Best Firm Mattresses of 2023
If you prefer your bed more stiff than fluffy, you might find your dreamiest sleep with these highly rated mattresses.
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A mattress’s firmness level can be one of its most important qualities in helping you fall asleep—but like so many other mattress features, it can be tough to gauge without testing it in person. But firmness levels are subjective, and one person’s definition of a “really firm” mattress is another’s “not firm enough.” What’s more, manufacturer’s labels aren’t helpful either—after all, a mattress maker’s "firm" can vary as much as a clothing designer’s "size 8."
That’s why we measure firmness by applying a load to the mattress that gradually increases to 1000 newtons, or 225 pounds. While that load is increasing, we plot the curve of the mattress’ deflection. The deflection at key points on this curve are then analyzed to determine a value that we then present on a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being the firmest.
To see all of CR’s sleep coverage, go to our Guide to Better Sleep.
How We Picked the Best Firm Mattresses
To highlight the firmest mattresses, we started by poring over our most highly rated models and then filtered for those with a firmness score of 7 or higher. That means in addition to having a stiffer feel, these mattresses offer the features that you’d want in a quality mattress in general, such as support and durability.
We also looked at mattress brand comfort ratings for each mattress type (innerspring, foam, and adjustable air). These are based on members’ assessments of their mattresses’ comfort on a scale from excellent to very poor. Higher ratings indicate better comfort. Our brand owner satisfaction ratings are based on members’ feelings of overall satisfaction with their mattresses on a scale from completely satisfied to completely dissatisfied. Results for both are gathered from Consumer Reports’ 2020, 2021, and 2022 Winter Surveys on nearly 67,000 mattresses purchased by CR members between 2012 and 2022.
Best Firm Mattresses
These highly rated mattresses all have a score of 7 out of 10 on our firmness scale. Some of the mattresses we tested are even firmer, but they didn’t rate as highly overall.
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