Best Mattress for Teenagers

While sleep is necessary for everyone, it has heightened importance for teenagers. Consistent and high-quality sleep promotes brain function, school performance, physical health, mood, and effective decision-making.

Having the right mattress equates to more comfort, better support, and one less barrier to a healthy sleep routine. Figuring out which mattress is right for your teen can be tricky, though, since they may not be excited to spend their free time mattress shopping with their parents.

Thankfully, there are numerous excellent options online that are well-built, affordable, and have a flexible return policy. Our guide introduces the best mattresses for teenagers and explains the essential things to know about and look for when shopping for a teenager’s new bed.

Dive Deeper – In-Depth Mattress Guides

If you’re still not sure which type of mattress would suit your teenager best, you can read through our list of recommendations sorted by types of sleepers.

How to Choose a Mattress for Teenagers

Buying a mattress for anyone can be tricky, but given the sometimes unique needs and opinions of teenagers, it can be tougher in their case. Knowing how to choose wisely can make your buying process faster and smoother.

What to Look for in a Mattress

When shopping for a mattress, you’ll probably come across an abundance of mattress terminology and marketing promotions. While it’s easy to be drawn in, you’re most likely to be happy with your purchase if you focus on the nuts-and-bolts of the mattress.

These factors are the most essential to look for, and thinking about which matter the most to you lets you shrink your options and clarify which brand and model is the best match for you.

• Price: Any responsible purchase has to fall within your budget. While careful budgeting can limit your options, the plus side is that it simplifies your shopping process. Keep in mind, too, that promotions and discounts are frequent and that you should virtually never pay the sticker price for a mattress.
• Quality Materials: No matter the age of the person who you’re buying a mattress for, it makes sense to invest in top-flight materials. For any type of mattress, quality materials mean that it will perform at a higher level and be more likely to stand the test of time.
• Firmness Level: It’s critical to make sure that a mattress feels right, and more than anything, that has to do with firmness. A teenager’s personal preference, sleeping position, and body weight can all affect their ideal firmness level. For most teens, a feel of Medium Soft (4) to Medium Firm (6) is the best bet.
• Pressure Relief: Everyone’s body has areas that are prone to strain and pain. Often these are areas with more impact on the bed, such as around the neck, shoulders, hips, and lower back. A mattress that can relieve pressure softens the impact at pain points and encourages healthy spinal alignment.
• Edge Support: It can be hard to sleep on a mattress that feels weak or unstable around the edge. The problem can be even worse when sitting near the edge. Hybrid and latex beds tend to offer the best edge-to-edge sturdiness because they generally don’t compress as deeply as an all-foam bed.
• Contouring: Mattresses that hug the sleeper by compressing to suit the body’s weight are said to have high levels of contouring. For people with sharp pressure points, contouring can be a major bonus, but for others, it can be overkill and may lead to feeling like they are stuck in place on the mattress.
• Temperature Regulation: A mattress that causes heat to build up around the body can lead to waking up in a serious sweat, and the problem is usually worse for teens who already tend to sleep hot. Beds with breathable materials that permit airflow and resist heat retention — including most latex and hybrid beds — can reduce the risk of overheating.
• Ease of Movement: If you want to turn over, adjust your posture, or get out of bed, you’ll find it to be far simpler on a bed that has bounce. This responsiveness of the mattress keeps you from feeling stuck and is particularly important to combination sleepers. While many mattresses have some bounce, latex and hybrid beds have a reputation for providing the highest levels of responsiveness.
• Mattress Type: The way a mattress is built determines its type. There’s no overall best type; instead, each has pros and cons. If you can clearly identify one mattress type that most aligns with your preferences, it makes it far easier to narrow down your options and simplifies your shopping.

What Type of Mattress is Best for Teenagers?

Mattress types are a way of sorting different beds based on how their interior layers are constructed. There are five main types of mattresses, each of which has a typical profile with certain benefits and downsides.

Knowing these profiles can be a handy step in selecting a mattress, but at the same time, not all mattresses of one type will be the same. Depending on their specific construction, some may closely fit the profile while others may diverge in meaningful ways.

Hybrid

Definition: A hybrid’s two interior components are a coil-based support core and a well-developed comfort system. The comfort system frequently includes more than one layer and can include micro-coils, latex, polyfoam, memory foam, cotton, and/or wool.

Dependable and Balanced: The driving concept behind a hybrid is to capitalize on the benefits of different materials being used together. The innerspring core provides a degree of reliability and edge support for teens while the comfort layers can amp up pressure relief and spinal support.

Innerspring

Definition: The coil-based core of an innerspring is its primary and in many cases only layer. There is very little or no comfort system above the coils in a true innerspring. In most cases, there is just a cover of cotton or polyester and perhaps a thin layer of fabric batting or polyfoam.

Low-Cost With Upgrade Options: Some people shopping for a mattress for a teenager may be on a limited budget or hesitant to invest in a bed when a teen’s preferences or needs may change. While innersprings lack in pressure relief, they are a good cheap mattress option, and mattress toppers provide a low-cost, low-commitment way to change up their feel.

Latex

Definition: When all of the interior construction is with latex, the bed is known as a latex or all-latex mattress. Latex layers of different types or firmness levels are often used to help separate the comfort system and support core. Latex can be synthetic or natural, but natural formulations are more common in mattresses.

Winning Combination of Bounce and Contouring: Latex is well-known for having a bouncy feel that keeps sleepers from feeling stuck or trapped in one position. In addition, it has light conforming abilities, creating a compelling mix of performance features that can bring support and comfort to teenage sleepers.

Airbed

Definition: In an airbed, the central support system is one or more air chambers. As air is added or removed from the chamber(s), the bed gets harder or softer. Layers above this air-based support core can include foam, latex, and/or soft fabrics like cotton and wool.

Precision Firmness Control: For people who want to perfectly dial-in the firmness feel of their mattress, there’s no better option than an airbed. That said, these tend to be expensive and are less commonly purchased for teens.

Foam

Definition: A popular type of bed, foam mattresses have a polyfoam support core and a comfort system made with one or more layers of memory foam, polyfoam, latex, and/or soft fabrics.

Cushioning at Value Prices: One reason why foam beds are popular is their deep contouring and ability to cushion pressure points. Another reason is that they are often affordably priced, making excellent values available among foam mattress models sold online.

How Does Age Affect Sleep?

It’s hard to overstate the importance of sleep for teenagers. Even though sleep is vital at any age, it becomes even more impactful for teens because of their dynamic brain and body development.

Numerous research studies have linked quality sleep in teens to better brain function including attention, memory, and mental processing. Not surprisingly, good sleep has been directly tied to better grades, test scores, and academic performance. Sleep also helps empower the parts of the brain involved in sound decision-making, which means sleep-deprived teens may be more likely to make risky decisions. That can be especially dangerous given that many teens are just starting to spend significant time driving.

Sleep is central to the body’s mechanisms for physical growth and recovery. It supports the immune system, muscle development, tissue recovery, and helps maintain a healthy weight. For teens involved in athletics, sleeping well may help improve sports performance and reduce injury risks.

Mood and emotional health are also directly impacted by sleep. Sleeping problems can contribute to or exacerbate issues like depression and anxiety, or they may lead to irritability that creates problems at home or in school.

Unfortunately, many teens fail to get enough sleep. During the teenage years, the body’s circadian rhythm, which helps control when we feel alert or tired, gets pushed back, which is why teens usually have more of a “night owl” schedule. At the same time, schools in many places still start early in the morning, making it harder for teens to get a full night’s sleep.

Pressures to meet demands for school, extracurricular activities, or social life can cause teens to sacrifice sleep. Increased use of mobile phones, tablets, laptops, and video games can stimulate the brain and suppress melatonin, the natural hormone that encourages timely sleep.

All of these factors work against teens who want to sleep well. While some of these factors, such as school start times, may be hard to change, teenagers can benefit by controlling their bedroom environment to make the most of the hours they have available each night to sleep.

Picking a mattress that is comfortable and supports the body can be a major contributor to consistent sleep. A great mattress eliminates a potential barrier to resting well and makes the idea of bedtime more inviting and appealing.

Last Things to Consider with a Mattress for Teenagers

Although we’ve covered the foundational information about shopping for finding the top mattresses for teenagers, there are a few remaining items to cover that are worth examining as part of your buying process.

Which Mattress Firmness is Best for Teenagers?

The most popular mattress firmness levels for teenagers is a range from medium soft (4) to medium firm (6). That said, any teen’s ideal firmness will depend primarily on three factors:

• Their personal preference. Some people are naturally more comfortable on a bed with a harder or softer feel.
• Their sleeping position. Side sleepers usually need more softness to accommodate their shoulders and hips. Back and stomach sleepers tend to do better with firmer options that don’t cause their midsection to sink as far into the bed.
• Their body weight. The less a person weighs, the less likely that they will push far enough into a mattress to experience its softness and conforming qualities. For this reason, people under 130 pounds often opt for plusher beds. On the flip side, teens over 230 pounds may feel that they are pushing too far into a softer bed and thus get better results with something that is a bit firmer.

Which Size Mattress Should I Buy For a Teenager?

A full mattress frequently is ideal for teens because it offers plenty of space to stretch out but doesn’t feel overly spacious for one person. If a bedroom is smaller and can’t fit a full, most teens can sleep comfortably on a twin mattress or a twin XL if they are taller. It’s rare that a teenager needs a mattress larger than a full.

How Can I Get Relief On a Budget?

Finding relief for sleeping problems or morning aches and pains doesn’t have to bust your budget. Direct-to-consumer mattresses sold online are often less expensive, since the manufacturer isn’t paying for showrooms and additional staff. These “mattress in a box” models are comparable to those sold in brick-and-mortar stores in terms of construction and performance. When shopping for a new mattress online, there are great values to be found and plenty of coupons and promotions to help score a discounted price.

If buying a whole new mattress isn’t in the budget, it may be possible to get temporary relief from a mattress topper that can adjust the comfort feel, contouring, and/or bounce relative to your existing mattress.

How Much of an Investment Do I Need to Make?

To get a quality mattress, you’ll usually need to spend at least a few hundred dollars. No-frills models don’t offer fancy features, but they can provide teens with a reliable and usable sleeping surface. Spending a bit more, though, can mean getting a mattress that will last longer and provide a step up in performance, which, given the importance of sleep, is frequently a worthwhile investment.

Pillows and Bedding

The mattress is the biggest part of the bed, but that doesn’t mean it’s the only one that matters. Finding pillows, sheets, and blankets that have the right fit, feel, and look can contribute significantly to comfort and make your bed feel more inviting when bedtime rolls around.

Mattress Warranty and Other Policies

A warranty offers a level of purchase protection when you buy a mattress. These warranties cover unforeseen defects in materials or manufacturing, but they don’t cover accidental damage from things like spills or jumping on the bed. They also don’t cover expected damage from wear-and-tear such as minor sagging over time.

If a mattress is truly defective, the warranty provides for repair or replacement. In a non-prorated warranty, you get the same coverage regardless of how long you’ve had the bed. In a prorated warranty, you pay an increasing share of the repair or replacement costs based on the amount of time you’ve owned it.

For the best coverage, look for a warranty that is non-prorated, lasts for at least ten years, and does not require the customer to pay for shipping fees.

Improving Sleep Hygiene

Picking out a quality mattress can be a big step for teens who want to get better sleep. To get the biggest benefits, though, teens should also focus on sleep hygiene.

Sleep hygiene includes all the routines that influence sleep and all of the components of the bedroom environment. Taking steps to improve sleep hygiene, such as limiting the use of electronics before bed, setting a consistent sleep schedule, and avoiding caffeine, can go a long way to sleeping well, night in and night out.