The right mattress firmness is the most important of the fundamental conditions. If you are trying to understand the firmness required for a mattress based on body weight and materials, this page is for you. We will explore the relationship between springs, memory foam, advanced foams, and support, as well as the most commonly used firmness scales.
From SOFT support to MEDIUM, and up to the firmer FIRM options, including medium-FIRM, supportive, and welcoming mattresses.
The Mattress Firmness Scale
Every website uses a different firmness scale as an evaluation tool to highlight differences in firmness between the mattresses offered and help guide your choice. Mattresses are often made of multiple layers, which is what makes it most difficult to create a scale that works for all mattresses. Therefore, it should be considered a guide for choosing between models, but not as the sole criterion.
Firmness from 1 to 10
The scale from 1 to 10, where 1 is a feather and 10 is an iron anvil, makes it clear that the values at the extremes are more ideal than real. Firmness 1 does not exist, but the firmness 10 mattress has been made and is still marketed:
Soft Firmness from 1 to 3
Considering that 1 and 2 are firmness levels too inconsistent to exist, the first level on the adult mattress firmness scale is 3, which corresponds to an extremely soft mattress suitable for side sleepers or those weighing up to 40 kilograms. In the latter case, I recommend a flexible slatted base; for higher body weights, a rigid base with a double beam supporting the slats is better. Generally, it is not purchased for couples, because it is difficult for a double mattress that is so soft to meet the tastes and needs of two people.
Firmness 3 Mattress: Dorelan Nuvola
The Nuvola mattress is a mattress with a single layer of Myform Extension foam, not memory foam, but a polyurethane material with enveloping comfort, recommended for pre-adolescents.
Firmness 4
Still in the soft mattress range, firmness 4 is always recommended for weights up to 55/60 kg, primarily for side sleepers. It is not necessarily yielding, but still quite enveloping.
Firmness 4 Mattress: Ennerev Feeling 5
A pocket-sprung and memory foam mattress with pleasant support, suitable for side sleeping or generally if you need a welcoming mattress.
Medium-Firmness Mattresses
Firmness 5
The firmness 5 mattress is the quintessential medium support, certainly satisfying the needs of many people. It is the dividing line between soft and firm mattresses, but you should still consider it a mattress with comfortable support that is not suitable for those seeking pronounced firmness. A medium-support mattress on the scale of 5 or H3 is suitable for those who sleep in all positions, but only for weights up to 55 kg when sleeping prone (face down).
Firmness 5 Mattress: Memory Air Tech
A firmness 5 memory mattress, comfortable and enveloping, but without yielding.
Go to the page for MEDIUM-SUPPORT mattresses
Firmness 6
Firmness 6 is the most suitable for a mattress, meeting the needs of most people. A scale 6 mattress is sufficiently supportive not to yield for weights up to 80 and 90 kg, without being rigid. It maintains a sufficient degree of softness to welcome those who sleep on their side, prone, or supine, unless one of the partners has the needs of a firm or very soft mattress. It is often suitable for meeting the needs of a couple in terms of support.
Medium-Firmness 6 Mattresses:
Here is a recommended firmness 6 mattress: Firmness 6 Pocket-Sprung Mattress
And then the Bamboo Memory model, with an excellent price-quality ratio: Best Firmness 6 Memory Mattress
If you have allocated a larger budget for the purchase of the mattress, I also point out the 3000 Micro-Spring and Memory Clima mattress with firmness 6
Medium-Firm Support Mattresses
Firmness 7 - 8
We enter the field of firm mattresses, almost at the top of firmness, suitable for those who love the comfort of mattresses from the past, with linear and continuous support, without conforming too much to the curves of the body.
Go to the MEDIUM-FIRM Mattress Page
Best Firmness 8 Mattress: Gransasso Gabrielli
There is little difference between firmness 8 and 9; what firmness 9 lacks is a thick top padding, a layer of soft sheeted or carded fiber, to slightly manage the massive pressure of the mattress
FIRM Mattresses
Maximum Firmness Mattress: Kilimangiaro Max 150
To provide firm and supportive comfort even for people with significant weights, a highly supportive mattress, suitable for people weighing up to 150 kg
Firmness H1, H2, H3
This type of scale must also be interpreted; it is used to compare the degree of support of mattresses within the same store, website, or sales organization. Two different mattresses with the same scale could provide an absolutely different level of comfort, with one being softer than the other.
How firm should the mattress be
The mattress should have a firmness of 6/10 for the right support of the body, promoting the alignment of the spine with the cervical spine. For body weights from 50 to 95 kg, this firmness is ideal and meets the needs of approximately 60% of requests. For weights from 40 to 80 kg, 5/10 is better. In all cases, these values work if you prefer a non-enveloping, but also non-repellent comfort, like that of pocket-sprung orthopedic mattresses.
Firm Double Mattress
A firm, highly supportive double mattress should be carefully evaluated, because if used by two people, it could be excessively hard for one partner, causing circulation, peripheral nerve, and back problems. How to avoid this? There are two ways: choose a high-firmness mattress with a memory foam or otherwise more welcoming top layer, or opt for a double mattress with two firmness levels, divided internally, but externally it is a double. This allows you to avoid using 2 single mattresses placed together, with all the resulting inconveniences, because they separate, they are not the same height, there is a gap in the middle...
A good firm mattress is recommended for back pain in some cases, for example when you have spinal curvatures or when we simply notice that only firmness 7 or 8 mattresses, less adaptable and highly supportive, provide relief to the back. A level of 5 or 6 could be excessively welcoming in these cases where you have problems sleeping on your side, and it is necessary to sleep face down or face up (prone or supine).
Firmness level of the top layer
Mattresses are rarely made with a single solid layer, but have multiple layers of internal materials and levels of fiber padding (such as wool, hollow polyester fiber, cotton, kapok, and others). There is no conventional standard metric, as we have said, so it must be interpreted, or rather applied to each mattress in more or less different ways. How? A firmness 6 mattress with a 2 or 4 cm memory foam layer (therefore little memory foam) can be more adaptable than a firm 6 without memory foam, but the firmness will be the same. In practice, that memory foam layer lightens the weight and the pressure at the surface contact level, but the core of the two mattresses, the innermost soul, is identical or almost identical, so you will choose the first one if you want a less repellent comfort, knowing that you will have the same support.
