memory foam. Others find they get a bit hot on a memory foam mattress. Some companies put the memory foam as a middle layer in an attempt to improve the heat issue. A cooler material is used on top. Other companies keep the memory foam on top but use magical techniques to make it more ‘breathable’ than older memory foam.
We’ve picked out 6 of the best memory foam mattresses on the UK market in 2024. Our choices are based on customer reviews, awards and value for money. Prices are for double mattresses. Prices and review scores are correct at the time of writing.
1. Nectar Sleep Memory Foam Mattress (medium/firm – £600)
Nectar Sleep was one of the earlier ‘bed in a box’ memory foam mattresses that appeared on the market. It stood out by offering a longer warranty and home trial than any other memory foam mattress we’ve found.
In fact, the warranty lasts ‘forever’ and you can try it out at home for a whole year. Check the FAQ for terms and conditions. Most similar mattresses offer a 10 year warranty and a 100 night trial.
Reviews average 4.3/5 on TrustPilot and it has been given a thumbs up by several expert websites, including Good Housekeeping and Ideal Homes. It cunningly puts a ‘cooling layer’ on top of the memory foam layer in an effort to stop you feeling hot.
It’s 25cm deep, which is similar to Emma’s mattresses. You’ll find that cheap mattresses are thin. These don’t offer quite as much support, particularly if you’re on the heavy side. The Nectar Sleep has a weight limit of 46 stone. That is much higher than most mattresses on the market in the UK.
Is this mattress good for the planet?
It’s worth considering studies into the environmental impact of memory foam mattresses. A team of researchers in Portugal found that foam mattresses have ‘a higher environmental impact’ than a pocket sprung mattress. Both types of mattress had issues but they said that the ‘manufacturing process’ is the ‘main issue’ for a foam mattress .(See Lanoë, Simões et al, 2013).
However, Nectar Sleep’s ‘mattress production is certifiably climate neutral’. The company say that they ‘calculate the carbon footprint from our manufacturing process, find strategies to reduce this, and offset the remainder’ (Nectar Sleep’s sustainability page).
Nectar will also take away your old mattress for a fee and attempt to recycle it. Lots of ‘bed in a box’ companies don’t offer this so you have to persuade the council to do it or stick it on your roof rack.
2. Emma Luxe Cooling Mattress (firm) or Emma NextGen Cooling Mattress (medium) – £1049
Emma made its name with the concisely titled Emma Mattress (also known as the Emma Original), which was made from layers of foam.
It sold bucket loads of these and people fell over themselves to say nice things about it. You can still buy the Emma Mattress/Emma Original but they mostly now sell hybrid mattress which are a combination of springs, memory foam and other types of foam.
There are currently five main mattresses sold by Emma Sleep, ranging from about £700 – £1400 (and they are sometimes on offer, so you might not pay as much that). You can read about the differences between them in our full Emma guide.
Here’s my summary of the Emma range
The Emma NextGen Premium and the Emma NextGen Premium Plus are the cheapest models. They are basically the same mattress but the plus model has a different layer on top that it designed to keep you slightly cooler. Both of these are medium firmness.
The next step are Emma’s two mattress that offer better ‘thermo-regulation’. In other words, they still offer memory foam but have fancy bells and whistles to keep you cool. These two mattresses are called the Emma Luxe Cooling mattress (firm) and the Emma NextGen Cooling mattress (medium). There are some modest differences between these two, but they cost about the same.
Finally, there is the Emma Elite Mattress, which is the most expensive option. It uses a fancier foam layer on top that gives less of a sinking feeling than traditional memory foam.
Trial and warranty
As with several others on this list, you get a guarantee of 10 years with Emma’s mattresses. You also get 200 days to try them out at home before deciding if you want to keep it.
Emma’s trial period is more flexible and generous than a lot of mattress companies. They’ll pay for the cost of sending it back and you have the option of a refund. Some mattress sellers will only give you an exchange as well as insisting that you pay for the return cost (see our guide to mattresses with a free trial for a comparison table of how different trial periods work).
Overall, Emma Sleep scores 3/5 on TrustPilot.
3. Ergoflex 5G Memory Foam Mattress (medium/firm – £966)
The Ergoflex memory foam mattress is another ‘bed in a box’ which comes with a ‘risk-free’ trial period. It’s a 30-day trial rather than the 200 days you get with Emma’s mattresses or the 365 days you get with Nectar Sleep.
We’ve included it because of its outstanding TrustPilot reviews which average 4.8/5. That makes it the joint highest scoring mattress brand at the time of writing. Posh latex mattress brand Dunlopillo is also up there.
The Ergoflex 5G has got a generous 9cm layer of memory foam on top. Some budget memory foam mattresses only have a 2cm or 3cm layer (see the Silentnight 3 Zone further down this list).
Independent experts gave it rave reviews and it comes with a 10 year guarantee. It comes in a box and then magically expands on arrival, much like most of the other memory foam mattresses on this list.
It’s 23cm deep, so slightly thinner than the Nectar Sleep. I wouldn’t say that’s a major thing.
4. Just Snug by Silentnight – (medium/firm – £520)
You may be thinking by this point that you would prefer to buy a memory foam mattress from a brand that your grandma has heard of.
If so, Silentnight is a good option. They are probably the UK’s best known sleep brand and they claim that one in five mattresses sold in the UK are made by Silentnight.
There are seven mattresses (yes, seven!) in the Silentnight Just Sleep range, some of which use memory foam.
The mid-priced memory foam include Just Snug by Silentnight. It also uses springs, which technically makes it a hybrid mattress.
It’s worth noting that if you buy it from Mattress Online then you get a 60 night ‘comfort trial’, during which time you can swap it for a different mattress.
If you buy it from Silentnight direct then you get a longer trial period of 365 nights, but the range of mattresses that you can swap it for is much smaller.
The Just Snug by Silentnight arrives squashed up so it can be carried upstairs. It’s 26cm thick, which is a sign of good quality. Most high quality mattresses are 25cm deep or more.
Fancy an upgrade?
There are other mattresses in the Silentnight Just Sleep range that are considered an upgrade from the Just Snug model. These are the – Just Calm (medium firmness), Just Dream (medium/soft) and Just Serene (medium/soft) mattresses.
The notable difference is that they use something called ReVo foam, which claims to ‘reduce body heat for cooler sleep’.
For the full – and utterly thrilling – comparison, see our guide to the Just Sleep range.
5. Silentnight 3 Zone Memory Foam Mattress (medium firmness – £202)
The Silentnight 3 Zone mattress is a decent budget memory foam mattress which gets good customer reviews on Amazon (4.2 out of 5) and on Mattress Online (4.0/5). It is made by the biggest name in the UK mattress market.
It’s a little bit thinner than the more expensive memory foam mattresses on this list at 18cm deep. However, it should do the job as long as you aren’t much heavier than average.
The top layer of memory foam is only 3cm deep, which is where the main cost cutting has been made. The ‘3 Zone’ name means that it is firmer towards the middle where your bottom rests and softer for your head and your feet. That’s a good thing, apparently.
We carried out a keyword analysis of the 8000+ Amazon reviews of the Silentnight 3 Zone. 448 customers called it ‘good value’ or said it offered ‘value for money’. However, 152 customers mentioned a ‘chemical smell’ in their reviews. This ‘off gassing’ is a common issue with foam mattresses. It is usually resolved with several hours or sometimes days airing with an open window.
There’s also a slightly more expensive 7 Zone version which is 2cm thicker for an extra £50ish. I’ve seen them both in Black Friday sales at a bargain price.
6. Tempur Pro Smartcool Mattress – £1499 (soft, medium, firm or very firm)
Tempur mattresses cost twice as much as most foam mattresses. However, they’re the original and the best according to some people.
The company took NASA technology and developed it into the first memory foam mattress. Other companies have been trying to catch up since.
Tempur recently revamped their range and phased out models with names like ‘Tempur Original’ ‘Tempur Cloud’ and ‘Tempur Sensation’.
Instead, you can choose from two mattresses – and then customise your mattress depending on your budget. The cheaper Tempur mattress is ONE by Tempur but I would go for the Tempur Pro Smartcool so you can get the right firmness level for you.
Which version of the Tempur Pro Smartcool should I buy?
There are three versions of the Tempur Pro Smartcool. The notable difference between them is the depth.
The cheapest version is 21cm deep and is called the Tempur Pro Smartcool. The mid-priced version is slightly deeper at 25cm and shoves in the word ‘Plus’ to create the Tempur Pro Plus Smartcool. The luxurious version is deeper still at 30cm and shoves in the word ‘Luxe’ to make it the Tempur Pro Luxe Smartcool.
You could argue that they should called them the 21, 25, and 30 models to keep it simple but let’s not split hairs.
A 21cm deep mattress will do the trick for the vast majority of people. I would suggest that if you are notably heavier than average (perhaps if you take up two seats on a plane) then you would be best to get a deeper mattress.
Once you’ve chosen the depth, you then choose the firmness level and the size that you want.
Go for a firmer mattress if you sleep on your back/front or if you are heavier than average. Go for a softer mattress if you sleep on your side or are lighter than average.
Tempur offer a 100 night trial, so you can send it back if you don’t think it’s worth the money. There are terms and conditions such as paying a collection charge. However, it is generally one of the better trial periods in that you can get a refund rather than being forced into an exchange.
Tempur score 3.9/5 on TrustPilot. You can also buy Tempur mattresses from Dreams and John Lewis, but they have slightly different names and different designs. Check out our full Tempur guide if you want to fall into that particular rabbit hole.
The science of supportive sleeping
A small number of scientific studies have looked at how well people sleep on a variety of mattress types.
A study in China by Hou and Zhang in 2020 is worth a mention as they worked with back sleepers and side sleepers of different ages. The younger and middle-aged people who slept on their back and side gave a ‘high evaluation’ of memory foam and latex mattresses. (‘The young and middle-aged subjects had high evaluation on memory foam, and latex mattress in supine and lateral position’).
They also found that slightly older people had a positive response to memory foam.
The oldest participants in the trial preferred the memory foam mattress for side sleeping. However, they preferred the ‘coir and cotton’ mattress for sleeping on their back (read the summary here).
How much memory foam is in the best memory foam mattress?
A key thing to look at within the specifications of a memory foam mattress is how much is actually made from memory foam. Generally, about 2cm – 10cm of the mattress will be memory foam. Other types of foam make up the rest of the mattress.
The Ergoflex 5G has a 9cm deep layer of memory foam, whereas the Silentnight 3 Zone Memory Foam Mattress has a 3cm layer.
The importance of not overheating in bed
Maintaining a regular temperature during the night is a key factor in determining how well we sleep. Bischof, Madsen et al studied this topic and published their findings in 1991. Their research paper was called ‘Sleep and the temperature field of the bed’. They found a ‘correlation between the quality of sleep and the variations of temperature’. They also said that ‘larger fluctuations of temperature in the bed are connected to a shorter deep-sleep time.’
Each of these mattresses offers an explanation of how it keeps you cool with its design and wizardry. It’s up to you to decide which convinces you.
Here are a couple of examples:
Nectar Sleep says its memory foam mattress has ‘nonstop air flow’ and a ‘dynamic support layer’ with ‘breathable foam’ that regulates your body temperature. It also has a ‘cooling cover’ that is ‘designed to draw heat away from your body’.
Meanwhile, the Emma Luxe Cooling Mattress has ‘ThermoSync, our thermoregulating technology’. The top cover has ‘open-pore fibres’ which ‘take and release air back to you, keeping you cool all night.’
Are memory foam mattresses good for your health?
There’s a bit of heated debate about what happens when you sleep on a foam mattress.
This was explored in an article by WebMD called ‘Is Your Mattress Releasing Toxins While You Sleep?’. It suggests that ‘your body heat might trigger the release of potentially harmful chemicals from your mattress.’ The article refers to a piece of research which was carried out by Dubowski, Sabach et al in 2019. It was titled ‘Volatile Organic Compound Emissions from Polyurethane Mattresses under Variable Environmental Conditions’.
The issue relates to volatile organic compounds (VOCs) which you have probably seen referred to on the side of a tin of paint.
According to the article, ‘Mattresses are known to release minute amounts of (these) gaseous chemicals’. It suggests that it is ‘mainly from the polyurethane used in the mattress’. According to Wikipedia, ‘Memory foam consists mainly of polyurethane as well as additional chemicals increasing its viscosity and density.’
The WebMD article later says that ‘Mattresses containing cotton, wool and natural latex will all produce lower levels of gases’.
We’ve got a guide to ‘natural mattresses’ and other guides about wool mattresses and latex mattresses if that’s what you’re after.
However, keep reading before you leap to a conclusion. The article notes that ‘The estimated doses of most VOCs remained well below the levels that could cause health effects’
What’s the best memory foam mattress for children?
One final thing from the article worth noting is that ‘Experts are generally more concerned about children’s exposure to VOCs’. It suggest that ‘even if these chemicals don’t do immediate harm, there is concern that exposure will increase their lifelong risk of cancer’.
Of course, health is a complicated thing and a big factor is how well you sleep each night.
On that note, a study worth mentioning explored the relationship between the type of mattress you use and the quality of your sleep. It was carried out in 1997 by Scharf, Stover et al and compared two mattresses. The first was an ‘experimental foam surface’ and the second was a ‘high quality innerspring hospital mattress’. An ‘innerspring’ mattress is the name for a sprung mattress in the USA.
If had the title of ‘Comparative Effects of Sleep on a Standard Mattress to an Experimental Foam Surface on Sleep Architecture and CAP Rates’.
The CAP mentioned in the title is something called the ‘cyclic alternating pattern’. These are patterns of how we behave in our sleep. According to the study, poor quality sleep is often linked to ‘elevated CAP rates’.
In this study researchers found that ‘CAP rates were significantly reduced on the foam surface’. That seems to be a victory for foam mattresses.
However, the study also found ‘no differences in sleep stages, number of wakes, or total sleep time’ between the two mattresses.
Is a memory foam mattress the best for allergies?
You may have read that memory foam mattresses are much better for people with allergies to dust mites.
I’d say that this issue is up for debate as a Norwegian study produced contrary results (Schei, Hessen and Lund, 2002).
Instead, they suggested that ‘A simple replacement of foam mattresses with spring mattresses may reduce the exposure to house‐dust‐mite allergens.’
Do memory foam mattresses and synthetic materials make you feel warm?
A common concern or issue raised with memory foam mattresses is that they make you feel too warm.
Several foam mattress manufacturers have offered solutions to this – as mentioned earlier.
Some academic research was carried out into this topic in Japanese in 2018 by Chiba, Yabi et al. The research compared what it called ‘high rebound mattress toppers’ with ‘low rebound mattress toppers’. To clarify, a memory foam mattress is considered ‘low rebound’ as it takes longer to return to its original shape than other materials.
A Tempur product was amongst those used in the study as an example of a low rebound product. A product which was a ‘polyethylene fiber-resin-based mattress topper’ by a company called Airweave was used as an example of a high rebound product. The toppers were put on top of standard mattresses and volunteers had their body temperatures checked throughout the night. I won’t go into the details of how they checked, but it doesn’t sound very comfortable.
The study found that amongst ‘young adult males’ body temperature was consistently lower with the ‘high rebound’ topper compared to the memory foam-type topper. At certain times of night, the difference between the two was less than 0.1°C. However, at around 2am, the difference peaked at about 0.3°C.
A similar study was carried out with older sleepers. It found less of a difference but that the ‘high rebound’ product was still slightly cooler.
Are natural materials better at keeping you cool in bed than the best memory foam mattress?
Meanwhile, another study was carried out in 2016 by Shin, Halaki et al called ‘The effects of fabric for sleepwear and bedding on sleep at ambient temperatures of 17°C and 22°C’. As astute readers will note, this was a study more about what we wear in bed and the bedding we use rather than mattress materials. I mention it as there some general principles about wool, cotton and synthetic materials which are worth exploring.
Their study took a group of 17 sleepers and tested how they responded to different materials whilst they slept. The sleepwear compared cotton v merino wool (both naturally breathable materials). The bedding comparison was between polyester (a synthetic material) and wool (a natural material). It focused on wool and the authors thanked the ‘Australian Wool Innovation Ltd (AWI) for financial support’ in carrying out the study.
A key result was that ‘Sleeping in wool sleepwear produced a significantly shorter Sleep Onset Latency than cotton’. In simpler terms, people wearing wool fell asleep quicker.
There were also ‘Marginally significant results…observed for an increased Total Sleep Time and Sleep Efficiency when sleeping in wool compared to cotton sleepwear’. So, people wearing wool slept for a bit longer and better. However, it wasn’t as noticeable a difference as the time it took to get to sleep.
The results when they compared polyester and synthetic bedding were quite different. They referenced a study by Ha, Tokura et al. It noted that ‘when comparing cotton to polyester fabric at a body temperature of 37°C and 60% relative humidity, a higher sweating rate was observed with polyester, since polyester is less hygroscopic than cotton.’
However, in their own study they noted ‘there was no bedding effect on sleep’ and that ‘no main effects were observed for bedding types’.
How popular are memory foam mattresses?
The National Bed Federation provides some reliable data on mattress sales in the UK. The NBF is a trade body of mattress manufacturers. The figures are a little out of date, but I reckon they are still useful.
In their annual report for 2022, the NBF says that 41% of mattresses sold in the UK have a top layer of memory foam.
Meanwhile a survey of members of the National Bed Federation’s members records that 82% of mattresses sold in the UK are sprung mattresses. Half of those were pocket sprung and half of them were open coil.
They said that 17% are either latex foam or polyurethane, which includes memory foam. They suggest that the big difference between those two figures may be ‘due to mattresses being miscategorised, i.e. classified by their comfort layer as opposed to their core’.
There is also evidence that memory foam mattresses have risen in popularity over the last few years.
The graph below shows how many people searched for the term ‘memory foam mattress’ on Google in the UK from 2004 to today. The data is relative to the number of people using Google. It isn’t just the case that more people are connected to the internet than there were in 2004.
Interest in the term ‘memory foam mattress’ saw a steady increase for several years from a very low level in 2004 up until about 2012. Since then, the figures have stayed around the same, albeit with fluctuations throughout the year.
