Does your once comfortable mattress now feel less plush? Are you a college student, whose dorm room mattress needs a touch more softness? A mattress topper could be the fix.
Mattress toppers fit on top of your bed and offer varying degrees of cushioning to your sleep surface. They’re made from foam—including gel-infused foam and memory foam—latex, feathers, or fabric fibers; some offer a combination of materials.
In this article
- Best Mattress Toppers
- How CR Tests Mattress Toppers
The average thickness of a mattress topper tends to be 2 to 4 inches, and what’s best depends on what feels comfortable to you. Generally speaking, though, the thicker the layer, the more pronounced the cushioning. Side sleepers looking for pressure-point relief for their hips and shoulders might consider thicker options. Back sleepers who want their firm bed to feel a bit less spartan might consider something thinner.
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While mattress toppers can help dial up the plushness of your bed, toppers won’t resuscitate a bed that’s past its prime or fix a sagging mattress. Nor will they help align the spine if you suffer from back pain. “The whole reason behind having a topper is that you feel your bed is too firm, so putting a topper on it is going to give a softer feel,” says Bernie Deitrick, who oversees CR’s mattress topper tests.
If you opt for a memory foam mattress topper, remember that the feel may change with the temperature of the room, stiffening a bit when the ambient environment gets cold. But the topper will gradually soften with body heat.
No matter the season, the right mattress topper will balance the support you get from your mattress with additional pressure-point relief and comfort, however you define that for yourself. To know which one is right for you, find out how to choose a mattress topper. And for the full slate of mattress toppers we’ve tested, check our comprehensive mattress topper ratings of more than a dozen models.
Best Mattress Toppers
Here are our top picks based on Consumer Reports’ testing, all of which are 3 inches thick. We assess mattress toppers for support, convenience, and heat retention. I’ve also included additional insights based on trying each topper myself on a neutral wooden plank surface in the lab. (I’m 5 feet, 5 inches and 125 pounds. So keep in mind that your experience with these toppers may be different depending on your size and the feel of your mattress.)
How CR Tests Mattress Toppers
As with mattresses, the best mattress topper is highly subjective—what feels right for one person may feel terrible to another. And the ultimate feel of the topper also depends on the bed you’re placing it on. That said, we evaluate a few characteristics that might help shoppers compare their options more easily.
Support: Our lab engineers place a 20-pound weight on the surface of each topper and measure the depth of the depression. We also use a heavier weight and measure the distance between the weight and where the topper returns to its natural height. The less distance away, the better it is at conforming to your body.
Convenience: We favor mattress toppers with features that make using them easier. For instance, some toppers come with removable covers and corner straps, making them simpler to clean and keep in place. Others can be flipped to evenly distribute the wear and tear. All can be rotated.
Heat retention: Sleeping with a mattress topper will feel a tad warmer than sleeping on the same bed without one (unless you have a cooling mattress topper, which is more like a mattress pad paired with an active-cooling device). That’s because the topper’s materials will cuddle against your body as you sink in. As a result, Deitrick says, “you’ll have less airflow around your body.” That’s typically not a problem. But if you’re an inherently hot sleeper, mattress toppers that trap excessive heat could leave you waking up in the middle of the night in a sweat. All the toppers in our ratings are tested in a temperature-controlled chamber using a dummy dubbed the “tin man,” which is set at 98.6° F.
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Tanya A. Christian
Tanya Christian joined Consumer Reports as a multimedia content creator in 2021, bringing with her more than a decade of experience in the home and lifestyle space. As a content manager for small kitchen appliances, home remodeling products, and the sleep category, she’s happy to provide readers with recommendations on great design, helpful cooking tools, and smart ways to achieve better sleep. Follow her on Twitter @tanyaachristian.
