Best Mattress for Side Sleepers Sydney - 2026 Buyer's Guide

The best mattress for side sleepers in Sydney is one with a medium-soft to medium feel and a quality pillow-top comfort layer - exactly what the Morrison Siesta Deluxe and Morrison Good Morning + are designed to deliver. A plush pocket-spring pillow-top cushions the pressure points at your shoulder and hip while the independently-moving springs keep your spine in neutral alignment - the two things side sleepers need most.

At Best in Beds, we're a three-generation family business with showrooms across Greater Sydney and the Illawarra. We stock the full Australian-designed Morrison Mattress Factory range exclusively, and our team helps side sleepers find their ideal comfort level every day. Below you'll find our honest 2026 guide - the science behind side-sleeper needs, a frank comparison with popular online brands, and everything you need to choose with confidence.

Whether you're shopping in-store at Prospect, Campbelltown or Warrawong, or you'd like free next-business-day delivery to your Sydney door, this guide covers every question worth asking before you buy.

Why side sleepers need a different mattress

Side sleeping is the most common sleeping position in Australia - research from the Sleep Health Foundation Australia indicates that approximately 60% of Australians sleep predominantly on their side. It's widely considered one of the healthier sleep positions for breathing and digestion, but it places very specific demands on your mattress.

When you lie on your side, your shoulder and hip are the two widest points of your body. On a mattress that is too firm, those bony prominences bear all your weight and create pressure-point pain that radiates through the shoulder, hip and lower back. On a mattress that is too soft, your spine sinks out of its natural neutral curve, placing strain on the lumbar vertebrae and surrounding muscles over the course of a night.

The ideal side-sleeper mattress does three things simultaneously:

• Cradles the shoulder and hip - allowing them to sink gently into a plush comfort layer so pressure is distributed rather than concentrated.
• Maintains spinal alignment - the waist and lumbar region should not sag downward or be pushed upward; the spine should remain roughly horizontal when viewed from behind.
• Provides responsive support underneath - a quality pocket-spring base rebounds as you move through the night, preventing you from feeling "stuck" and supporting different body parts with different spring tensions (zoned support).

A medium-soft pillow-top pocket spring mattress fulfils all three criteria and is the gold-standard recommendation for side sleepers across Australia.

What firmness is best for side sleepers?

For side sleepers, medium-soft to medium is the sweet spot. Here's how the scale breaks down in practical terms:

• Too firm (firm or extra-firm): Your shoulder cannot sink in sufficiently. You'll feel a hard point of pressure at the acromion (top of the shoulder joint) and at the greater trochanter (the bony knob of the hip). Over time this can create soreness, interrupted sleep and referred pain down the arm or leg.
• Too soft (ultra-plush or pillow-soft): Your hips sink too deeply, your lumbar spine bows downward, and the muscles along your lower back work all night to compensate. You wake tired and sore even after eight hours.
• Medium-soft to medium with a pillow-top: The comfort layer yields at the shoulder and hip to relieve pressure, while the pocket-spring core underneath provides enough pushback to hold the spine level. This is the Goldilocks zone for the majority of side sleepers.

This aligns with findings from the 2015 Sleep Health systematic review, which found that medium-firm mattresses reduced lower back pain and improved sleep quality compared with firm mattresses - a principle that extends to side sleepers, who benefit from the shoulder and hip compliance that a medium-soft pillow-top provides on top of that supportive base.

If you're a larger-framed person or sleep with a partner who is significantly heavier, you may find a medium rather than medium-soft suits you better, as greater body weight achieves the same degree of sink into the comfort layer.

The Best in Beds picks - Morrison range for side sleepers

The Morrison Mattress Factory range is Australian-designed by the Morrison family in NSW and sold exclusively at Best in Beds. Every Morrison mattress features an independently-pocketed spring system - meaning each spring reacts to your body individually, isolating motion and contouring to your shape. Below are our four recommended models for side sleepers, from excellent value through to flagship luxury.

Morrison vs Koala, Emma, Ecosa for side sleepers - honest comparison

Online mattress brands like Koala, Emma and Ecosa are heavily advertised and genuinely worth considering. Here's an honest, side-by-side look at how the Morrison Siesta Deluxe compares for side sleepers specifically:

Our take: For side sleepers who want to physically try a mattress before committing - which we strongly recommend, given how personal mattress feel is - the Morrison range has a clear advantage. Lying on a mattress for 10 minutes in our showroom tells you far more than any online review can. That said, if you're genuinely between Morrison and one of these online brands, our 100-night comfort guarantee means you're not taking a risk either way.

Other brands worth comparing depending on your budget include Sleep Republic, Sleeping Duck, Eva and Origin - all Australian brands with solid trial policies. We've compared them honestly in our Between the Sheets blog.

Pocket spring vs memory foam for side sleepers

This is one of the most common questions we answer in our showrooms. Both constructions can work for side sleepers, but there are meaningful differences - particularly relevant in Sydney and the Illawarra where summer temperatures regularly exceed 30°C.

Pocket spring with pillow-top (Morrison):

• Airflow: The spring core is largely air - heat dissipates naturally between the coils. This is a significant advantage in an Australian summer.
• Pressure relief: A quality plush pillow-top comfort layer provides excellent pressure relief at the shoulder and hip without the "sinking" sensation of dense memory foam.
• Responsiveness: Pocket springs rebound quickly as you change position, so you don't feel stuck in the mattress. Side sleepers who shift between positions through the night find this particularly comfortable.
• Durability: Quality pocket springs maintain their feel for longer than most foam layers, which can soften and lose their pressure-relieving properties over time.

Full memory foam:

• Pressure relief: Excellent contouring initially - memory foam moulds closely to body curves.
• Heat retention: Traditional memory foam absorbs and retains body heat. In Sydney summers this can significantly disrupt sleep quality, though gel-infused and open-cell foams have improved this.
• Motion isolation: Memory foam is very good at absorbing partner movement - though pocket springs also offer excellent motion isolation as each spring works independently.
• Edge support: Full foam mattresses typically have weaker edge support than pocket-spring constructions.

For most Australian side sleepers, a pocket-spring mattress with a plush pillow-top comfort layer delivers the best of both worlds: the pressure relief of a soft comfort surface with the breathability and responsive support of a spring core. Read our detailed guide on the pocket spring vs memory foam comparison for the Australian climate, or explore more about the Morrison construction at the Morrison Mattress Factory brand page.

How to test for side-sleeper comfort in our showrooms

We always encourage customers to lie on a mattress for at least 10 minutes in the position they actually sleep. Here's a simple self-check our team uses when guiding side sleepers in-store:

1. Lie on your side in your natural position - whichever shoulder you naturally default to. Stay there for at least 10 minutes; the body takes time to settle and reveal genuine pressure points.
2. Check your shoulder: Your bottom shoulder should sink gently into the comfort layer - not be pressed upward or pinched between your body and the mattress surface. If you feel a concentrated pressure point, the mattress is too firm for you.
3. Check your spine: Ask one of our team to observe whether your spine is roughly horizontal, or have a partner check. Alternatively, slide your hand into the space between your waist/lumbar region and the mattress - it should fill the gap snugly but without force. A large gap means the mattress is too firm; no gap at all (your hand won't fit) means it may be too soft.
4. Check your hip: Your hip should feel cradled and supported, not digging into the mattress and not floating up unsupported.
5. Roll to your back and front briefly: A good side-sleeper mattress should also feel comfortable in other positions - you rarely stay in one position all night.

Our team at all three showrooms is trained to guide you through this process. There's no pressure and no commission structure driving our recommendations - just honest advice.

Visit us at:

• Prospect: 27 Rowood Road, Prospect NSW 2148
• Campbelltown: 20 Blaxland Road, Campbelltown NSW 2560
• Warrawong (Illawarra): 91–95 King Street, Warrawong NSW 2502

Call us on 1300 399 676 - we're happy to talk you through options before you visit.

Free Sydney + Illawarra delivery, 100-night trial

Every Morrison mattress ordered before 2pm on a business day is delivered free to Greater Sydney and the Illawarra by the next business day - no delivery fee, no hidden charges, no waiting weeks. Australia-wide road express delivery is also free for customers outside the Sydney/Illawarra zone.

All Morrison mattresses ship rolled and compressed in a box (mattress-in-a-box), making them easy to manoeuvre through hallways, up stairs and into the bedroom. Once unboxed, the mattress expands to full size within a few hours.

Not sure you'll love it? Every Morrison mattress is backed by our 100-night comfort guarantee. Sleep on it for up to 100 nights - if it's not right for you, we'll work with you to find a solution. For those who prefer to collect in person, 24-hour Click & Collect is available at our Prospect, Campbelltown and Warrawong showrooms.

Learn more about delivery, Click & Collect and our comfort guarantee →