Best Mattress for Teenagers: Buyer’s Guide

Amerisleep AS3 Overview

As Amerisleep’s most versatile mattress, the Amerisleep AS3 accommodates most sleeping positions. It spans the standard mattress size range and has three layers of high-quality foam.

Amerisleep offers a 100-night sleep trial, 20-year warranty, free shipping, and returns with every mattress.

Zoma Mattress Overview

The Zoma Mattress is designed for active individuals who need rejuvenating sleep. It’s cooling surface minimizes the chances of waking up sweating and overheated, perfect for active teenagers or those living in warmer climates.

Zoma offers a 100-night trial period and 10-year warranty, and the warranty covers up to an inch in sagging. The mattress comes with free shipping and returns, as well.

Vaya Mattress Overview

If you’re shopping on a budget for a mattress that’s suitable for a teen, we highly recommend the Vaya Mattress. The makers wanted a bed that delivers pure comfort at an affordable price and created a simple design that balances plushness with support.

Every Vaya Mattress includes a 100-night sleep trial and a 10-year warranty.

Zoma Hybrid Overview

Like the original Zoma Mattress, a Zoma Hybrid has restorative features that can help a teenager get a night of uninterrupted sleep.  A teenager has 100 nights to try out a Zoma Hybrid after the mattress arrives at your home. The hybrid also includes a 10-year warranty.

Nolah Natural 11 Overview

Many parents want to give their growing teenagers a natural surface to rest upon. Mattresses like the Nolah Natural 11 provides the comfort of latex and organic textiles with bouncy pocketed springs, maximizing comfort.

The Nolah Natural 11 ships free and comes with a 120-night sleep trial and a lifetime warranty. Parents who want to save can remove the sleep trial at checkout for an added discount.

Saatva Classic Overview

Teenagers who enjoy a responsive bounce as they stretch out on a bed may want to consider an innerspring mattress like the Saatva Classic. Innerspring mattresses have lost some of their luster in the eyes of shoppers, but beds like the Saatva Classic show that the design can still offer plenty of comfort when paired with innovative materials.

The Saatva Classic comes with a 365-night trial and a lifetime warranty.

Helix Midnight Overview

The Helix Midnight comes with a 10-year warranty and a 100-night trial period. Parents who want to treat their teenagers to a more luxurious model can also consider the thicker Helix Midnight Luxe, which offers the same medium feel with added targeted support.

Bear Hybrid Overview

The Bear Hybrid Mattress is a high-performance mattress intended for athletes— perfect for active teens. The medium-firm mattress offers support and pressure relief using five premium layers of CertiPUR-US® certified foams.

This Bear mattress comes with a 120-night sleep trial, along with a lifetime warranty.

Tuft & Needle Hybrid Overview

The Tuft & Needle Hybrid Mattress combines contouring foam comfort layers with innerspring underlayers to foster the right support for your growing teenager. This can give it a luxurious feel that won’t break the average parents’ budget.

Tuft & Needle offers free shipping, a 10-year warranty against manufacturer defects and offer a 100-night sleep trial.

Purple® Mattress Overview

Purple® is well-known for their unique comfort material, an alternative to more traditional latex and memory foams. Their original model uses innovative, pressure-relieving technology that eliminates motion transfer and maximizes airflow. While they offer a range of other mattresses, their Purple® mattress remains an excellent option for parents who want to provide a simple yet flexible mattress.

Purple® offers free shipping and returns, a 100-night sleep trial, and a 10-year limited warranty against manufacturer defects.

Sleep Considerations for Teenagers

Sleep experts state adolescents need between 9 and 10 hours of sleep every single day due to their changing bodies. Half of the American teenagers get two sleep hours less than they need because of physiological and physical changes, school, and social schedules.

See also How Much Sleep Do Kids and Babies Need?

Physiological and Body Changes

Teenagers’ bodies are growing rapidly, resulting in growing pains; however, physical changes aren’t the only changes a teenager endures. Turns out, their circadian rhythm also changes.

The circadian rhythm is the physiological clock that regulates our physical and behavioral routines in a 24-hour period. It dictates when we get hungry, get tired, and wake up. Puberty can cause a change in the circadian rhythm and limit the sleep an individual can get. It can also cause daytime sleepiness during certain times of the day, resulting in extensive napping.

School and Sleep Schedule Conflicts

It’s a well-known fact— teenagers stay up later, which conflicts with American school systems. American schools start between 7 and 7:30 am, requiring teenagers to rise early and prepare for the day. A teenager’s high school sleep habits aren’t always where they should be.

On top of the skewed schedules, middle and high schoolers have to study and finish homework, and many participate in after school activities and clubs, sports, social activities, and jobs, which can keep them up late, causing undue stress and poor sleep habits.

Important Mattress Features for Teenagers

If you’re shopping for a new mattress for your teenager, we encourage you to include them in the process. It will give your teen the chance to express their sleep needs, such as firmness preferences, sleep position, and temperature needs.

Mattress Size and Thickness

If your teenager is over 6 feet tall, a twin mattress won’t have enough length to accommodate their height. If your teen still has some growing to do, you might consider getting a larger bed. This way, your teenager can use the bed in adulthood.

You’ll want to consider your teenager’s bedroom before deciding on mattress size:

• If your child exercises in their bedroom or moves around a lot, you’ll what to stick to a twin or twin XL mattress.
• But if your teen sleeps with a pet or tends to toss and turn, you might consider a full or a queen mattress.

We discuss potential standard mattress sizes for your teenager in another section below.

Mattress thickness is another important consideration. While younger children can sleep comfortably on thinner mattresses, we recommend you shop for a teenager’s mattress as you would an adult’s and look for a mattress at least 10 inches thick. Mattresses that are this thick tend to provide years of comfortable, supportive sleep.

Support

First off, support is a term describing the mattress’s ability to remain flat while bearing weight. Sleeping on a flat surface encourages spinal alignment, although your sleeping style and preferences may influence the type of support you need.

For instance, side sleepers don’t need as much support as a stomach sleeper. Side sleepers need to sink into the mattress to maintain balance on their sides; meanwhile, stomach sleepers are susceptible to muscular and skeletal pain when they sink too far into a mattress.

Conformability

Since teenagers are susceptible to growing pains, a conforming mattress is instrumental in alleviating those aches and any pressure points. A mattress’s contouring abilities will align the shoulders and pelvis with the spine, improving sleep quality.

Memory foam and latex mattresses have resilient foams, which contour closely to your teen’s body for unmatched pain relief.

Motion Isolation

If your teenager shares their bed or is a restless sleeper, their bed may need motion isolation properties. Since motion transfers in waves, motion can rebound on a restless sleeper and disrupt sleep.

Memory foam and latex mattresses absorb motion on impact. Hybrid mattresses have good motion isolation, as well; however, their innerspring core decreases their ability to isolate motion transfer as well as memory foam.

Budget

You can get a budget mattress as cheap as $100; however, we highly suggest a budget of $800 to $2000 for a high-quality bed. Memory foam and innerspring mattresses with sleep-promoting technologies are found in this price range. You can also find hybrid and latex mattresses at this price point, although they are closer to $2000 because of their natural materials and many layers.

You can usually find affordable, top-rated mattresses by shopping with online or mattress in a box brands. These brands cut costs by eliminating the middle man and selling their products direct-to-consumer.

Oftentimes they offer free shipping and free returns as well since you can’t try their beds in store. These mail order mattresses let you do all the shopping from the comfort of your couch or kitchen table, saving you the trouble of leaving your home.

So if you’re like most shoppers— looking for a high-quality mattress at an affordable price— we recommend trying your luck with an online mattress before heading to a traditional mattress retailer.

Sleep Trial and Warranty

Every good mattress company offers some sort of warranty and sleep trial, but we suggest shopping with a brand offering at least a 100-night sleep trial and a 10-year warranty.

A sleep trial gives the customer the chance to try the mattress in their home before committing to the purchase. Make sure the trial is risk-free. If the company charges for restocking, shipping, or donation fees in the case of a return, you may consider going with another brand as there are plenty of companies who offer those services for free.

A warranty protects the customer’s investment. Since a well-maintained mattress can last up to 10 years, we suggest searching for a warranty lasting 10 years. Make sure to read through the warranty’s details. Warranties should offer a replacement or repair in the case of indentations and sagging, foam cracking and splitting, and other manufacturing defects not caused by misuse.

Sleeping Position and Firmness

Deciding how firm the next mattress for a teenager should be isn’t necessarily a matter of their personal preference. Your teenager’s chosen sleeping position is actually the biggest indicator of how firm the bed should be. Different firmness levels conform to the body more readily, while others are less responsive for more support.

Side sleeping is the most common sleeping position. It puts extra pressure on the shoulders and hips, which can cause pain and joint soreness. We recommend medium to soft mattresses for side sleepers, as they support the torso area, cradle the shoulders and hip bones, and alleviate pressure points.

A memory foam or latex mattress with a medium to medium-plush firmness will offer proper support and conformability to side sleepers.

Back sleeping naturally aligns the spine. A medium to firm mattress will contour to the sleeper’s back to relieve pressure without causing the hips and shoulders to bow. The best mattresses for back sleepers are memory foam, latex, or hybrids, as traditional innersprings may feel too firm.

Stomach sleeping places immense stress on the lower back leading to back and neck pain. If you sleep on your stomach, you need a firm mattress to keep your torso lifted and prevent pains. The right mattresses for stomach sleepers buoy the body to keep owners comfortable.

Mattress Types for Teenagers

The mattress material you choose will largely depend on your preference. While it’s a given that the best mattresses offer great support, some types of mattresses are more supportive than others.

Innerspring

Innerspring mattresses are made from coil system core and thin layers of cotton, wool, or polyester comforters or pillow tops. These mattresses are naturally cooling and cultivate firm support. They are best for heavy sleepers as the springs will push back to promote spinal alignment.

Our innerspring mattress buying guide can offer parents all the need-to-know details.

Memory Foam

Memory foam mattresses are made of layers of foam. They promote spinal alignment and relieve pain through their contouring abilities. Modern open-cell and plant-based memory foam are much more breathable than traditional memory foam and often have copper, graphite, and gel infusions, which pull heat from the sleeper.

We have a guide to memory foam mattresses for kids for parents with younger children seeking a bed that can last into their teen years.

Latex

Latex mattresses are some of the most eco-friendly mattresses on the market, but they can be made in several different ways.

Natural latex is made from rubber tree sap, making it antimicrobial and biodegradable. There are two types of natural latex, Talalay and Dunlop. Using the Dunlop manufacturing process, latex is dense and firm; meanwhile, Talalay latex is bouncier, lighter, and more breathable. Out of the two manufacturing processes, Talalay latex is the most expensive.

Natural latex can make up some of the most durable mattresses on the market. However, the material’s production expense can keep it out of reach of budget shoppers.

Synthetic latex is produced through chemicals to mimic latex properties. It isn’t antimicrobial or biodegradable, although it is a great alternative for those who want the supportive and contouring qualities of latex materials in a hypoallergenic mattress but are allergic to latex.

Blended latex is a mixture of synthetic and natural latex. It contains some of the antimicrobial and hypoallergenic qualities of 100% natural latex, and some beds will have a CertiPUR-US® certification. If a blended latex mattress does not have this certification, it may contain harmful additives.

We have a latex mattress buying guide for interested shoppers.

Hybrid

Hybrid mattresses are made of coils and memory foam or latex comfort layers. Together, the spring and foam layers create a balanced between comfortability, supportiveness, and motion isolation. Look for comfort layers with infusions or air passages to reduce heat retention.

Parents who want to learn more about this mattress type should read through our hybrid mattress buying guide.

Mattress Sizes for Teenagers

Some parents may debate what the best mattress size for their teenager is. Room size and budget are two ways to determine what works for your needs, along with the sleeping space your teenager requires for comfortable rest.

Parents with more than one child may want to consider bunk bed mattress sizes, too.

Twin

Twin size mattresses are the smallest standard bed we would recommend for teenager, measuring 38 inches by 74 or 75 inches. While they can be a good choice for smaller bedrooms, many teens over 6 feet tall will find a twin bed cramped and uncomfortable.

Twin XL

Twin XL size mattresses are typically a better choice for a growing teen than a traditional twin bed, with 38 inches of width and 80 inches of length. A twin XL mattress can give teens plenty of legroom without taking up room space.

Full

Full size mattresses are excellent for teens who want more sprawling space than what a twin mattress provides. With 16 inches of added width, measuring 54 inches by 75 inches, teens can easily spread out starfish-style. The extra space can also make the bed a great lounging space during the day when they have friends over and such.

See also our twin vs full size mattress guide.

Queen

Likely the largest size you’ll consider for your teen is a queen size mattress, measuring 60 inches and 80 inches. It’s only a little wider than a queen and is 5 inches longer, so it can be a better way to accommodate a teenager’s final growth spurt.

Some teens may even want to bring their queen mattress with them when they leave home, if parents want to plan ahead for a young adult’s needs. So it can pay to plan ahead and choose one of the most comfortable mattresses to maximize the value of a queen bed.

Saving on a Mattress for Teenagers

Parents can save on a new mattress for teenagers by buying during one of the year’s big mattress sales:

• MLK Day Mattress Sales
• Sleep Awareness Week Mattress Sales
• Presidents Day Mattress Sales
• Memorial Day Mattress Sales
• 4th of July Mattress Sales
• Labor Day Mattress Sales
• Columbus Day Mattress Sales
• Black Friday Mattress Sales
• Cyber Monday Mattress Sales

FAQs

Do pillows matter?

Your teen’s pillow also makes a difference in sleep quality. A supportive pillow should keep the head in a neutral position to prevent shoulder and neck pain.

For back sleepers, a medium-firm pillow with medium loft will support the head and neck while keeping the head from tipping to one side. The pillow shouldn’t push the chin toward the chest or cause a stiff or achy body. Place a pillow under the knees to create a slight bend to take pressure off the lower back.

Side sleepers need a firmer pillow with varied lofts, so the neck is supported as well as the head.

Stomach sleepers will need a very thin pillow that doesn’t force them to arch their necks as it will enhance back strain. Stomach sleepers will benefit from putting a small pillow under their pelvis to facilitate proper spinal alignment.

Is a memory foam mattress good for teenagers?

Yes. Memory foam mattresses are conforming and long-lasting. Memory foam will contour to their bodies, so they get personalized support and pressure relief as they grow. Supportive foams are also overall less likely to sag than coils if parents take care to choose a high-quality mattress.

What is the best mattress for a 12-year-old?

We recommend including your 12-year-old in the shopping process to learn their preferences and needs. Kids at any age, especially athletic kids, are susceptible to aches and pains. The best bed for them is firm, supportive, and contouring. Memory foam and latex are excellent comfort materials that hug the bodies yet maintain a healthy spine alignment.

What if my teen is moving out soon?

If your teen is planning on moving out soon, you might consider a potential second use for the mattress, such as a mattress for a guest bedroom. In this case, consider shopping for a full size or queen size bed. This way, your teen can have a comfortable mattress, and your future guests can reap the benefits.

What bed size should a teenager have?

It’s a smart idea to give your teenager a twin XL mattress. This size fits in most bedrooms and can accommodate a teenager’s growth spurt. Some teenagers might find a twin bed feels too small as they grow taller.

Conclusion

Ask for your child’s input as you make mattress selections and keep in mind what will work best for their bedroom, social life, and sleeping style. Considering the right materials, bed size, and firmness is a great place to start. These factors, along with our recommendations for the best mattress for kids and teens, will help you choose the best mattress for your teenager.