Best Mattresses for Sciatica for 2024
If you're struggling with sciatica, here are the best mattresses for you, researched and tested by CNET's resident sleep experts.
Our Experts
What to consider
Firmness
Sleeping position
Feel
Construction
Body type
Performance
Company policies
Our Picks
It's important to invest in a high-quality mattress, especially if you deal with sciatica pain. We spend roughly a third of our lives in bed, which means our mattresses can have a huge impact on our well-being. The best mattress for sciatica is generally a firmer mattress. However, picking the best bed for you can depend on a variety of factors, including your preferred sleeping position, pressure points, body heat and more.
Sciatica is an irritation of the sciatic nerve, affecting the back, legs and hips. Sciatica pain shoots through your whole body, which can affect your sleep quality. Most of the times it's caused by an irregularity of the spine. As such, you will want to make sure your spine is aligned properly when sleeping. To combat the sciatica pain you need the right mattress to support your pressure points. Your sciatica could get worse if you're sleeping on an old mattress or a mattress that doesn't work for your sleeping position and doesn't give you the right pressure relief. In a few cases, it could even cause sciatica.
Make sure you consult your doctor before making any big changes, as they might have more specific lifestyle recommendations for you to help with your sciatica pain.
Video: Best mattress for sciatica
Watch CNET sleep expert Owen Poole review the best mattresses for sciatica.
What is the best overall mattress for sciatica?
After testing hundreds of beds, we chose the Saatva Rx as the best mattress for sciatica. This mattress is specifically designed to help alleviate aches and pains associated with sciatica and other back issues. Its Therapeutic Support Core and Lumbar Zone provide enhanced support for your lower back and hips and pressure relief for your shoulders, promoting spinal alignment. The medium profile should also work for any sleeping position and body type.
Best mattresses for sciatica of 2024
Saatva Rx
Best overall mattress for sciatica
SCORE
Purple Restore
Best pressure-relieving mattress for sciatica
Nolah Evolution Comfort Plus
Best pillow top mattress for sciatica
Nectar Mattress
Best memory-foam mattress for sciatica
SCORE
Plank Firm Natural
Best flippable mattress for sciatica
SCORE
Leesa Legend
Best soft mattress for sciatica
SCORE
What to consider when buying a mattress for sciatica
Buying the best mattress to help with sciatica can be a challenge. Finding a bed that can provide the right pressure relief and help alleviate the pain, or at least not make the pain worse, will depend a lot on your specific sleeping preferences and body type. The overarching idea is to try to find a bed that will put minimal pressure on your lower back while still being supportive.
Firmness level
This will depend on how you like to sleep and finding a mattress to match. Side sleepers will generally want a softer mattress to provide enough pressure relief for shoulders and hips. If you have sciatica and you put lots of pressure on your hips, the pain can be made worse.
On the other hand, back and stomach sleepers generally want a firmer mattress to maintain spinal alignment and avoid the lower back and hips sinking below the legs, which can also be bad for sciatica.
Firmness is always subjective based on a person's body weight, so that is something to keep in mind when shopping for a mattress.
Zoned support
The best mattress for sciatica will offer zoned support. In general, these designs provide more support underneath a person's hips, which promotes spinal alignment. Maintaining proper spinal alignment can be a pathway to pain relief.
Trial period
For any mattress purchase meant to provide pressure relief and reduce pain like sciatica, taking full advantage of the in-home trial period provided by the brand is critical. If after the first 30 nights of the trial window, your pain levels haven't improved, it might be worth considering returning it and trying something else.
In our experience, returning a mattress is a pretty easy process, so don't be afraid to do it. The trial period is there for a reason.
How we tested the best mattresses for sciatica
Our team of experts has an extensive mattress testing process. You can read about it here.
For this particular list, we looked at multiple factors and paid special attention to any advanced features that provide targeted or zoned support.
Firmness and feel
Probably the two most important things we test for are a mattress' firmness rating and feel. The feel of a mattress depends on its construction, especially the top layers, although we don't always agree with what the brand says their bed feels like.
Feel doesn't really affect pain relief, so we tried to select a wide variety of feel types to have something for everyone, like dense memory foam, pillow tops and latex.
Firmness is much more important for pain relief, and again, we tried to have plenty of variety for any sleep style. Side sleepers who have sciatica and sleep on beds too firm for them can exacerbate the pain to varying degrees.
Support
A mattress that doesn't have enough support is a common culprit for all kinds of back pain and can make your sciatica worse. Zoned support designs are a nice feature to have to help with sciatica because they have targeted firmness zones that give you more support in the area where you need it most.
Hybrid constructions are also a general recommendation for anything related to pain because they typically maintain the same level of support for a longer period in comparison to beds that use foam as the support layer.
Other mattresses for sciatica we've tested
We have to make the cutoff for these lists somewhere, but here are a few other beds we considered for this list that didn't quite make the cut that I think are also solid options.
Layla/Layla Hybrid: Both versions of Layla have a flippable design, like the Plank Natural Firm. The soft side of both are medium-soft, so they'll be great options for side sleepers looking for a lot of pressure relief. The firm sides aren't overly firm, either -- slightly firmer than a medium -- so they will be fairly accommodating.
Saatva Classic: The Saatva Classic is one of our favorite hybrid beds. It comes in three different firmness options. It has a traditional innerspring pillow top feel that most find familiar and comfortable. It also has some additional lumbar support. It's a solid all-around option.
Winkbed GravityLux: This is an often-forgotten mattress because of the popularity of the flagship WinkBed, but it is a unique memory foam bed. It has a zoned support layer, which is a nice feature for pain relief, has three firmness options to choose from and it has a classic body-conforming memory foam feel. The biggest negative for this mattress is its price. Most foam beds are much more affordable than the GravityLux.
Best mattresses for sciatica FAQs
What is the best type of mattress for sciatica?
A mattress that provides a nice combination of support and pressure relief for your preferred sleeping position. A mattress with a zoned support construction can help accomplish this.
Will a new mattress cure my sciatica?
A new mattress isn't likely to cure sciatica on its own, but it can help alleviate the pain associated with sciatica and help you get more restorative sleep, which is key to overall health.
How do I return a mattress that doesn't help with my sciatica?
Returning a mattress is an easy process that's usually free. Some brands like Saatva, Tempur-Pedic and Nolah will charge a small fee of $99 to return or exchange a mattress. You simply contact the company, and it will refund your money and arrange for someone in your area to pick up the mattress for you. Brands do ask people to sleep on the bed for at least 30 nights before initiating a return.
What mattress firmness level will help with my sciatica?
In general, we would recommend a medium-firm mattress for those with sciatica, especially if you spend most of the night sleeping on your back. If you have sciatica and sleep primarily on your side, you'd want to opt for something a little softer, like a medium or maybe medium-soft.
Can sciatica be caused by a bad mattress?
While sciatica can't directly be caused by a bad mattress, a poor or old bed can exacerbate sciatica and symptoms.