Best Mattress for Degenerative Disc Disease of 2024

Degenerative disc disease is an often painful, sometimes debilitating condition that affects the spinal column’s ability to flex and move. The pain from this condition can interfere with daytime activities and nighttime rest. The good news is you don’t have to take degenerative disc symptoms lying down (or maybe you do).

Mattresses can be a huge help in the fight against degenerative disc disease symptoms and progression. The right mattress can help you take the stress off your spine, keep it in a neutral position regardless of your sleep style, and wake up feeling refreshed and maybe even pain-free.

“Since DDD is a very common and chronic diagnosis, it is extremely important to be conscious and aware of the type of mattress that you are buying and how it can help to alleviate pain and support your spine,” notes Dr. Burns.

Let’s dive right into some of the best mattresses on the market for those with degenerative disc disease.

If you’re looking for a hybrid mattress that offers tons of pain relief and a little of everything else on the side, say hello to the Amerisleep AS2. Amerisleep’s premier medium-firm mattress is so adaptable and contouring it can accommodate just about anyone – even side sleepers with back issues!

“Mattresses with memory foam like the Amerisleep AS2 have been shown to be a great option for people suffering from degenerative disc disease. The firmness of the AS2 provides support and allows the spine to stay in a neutral alignment in different sleeping positions,” says Dr. Jordan Burns.

All Amerisleep mattresses come with free shipping, a 100-night sleep trial and a 20-year warranty.

SEE ALSO: Best Motion-Isolating Mattresses

Read Our Full Review of the Amerisleep AS2 Mattress

Those who want a mattress that can help them keep their active lifestyles despite their degenerative disc symptoms should consider the Zoma Hybrid. This ultra-responsive mattress was designed to give athletes and physically active people the best and most restorative sleep possible.

“The Zoma Hybrid mattress provides cooler body temperatures, which helps to improve the overall quality of sleep and comfort for anyone suffering from DDD,” says Dr. Burns.

The Zoma Hybrid comes with free delivery, a 100-night sleep trial period and a 10-year warranty.

SEE ALSO: Zoma Mattress Review

If you’re looking for a mattress to relieve pain without exceeding your spending budget, check out the Vaya Mattress. This mattress offers a mix of contouring and support that can provide a good compromise for those with competing sleep needs. It’s perfect for those who prefer to sleep on their sides but need a firmer mattress to relieve their back pain.

“The medium firmness of the Vaya mattress makes it a great option for those diagnosed with DDD by keeping a neutral alignment in the spine and helping to alleviate pressure off of the spine,” says Dr. Burns.

The Vaya Mattress ships free and comes with a 100-night sleep trial and a 10-year warranty.

SEE ALSO: Vaya Mattress Review

People with degenerative disc disease tend to need medium-firm mattresses, but stomach sleepers are the exception. Degenerative disc disease sufferers who sleep on their stomachs will do better on the ultra-firm Helix Dawn Luxe.

SEE ALSO: Best Casper Mattress Alternatives

Those who are looking for the best mattresses for degenerative disc disease and hot sleeping alike should check out the Nolah Evolution 15. This cooling mattress offers several firmness options and multiple cooling technologies.

SEE ALSO: Best Tempur-Pedic Mattress Alternatives

Those who aren’t sure which firmness level works best for their back pain should check out the Saatva Solaire. This mattress features adjustable firmness that lets you change your feel at the touch of a button.

SEE ALSO: Best Mattresses for Adjustable Beds

The Plushbeds Botanical Bliss® mattress features 100 percent natural latex and is often recommended by chiropractors and orthopedic specialists for back pain caused by issues such as degenerative disc disease. Unlike latex hybrids, this all-latex organic mattress features a comfort layer and a base layer of latex foam.

SEE ALSO: Best Mattress Recommended By Chiropractors

If you suffer from degenerative disc disease and allergies alike, check out the Bear Elite Hybrid. This copper-infused mattress fights all kinds of allergy-triggering microbes to provide a symptom-free slumber.

SEE ALSO: Best Purple Mattress Alternatives

Finding a mattress that can alleviate your back pain and accommodate your switching from sleep position to sleep position every night can be tough. But the medium Brooklyn Bedding Signature Hybrid is up to the task.

SEE ALSO: Mattress Sizes and Dimensions

Best Mattresses for Degenerative Disc Disease of 2024 Highlights and Comparison

What is Degenerative Disc Disease?

Degenerative disc disease is wear and tearVerified Source Johns Hopkins MedicineUniversity focused on medical research that produces thoroughly reviewed health articles.View source is wear and tear on the spinal column that causes back and neck pain. Everyone experiences this wear and tear as they age, but for many people, it never becomes severe enough for them to even notice it. However, some people experience significant pain and other symptoms.

Common symptoms of degenerative disc disease include pain that seems to come and go in waves, pain that lasts for months at a time, numbness and tingling in the arms and legs, and pain that radiates down your back and legs or worsens when you sit or bend your body.

We do want to briefly touch on the difference between herniated or slipped discsVerified Source Johns Hopkins MedicineUniversity focused on medical research that produces thoroughly reviewed health articles.View source and degenerative disc disease. Generally speaking, herniated discs are an acute condition that may show up earlier in life, while disc degeneration is chronic and typically shows up in older individuals.

However, bulging discs can be an early sign of disc degeneration. So it may be smart to consider mattresses for herniated discs with eventual disc degeneration in mind.

SEE ALSO: Best Mattresses for Athletes

How to Choose the Best Mattress for Degenerative Disc Disease

Choosing a mattress to deal with degenerative disc disease doesn’t have to feel like a shot in the dark. You just need to understand how your illness intersects with your sleeping position and body type to dictate your sleep needs.

One of the primary things to keep in mind is that your disease requires perfect spinal alignment to help reduce symptoms. This means you’ll need to sleep on the firmest mattress you can handle, even if you’re a side sleeper. Look also for lumbar support features, such as the best mattresses for back pain offer.

Ideal Mattress Materials for People with Degenerative Disc Disease

People with degenerative disc disease need mattresses that can help align their spines to relieve pressure on the spinal column. This can drastically reduce pain and alleviate symptoms. It can also help slow the disease progression by alleviating stress on the spinal column.

In fact, even if you don’t have degenerative disc disease yet but are at increased risk for it, you may be able to help protect your spine from future damage by purchasing a type of mattress that helps alleviate the stress on it.

Memory Foam

Memory foam mattresses are among the best mattress materials for just about every spinal condition, memory foam is perfect for many – if not most – degenerative disc disease sufferers. This is because memory foam mattresses can conform to your body in a way that no other mattress material can.

Memory foam mattresses follow the curve of your spine, molding itself to fit your shape. So it rises where your body curves inward to help keep your middle lifted, and it offers deep compression to the areas where your body curves back out, which translates to stellar pressure relief. Because of its reactive cushion, many choose memory foam mattresses for back pain.

Memory foam can be especially helpful for side sleepers who have degenerative disc disease because its ultimate contouring power can help offer pressure relief at higher firmness levels. Memory foam mattresses for side sleepers can allow you to get support for your back and pressure relief for your joints.

Despite memory foam’s amazing contouring ability, it does have some issues that certain types of sleepers need to watch out for. Potentially memory foam’s biggest problem is its slow response time.

Memory foam mattresses can take forever to bounce back when you move. This means active sleepers who like to toss and turn may get annoyed with waiting for their body impressions to clear.

Memory foam also has the tendency to retain heat. Improvements in temperature control technology – like open cell construction and infusions to make gel memory foam mattresses – have greatly improved memory foam’s ability to shed heat. But if you sleep particularly hot, that may not be enough for you.

Latex Foam

Hot sleepers and active sleepers who want an all-foam mattress may do better on latex foam. Natural latex is not a synthetic foam, as it comes from rubber tree sap.

This means a latex mattress is incredibly bouncy and much more breathable than even the coolest memory foam. Hot sleepers won’t have to worry about waking up in a sweat, and active sleepers won’t be waiting for their beds to bounce back.

Latex is also among the most durable of all bedding materials. Where most memory foam and hybrid mattresses wear out in under 20 years – and most innerspring mattresses are lucky to make it to 10 – the bare minimum a latex mattress will last is 20 years. It just keeps going and going and going.

On the flip side, you should be aware of a few issues with latex mattresses. Of course, there’s their potential to trigger allergies in people who are allergic to latex. If you have a latex allergy, it’s not worth the risk of contact to have a latex mattress, even with the cover, mattress protector, sheets and everything between you.

Latex also gets much of its bounce from the fact that it wants to retain its own shape. This means latex foam is not quite as contouring and adaptable as memory foam. Unless you sleep hard on your side, you likely won’t notice a difference.

But side sleepers who do not toss and turn would likely do well to stick with memory foam, though a hybrid mattress featuring a Talalay latex comfort layer will contour similarly to memory foam.

Hybrid

Hybrid mattresses combine pocketed coils and layers of comfort foam to offer the best of both. Pocketed coils eliminate most of the issues inherent to older, open coil systems, thanks to their ability to move independently of one another.

Pocketed coils all rise and fall on their own, meaning they can adapt to your shape better than even the most flexible base foam. Hybrid mattresses for side sleepers provide more comfort than traditional spring beds, as it’s contouring like memory foam, but they respond to your movements and shed your body heat better. They also stay cool for those who sleep hot.

One of the best features of hybrid mattresses is their diversity. You’ll always get the pocketed coil support core. But you can choose from tons of different foams for the comfort and transition layers above. You can find Dunlop hybrids and Talalay hybrids. Traditional and gel memory foam hybrids also abound. This gives you tons of options.

The main issue with hybrids doesn’t have to do with their sleep surface but their price. These mattresses cost almost as much as latex upfront. Factor in the fact that they’re not nearly as durable as latex, and you’ve got the most expensive mattress type over time – by quite a lot.

SEE ALSO: Hybrid Mattress Buying Guide

Innerspring

Innerspring mattresses are an older sleep technology that combines a plush comfort layer that can be made of any one of a number of different cushioning materials with open coils. Open coils are networked together using steel wire, which is why they do not make good support systems for people with back pain issues.

Open coil mattresses do have a couple of things going for them. They’re ultra-responsive, which can be good for sleepers who have gotten used to a bouncy bed. They also circulate air really well, which means they help keep you cool while you sleep.

However, this is where the positive aspects of innerspring mattresses end. Open coil mattresses have a lot of problems that make them a poor choice for degenerative disc disease sufferers – and anyone with any kind of back problem.

One of the main issues with innerspring mattresses is the fact that their open coil systems do not contour very well. Open coils tend to sag underneath your body weight rather than contour to your shape.

This can pull your spine out of alignment and increase your back pain or even cause it outright. The thinner comfort layers in many innerspring mattresses can also make the sleep surface overly firm, which can cause pain in your pressure relief points.

Innerspring mattresses also have a lot of issues that can interfere with your sleep. For instance, they tend to amplify and transfer motion all over the bed. This can make sleeping with a partner more challenging. And they also start to squeak and creak after a while because of the metal rubbing on metal inside the mattress core.

Open coils also lose tension and wear out much faster than pocketed coils. And they’re not compatible with adjustable bases. For all these reasons, we recommend anyone who wants a spring mattress purchase a hybrid instead.

SEE ALSO: Best Mattress for Fibromyalgia

Mattress Firmness Levels for Degenerative Disc Disease

Mattress firmness is measured on a scale of one to 10, with 10 being the firmest. The softest mattresses on the market usually come in at around a three on the firmness scale, while the firmest typically fall around an eight. This is because mattresses on the extreme ends of the spectrum would not provide enough give or enough support to be comfortable.

Generally speaking, the ideal mattress firmness level for any sort of back pain is medium-firm (6). These mattresses offer a balance of support and cushioning that allows them to keep you lifted onto the sleep surface while at the same time following the curve of your spine.

That being said, you shouldn’t just run right out and buy a medium-firm mattress if you have back pain. Your sleep style and body weight also interact with your firmness needs, even if you have back issues.

Sleeping Position

Your sleeping position is the factor that most impacts your firmness needs. The way you sleep decides everything from which parts of your body contact the bed to how your spine lines up when you’re lying down. This means that your sleep style should decide your baseline firmness, and other factors can influence whether you go up or down from there.

Back Sleepers

We have some good news for back sleepers who also suffer from back pain. The ideal mattress for both your sleep style and your pain issues is a medium-firm! This is all thanks to the way a mattress for back sleeping has to support you when you’re lying on your back.

When you sleep on your back, your mattress has to follow the curve of your spine, dipping down underneath your shoulders and your buttocks while rising up to fill in the space in your lumbar region. At the same time, the sleep surface also has to be firm enough to keep you lifted and prevent your body from being bent out of alignment due to sinkage.

Medium firm mattresses offer the right combination of support and cushioning to fit this bill. They can contour well enough to follow the curve of your spine and prevent your lumbar region from collapsing from a lack of support, but they also have enough lift to prevent you from sinking.

Combo Sleepers

Combo sleepers with back issues are among the hardest sleepers to accommodate. This is because combination sleepers don’t have a strong preference for any single sleeping position. They may adopt any position on any given night.

Normally this tendency to sleep on your side or your back or your stomach necessitates a medium mattress (5). This is because medium mattresses are highly versatile jack-of-all-trades mattresses that can accommodate multiple sleep positions but are not necessarily designed for any single one. Perfect for anyone seeking a versatile mattress for combination sleeping.

However, when you factor in back pain issues, medium-firm mattresses come out on top when it comes to pain relief. This means while combo sleepers who do not suffer from back pain do best on medium mattresses, combo sleepers who do suffer from back pain may need to consider medium-firm ones.

Side Sleepers

Side sleepers are another group that can have a hard time accommodating both their sleep style and their back issues. This is because side sleepers need soft to medium-soft mattresses (3 to 4), but back pain sufferers need medium-firm ones.

This is all thanks to how your body contacts the bed when you sleep on your side. Side sleepers’ hip and shoulder joints contact the sleep surface and are pressed into it by their own body weight. Overly firm mattresses resist the pressure from the body’s weight and exert their own pressure on the hip and shoulder joints. Night after night of this can lead to painful pressure points.

This means they need softer mattresses for side sleepers to absorb pressure from their body weight and cradle their joints. However, as we’ve already learned, back pain sufferers need lots of lift to keep their spines optimally aligned to reduce stress on the vertebral column.

Typically, the best way to deal with this is to go as firm as you can without putting too much pressure on your joints. This might mean a medium-soft mattress, or it might even mean a medium one. Whatever firmness level absorbs the pressure in your joints and keeps your spine aligned is the right one for you if you’re a side sleeper with back pain.

Stomach Sleepers

Stomach sleepers have it pretty easy when it comes to selecting a mattress firmness. Stomach sleepers need the firmest mattresses of all (7 to 8) to keep their pelvis lifted and their spines optimally aligned.

An extra firm mattress is often recommended for stomach sleepers to prevent the hips and abdomen from sinking too deeply into the bed, which can cause back pain and discomfort.

This does not change when you have back pain due to a chronic condition and need a mattress for stomach sleeping. In fact, sleeping on an overly soft mattress as a stomach sleeper could possibly be the main cause of your back pain issues. Too-soft mattresses allow the pelvis to sink forward and often overarch the spine.

This means, regardless of whether or not your back pain is caused by an underlying chronic condition, you need a firm mattress if you sleep on your stomach.

Body Type

While your body type does not have as much of an impact on your firmness needs as your sleep style, it is still relevant in some instances. If you fall within the mattress industry’s definition of the average human weight range, 130 to 230 pounds, you generally will not need to worry about altering your mattress firmness selection due to your body weight. But if you fall outside this range, you will need to take that into account.

Petite Sleepers

Those who fall under 130 pounds are considered petite sleepers. If you’re a petite sleeper, you may need to go down a firmness level from the one that corresponds to your sleep style. Mattresses for lightweight sleepers have to provide the pressure relief you need.

Plus-Size Sleepers

On the other end of the spectrum, plus-size sleepers (over 230 pounds) tend to need to increase their firmness level from the one that corresponds to their sleep position. Mattresses for heavier sleepers must offer sufficient lift and support to fight sinkage.

Other Things to Consider

Pain is one of the more prominent symptoms of degenerative disc disease, and while back pain is common, it’s not necessarily the only areas where pain manifests. If you have recurring pain in certain parts of the body,  you may want to look at mattresses that address these pain issues:

• Mattresses for Hip Pain
• Mattresses for Shoulder Pain
• Mattresses for Neck Pain
• Mattresses for Joint Pain

Degenerative disc disease is a possible cause for other conditions and ailments, such as sciatica symptoms. Sciatica occurs when the sciatic nerve gets pinched, resulting in shooting pains up one side of the body.

Mattresses for sciatica need to be conforming, and some sleepers find the best relief on softer mattresses for side sleeping.

As disc degeneration is a condition that often shows up as you age, a good mattress for degenerative disc disease should also be a good mattress for seniors and vice versa.

Saving on Mattresses for Degenerative Disc Disease

High-quality mattresses designed to relieve pain can be a little pricey, and some shoppers may feel overwhelmed and worry that the best mattress for them is out of their budget range. However, there are tips and tricks to help you save on a mattress.

Looking at online mattresses is a way to save significantly, as opposed to what you can expect to pay in a big box store or traditional mattress showroom. The benefits of an online mattress include direct shipping to the home.

While we do not recommend waiting to replace your mattress if you need a new one to ease symptoms of a medical condition, you might keep an eye on the calendar and see if there are any expected mattress sales on the horizon:

• Best MLK Day Mattress Sales
• Best Presidents Day Mattress Sales
• Best Sleep Awareness Week Mattress Sales
• Best Memorial Day Mattress Sales
• Best 4th of July Mattress Sales
• Best Labor Day Mattress Sales
• Best Columbus Day Mattress Sales
• Best Black Friday Mattress Sales
• Best Cyber Monday Mattress Sales

If a new mattress sounds like too much to spend money on right now, you can try a mattress topper for back pain. While a mattress topper usually can’t match the benefits of a new mattress, it can significantly raise the comfort of your current mattress.

There are also other bed accessories to consider for extra comfort as you shop. For example, pillows need to be cooling and supportive to minimize any potential discomfort that can reduce restful sleep. See also:

• Best Pillows for Neck Pain
• Best Firm Pillows
• Best Cooling Pillows

During mattress sales, you may see discounted bundles with a mattress and assorted bedding, allowing you to stock up without overspending.

If you want to maximize your nighttime comfort, we suggest looking at adjustable beds for back pain. By raising and lowering parts of the mattress with an adjustable base, a sleeper can ease tension on their body. Adjustable beds tend to go on sale during the mattress sales, and some manufacturers even offer discounted bundles with adjustable beds and mattresses.

FAQs

What is the best firmness level for degenerative disc disease sufferers?

The best firmness level for degenerative disc disease – and just about all back pain, for that matter – is medium-firm. Medium-firm mattresses offer a balance of support and cushioning that allows your body to stay lifted onto the sleep surface while still providing enough contouring to compress underneath pressure points to offer pressure relief.

Medium-firm mattresses fight sinkage while still following the curve of your body to keep your spine in a horizontal line. This offers the most pain relief to back pain sufferers. That being said, side sleepers and stomach sleepers with degenerative disc disease should watch out.

Side sleepers typically need soft mattresses. This means side sleepers with back pain may do better on a medium mattress than a medium-firm one. On the flip side, stomach sleepers need a firmer mattress to keep their spines aligned, and this does not change for stomach sleepers with degenerative disc disease.

Can an adjustable base help my degenerative disc disease symptoms?

An adjustable bed can absolutely help with your degenerative disc disease symptoms. Sleeping in a flat position puts pressure on the spinal column, no matter how you sleep. However, sleeping with the head or legs elevated can help minimize pressure and stress on the spine, which can drastically reduce pain.

The best sleep position for those who suffer back pain is the zero-gravity pose, which cannot be achieved as well without an adjustable bed. The zero-gravity pose elevates the head and the legs over the heart, which offers a weightless feeling that can help relieve back pain, as well as offer relief for other symptoms such as inflammation and swelling.

Is a split king a good option for couples with a partner suffering from degenerative disc disease?

If one partner suffers from degenerative disc disease and the other doesn’t, the firmness and material needs of both partners may not be close enough that they can share a mattress. The good news is you can share a bed without sharing a mattress. Split king mattresses allow you to place two twin XL mattresses side by side in the same standard king bed frame.

This means each partner gets to sleep on their own mattress on their own side of the bed. This can allow the degenerative disc disease sufferer to choose the firmness, material, and even adjustable bed settings that work best for them. After all, a split king adjustable bed can have each side in its own configuration.

Do I need a mattress topper for my degenerative disc disease mattress?

If you need a little bit of extra support or contouring for your mattress but you don’t want to replace the whole thing, a mattress topper may be able to help you with your degenerative disc disease symptoms.

This is especially true for degenerative disc disease sufferers who have an overly firm mattress. If you have a firmer mattress, a thick and soft mattress topper can help add contouring and better spinal alignment to your sleep surface.

However, keep in mind that if you have an overly soft mattress, a firm mattress topper can only help so much. This is because the support inside a mattress comes from its core, not the layers on top. This means if you need to drastically firm up your mattress to deal with your symptoms, you will have to replace it.

Which mattress material is best for degenerative disc disease?

The mattress material that works best for you will depend on a combination of your symptoms and your sleep needs. Memory foam is the most contouring material and generally works best for side sleepers with back pain because it can allow them to get adequate pressure relief from a firmer mattress.

Those who sleep hot or like to toss and turn during their slumber might do better on a hybrid or latex mattress. Hybrids and latex mattresses are better at shedding heat and are also much more responsive than memory foam. This means they can help alleviate your back pain without making you wake up in a sweat.

Bottom Line

If you have degenerative disc disease, one of the best gifts you can give yourself is an amazing mattress that keeps your spine aligned and your body supported. Mattresses that properly support your spine can help significantly alleviate symptoms and allow you to wake up feeling refreshed and pain-free.

We suggest looking for mattresses recommended by chiropractors and doctors to make sure you choose a comfortable bed.

Dr. Burns tests each mattress at eachnight’s facility to make sure the recommendations are based on real, expert reviews.