Best Mattress for Adjustable Beds in 2024

CNET editors have tested a number of mattresses. Their experience enables them to curate best mattress lists like this one and pick the beds that stand out from the rest. While the beds above are great options, there are a few more beds tested by editors that could be up for consideration.

Casper mattress: The Casper mattress gets partial credit for bringing bed-in-a-box mattresses to the mainstream, and it's arguably one of the biggest brands in the online market. So much so, you can now find this mattress in popular retail stores like Target or Costco. It's an affordable all-foam mattress with a neutral, responsive feel unlike memory foam. It also has a zoned-support design that provides targeted support to the back and pressure relief to the hips and shoulders. It's rated around a 5 or medium on the firmness scale, making it ideal for just about any sleeping position. 

Brooklyn Bedding Signature: This is a pretty basic hybrid mattress, but it has a quality design with a surprisingly low price tag for a bed with coils. It's one of my top favorite brands because it manufacture its own beds, a feat most other mattress brands don't do. This allows them to sell their beds for the low. This bed is offered in three different firmness levels from soft to firm, so it's suitable for all sleeping positions from side, back, stomach and combo. Its hybrid design also makes it suitable for any body type. 

Amerisleep mattress: This is a memory foam bed similar to the Nectar mattress because it's made with foam materials and has a dense, slow-responding feel. Though, with Amerisleep, it comes in five different firmness levels. The softer the mattress, though, the more you're going to have to pay. A huge plus about this line of beds is they all come with removable, machine washable covers. A lot of mattress covers require spot cleaning, so this makes removing stains a lot easier. 

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Firmness: Using our experience of testing over 100 different beds, we analyze how firm or soft a bed feels in comparison to other beds. We use a one through 10 scale with 10 being the firmest. 

Feel: We get physical with the mattress and see what the material feels like. This is different from firmness. Depending on the foam and materials of a mattress, we see if the bed is bouncy, slow-responding, pressure-relieving or plush and fluffy. 

Durability: It's difficult to tell exactly how long each bed will last because we don't test it for years on end. However, we are able to hypothesize a bed's firmness by looking at its construction. Hybrid or innerspring beds are more durable and last longer than foam mattresses. 

Best body type: Based on a person's body weight, we determine how accommodating a mattress is. We use different size sleepers to test the beds, and focus heavily on a bed's construction. 

Best sleeping position: Using different sleepers, we test the mattress in each sleeping position: side, back and stomach. 

Motion isolation: We use two people to test how well motion transfer across the bed is deadened, or place a glass of water at the edge of the bed to see how much it moves if we bounce around. 

Edge support: We analyze construction and physically lay on the sides of the mattress to get a gauge on how supportive it feels. 

Temperature: Instead of getting fancy, we rely on our own experience sleeping on the bed and a temperature gun. We are able to tell if a bed is cooling, breathable or hot by sleeping on it for a few nights. 

Smell: Mattresses in a box emit a smell once they're unpackaged like a new car does. Don't worry, it won't stick around. The smell will go away after 24 to 48 hours. However, some beds emit less of an odor than others.

Read more on how we test mattresses.

Here are the key things you want to remember before buying a new bed for your adjustable base. 

Flexibility: You want a flexible mattress that can bend without being damaged. Most bed-in-a-box and online mattresses fit the bill because they have supple foam and springs that move independently from one another. Older innerspring mattresses, however, have innersprings that move as one unit, which may not be as ideal for an adjustable bed frame.

No box spring: This also has to do with how flexible your mattress materials are. Box springs are not bendy or ductile, so I advise you don't use a box frame with your adjustable base. The good news is that most modern mattresses, especially bed-in-a-box and online beds, don't require a box spring.