Foam Mattress with best Edge support

We are getting new mattress and I am really drawn to a foam mattress. I have spent hours researching and probably at least an 2 hours on this website. We have also casually browsed in a mattress store. My main concern is the edge support of the mattress. we find ourselves sitting on the edge and we have kids who someone end up in the bed during the night (they are quiet ninjas at night) so sometimes we are sleeping near the edge of the bed. Forgetting all of the other factors for a moment, what foam mattresses have the best edge support? Also we are not heavy people, I am 180lbs and my wife is about 120lbs. Our price range is in the “bed in a box” range but could be a little flexible for the right bed.

Any recommendations?

Thanks

Spencer

Hi sblunden,

While I can certainly help with “how” to choose … I don’t make specific suggestions or recommendations for either a mattress, manufacturers/retailers, or combinations of materials or components because the first “rule” of mattress shopping is to always remember that you are the only one that can feel what you feel on a mattress and there are too many unknowns, variables, and personal preferences involved that are unique to each person to use a formula or for anyone to be able to predict or make a specific suggestion or recommendation about which mattress or combination of materials and components or which type of mattress would be the best “match” for you in terms of “comfort” or PPP (Posture and alignment, Pressure relief, and your Personal preferences) or how a mattress will “feel” to you or compare to another mattress based on specs (either yours or a mattress), sleeping positions, health conditions, or “theory at a distance” that can possibly be more accurate than your own careful testing (hopefully using the testing guidelines in step 4 of the tutorial) or your own personal sleeping experience (see mattress firmness/comfort levels in post #2 here).

For the most part … foam mattresses (memory foam, polyfoam, or latex foam) don’t have or really need edge support if it has a suitable design and firmness in the comfort and support layers but there are always exceptions to every rule based on individual factors and preferences such as whether you sleep with most of your weight concentrated on the very outside edge of the mattress or if you often sit with most of your weight concentrated on the outside few inches of the mattress.

There is more about edge support with foam mattresses in post #33 here and post #3 here but your own careful testing and personal experience is really the only way to know whether a specific mattress will be “good enough” in terms of edge support along with all the other needs and preferences that you can “feel” when you sleep on a mattress. Mattresses aren’t designed for sitting and edge support is designed more to prevent “roll off” for those that sleep on the outside edge or their mattress but if you often sit on the very outside edge of your mattress then it may just be a matter of getting used to sitting a little more towards the middle of the mattress so your body weight is spread out over a larger surface area and you don’t sink in quite as deeply.

I don’t have a list of all the foam mattresses that have edge support but a few examples that come to mind off the top of my head (although it certainly isn’t a complete list) are here and some of the Christeli mattresses here and here and some of the Sleep Science mattresses here.

I have never compared any of them in person so I don’t know which one I would consider to be “best for me” in terms of edge support but regardless of any specific person’s experience … different people with different body types or sleeping styles may have very different opinions about which of them they would consider to have the “best” edge support as well (both for sitting and sleeping) so the only way to know which of them you would consider to have the “best” edge support or whether any mattress would be “good enough” in terms of edge support would be based on your own personal experience and comparisons.

Phoenix