Our expert picks the best mattresses for heavy people in 2025

Our team of nine mattress experts have been doing this for years. We’ve tested and reviewed about three hundred mattresses and dozens of sleep accessories from mats to toppers to sleep headphones. During that time, we’ve created a testing methodology that every mattress goes through when it arrives at our Reno testing facility.

We take a holistic approach to mattress testing, which means our team is involved to ensure we represent all types of people. Our team has a mix of genders, body types and sleeping positions.

Hardness

We assess and record two types of stiffness: subjective and objective. When I test the firmness, I lie on the mattress in each sleeping position and note how it feels on my back, stomach and thighs. Our entire team is involved in this process to ensure that the firmness rating is not based on one body type.

The objective level of firmness comes from our Mattress Smasher 9000. Not only is it impressively orange, but it can scientifically rate the firmness of a bed based on the strength of a 160-pound person. We always make sure we test a bed ourselves before the MS9K takes its turn to make sure our experience is unbiased.

Traffic isolation

Motion isolation is how well the bed suppresses surface motion. It might not seem like a big deal, but if you’re sleeping with another person or a furry friend, a bed with poor motion isolation can keep you up at night.

To test motion isolation, we do two things. First, I lie down on a bed and close my eyes while a teammate moves onto the bed next to me. I do this from every sleeping position and rate how much movement I feel all the time. Second, we perform the water test, which involves placing a glass of water on the edge of the bed and rolling towards it. The bed gets a lower motion isolation score if the water splashes around or rolls over.

Edge support

If you’re like me and tend to sleep on the edge of the bed or have limited mobility, then you know how important edge support is. To test the strength of the bed’s perimeter, we sit and lie on the edge and assess how much it bends. There is no good edge support if it feels like we might topple over or the edge collapses under our weight.

Many of our favorite beds, like the Big Fig, have strong edge support, meaning you have access to the entire surface of the bed to sleep.

temperature

All beds that pass through our laboratory are tested in a temperature-controlled room. Many brands claim their beds are cooling, but their performance doesn’t back it up. We are passionate about making sure the bed lives up to its claims. We check the construction of the bed and rely on our personal experience with it to judge how cool it feels.