Best Mattress for Hip Pain (2026): Matched to the Cause

The best mattress for hip pain is the Saatva Rx. It is the only bed in our database that scores at least 7.7 for both pressure relief (8.0) and spinal support (7.7), which is the combination a sore hip needs: enough give for the hip bone to sink in, and enough support underneath that your waist doesn’t sag and twist your lower back. RTINGS scored it 7.9 for side sleepers and 7.8 for back sleepers, so it works whichever way the hip lets you lie. It costs around $3,094 for a queen, which is the catch.

Most people don’t need to spend that much. The DreamCloud Premier Hybrid has the highest pressure-relief sub-score we track (8.2) for about $1,099. If you have hip bursitis and sleep on your side, the Nectar Premier is the memory foam pick: Sleep Foundation scored its pressure relief 9.0 and AARP named it the best overall mattress for hip pain. For hip arthritis, we prefer a responsive hybrid you can turn on and get out of easily, the Bear Elite Hybrid in Soft.

Before you choose a mattress, it helps to know roughly what kind of hip pain you have, because the causes behave differently in bed. Most of the hip pain that a mattress can influence falls into one of two groups: pain on the outside of the hip, and pain from inside the joint.

Pain on the outside of the hip is usually what doctors now call greater trochanteric pain syndrome, or GTPS. It used to be called trochanteric bursitis, and you will still see both names. The greater trochanter is the bony point you can feel on the side of your hip; tendons of the gluteal muscles attach there, with a small fluid-filled sac (a bursa) cushioning them. OrthoInfo, the patient site of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons, says the pain of hip bursitis “is worse at night, when lying on the affected hip.” That single sentence is why this condition is the one most affected by your mattress.

It is also very common. In a study of about 3,000 community-dwelling adults aged 50 to 79, Segal and colleagues found GTPS on one side in 15.0% of women and on both sides in 8.5%, against 6.6% and 1.9% of men. Women had more than three times the odds of having it. The same study linked GTPS with knee osteoarthritis and with low-back pain most or all of the time, which is why hip and back pain so often arrive together. An NHS Ayrshire & Arran patient leaflet lists “lying on affected side for long periods” among the postural habits that contribute to it, alongside crossing your legs and standing on one leg.

Pain from inside the joint is most often osteoarthritis. The NHS describes osteoarthritis as a condition that makes joints painful and stiff, and says it most often affects the knees, hips and small joints of the hands. Arthritic hip pain tends to be felt in the groin or deep in the hip rather than on the bony point, and its signature is stiffness — the NHS lists hip stiffness lasting more than 30 minutes after waking as a reason to see a GP. For arthritis, the mattress question is less about pressure on one spot and more about how easily you can move: turning over, rolling onto your back, and getting out of bed in the morning.

Then there are the special cases. After a hip replacement, the mattress has to be safe and easy to get on and off, and your surgeon’s sleeping rules come first. In pregnancy, pelvic girdle pain can make turning over in bed painful; the NHS estimates it affects up to 1 in 5 pregnant women to some degree. And pain that starts in the lower back and travels into the buttock and down the leg may be sciatica rather than a hip problem at all — our best mattress for sciatica guide covers that.

When you lie on your side, the widest parts of your body — the shoulder and the hip — touch the mattress first and carry most of your weight on a small area. The pressure-mapping evidence on how much load the hip takes is striking. In a 2022 study in the International Wound Journal, Kawabata and Sugama measured interface pressure on 10 healthy adults and reported that “the maximum interface pressure in the greater trochanter in the lateral position was twice that in the sacral region” when lying on the back. They cite earlier work that found the same two-fold gap.

That is the case against a mattress that is too firm. On a hard surface the hip can’t sink, so the bony trochanter — exactly where bursitis and gluteal tendon pain live — becomes the main contact point for hours. Physiotherapy research points the same way. The LEAP trial (Mellor and colleagues, BMJ 2018), which randomised 204 people with gluteal tendinopathy, built its education programme around teaching people to avoid positions that compress the gluteal tendons against the greater trochanter. At eight weeks, 51 of 66 people in the education-plus-exercise group reported success, against 38 of 65 given a steroid injection and 20 of 68 in the wait-and-see group.

But softer is not automatically better. The same Kawabata study found that on its air mattress, raising the internal pressure — making it firmer — was the best way to reduce peak hip pressure in the side-lying position, a reminder that a surface which lets the hip sink all the way through stops relieving pressure at all. A soft or sagging bed also lets the heavy pelvis drop below the waist, bending the spine sideways and moving the pain to the lower back. The right bed has two layers of job: a conforming comfort layer that lets the hip in, and a supportive core that stops it there.

You will see conflicting advice about this online. Hinge Health’s physical therapists, for example, tell readers to “look for a firm to hard mattress,” while NCOA and AARP both point people with hip pain towards medium or medium-firm beds. We think the difference is mostly about language. Firm support is good for any painful joint; a firm surface is bad for the outside of the hip. The clinical trial evidence on firmness comes from back pain, not hips — the Kovacs trial in The Lancet found medium-firm beds beat firm ones for chronic low-back pain — but it points the same way, and a 2021 review by Caggiari and colleagues concluded that medium-firm mattresses promote comfort, sleep quality and spinal alignment.

Most competing guides we read rank mattresses for “hip pain” as if it were one condition. It isn’t, and the bed that helps a 40-year-old side sleeper with bursitis is not the bed that helps a 72-year-old with an arthritic hip who struggles to get up in the morning. Here is how we match causes to beds.

Mattress for hip bursitis (GTPS). The goal is to take load off the trochanter. That means a thick, slow-responding comfort layer — usually memory foam — and a medium or medium-soft feel. Our pick is the Nectar Premier, with the DreamCloud Premier Hybrid if you prefer coils. Combine it with the sleeping position below: NHS Ayrshire & Arran’s clinical guidance tells patients to avoid “lying on the affected hip”, and reassures them that the condition is usually self-limiting.

Mattress for hip arthritis. Pressure still matters, but mobility matters more. Slow memory foam can feel like quicksand when your hips are stiff, so we prefer a responsive hybrid with strong edges you can sit on to stand up. The Bear Elite Hybrid in Soft measured responsiveness of 9.4 and edge support of 9.7 at RTINGS, both top of our database.

After hip surgery. OrthoInfo says your surgeon “may ask you to avoid certain sleeping positions or to sleep with a pillow between your legs for a period of time,” and that most restrictions relax after six to eight weeks. In that period, you need a bed that is easy and safe to get in and out of: firm edges, a reasonable height, and a top that doesn’t swallow you. The Saatva Latex Hybrid (edge 9.1, RTINGS’ best mattress for seniors) fits. Don’t buy a new mattress just for the recovery weeks if your current one is sound and supportive.

Pregnancy hip pain. The NHS suggests you “put a pillow between your legs for extra support in bed” for pelvic girdle pain. Because you will be on your side most nights and turning over can hurt, a plush hybrid with good motion isolation is kind to both you and your partner. The DreamCloud Premier Hybrid (pressure 8.2, motion isolation 8.6) is our pick; a soft topper on a good existing bed is a cheaper route for a temporary problem.

The two numbers we lean on most are the pressure-relief and spinal-support sub-scores, which come from RTINGS’ pressure-mapping and alignment tests where it tested the bed, and from Sleep Foundation and Sleepopolis ratings otherwise. A hip-pain mattress needs both. Here is how our candidates and two cautionary examples compare.

Three things stand out. First, only the Saatva Rx clears 7.5 on both bars, which is why it tops the list despite the price. Second, the plush beds — DreamCloud Premier, Puffy Lux, Nectar Luxe — have excellent pressure relief but more modest support, which is fine for light and average side sleepers and less fine for heavier people or anyone with back pain too. Third, the firm budget favourite, the Bear Original, has the lowest pressure relief here (6.0); it is a good back-sleeper bed and a poor hip bed.

Note that the Nectar Premier’s 7.2 understates it for hips. That figure is RTINGS’ measurement; Sleep Foundation scored its pressure relief 9.0, Sleepopolis recommends it specifically for hip pain, and AARP, whose testers were all 50 or older, named it the best overall mattress for hip pain. When lab and tester results diverge this much, we report both and let the cause decide.

Most people searching for a hip-pain mattress are side sleepers, and for good reason: side-lying is where the hip takes the most load. If that is you, the decision comes down to your weight and your diagnosis. For bursitis at an average weight, choose the Nectar Premier or DreamCloud Premier Hybrid. If you are light, the Puffy Lux. If you are heavy, the Saatva Latex Hybrid. If you also have shoulder pain, the softer the better within your weight band.

Sleep Foundation’s firmness guidance for side sleepers is a useful anchor: roughly soft to medium (3–5) under 130 lb, medium-soft to medium (4–5) between 130 and 230 lb, and medium-firm to firm (6–7) above 230 lb. With hip pain, aim for the softer end of your band. The Saatva Classic is another option if you want an innerspring, but only in Plush Soft, which RTINGS scored 8.4 for side sleepers; the popular Luxury Firm scored just 5.9 for lightweight side sleepers. Our dedicated best mattress for side sleepers guide goes deeper on shoulder pain and pillows.

Back and hip pain often travel together — Segal’s study found GTPS was associated with low-back pain most or all of the time — and they pull a mattress in opposite directions. The hip wants softness, the lower back wants support. That is exactly the gap the Saatva Rx is built to close, which is why it is our top pick here and on our back-pain page. On a mid-range budget, the Bear Elite Hybrid in Soft (side sleepers) or Medium (back sleepers) is the next best balance.

If your back is the bigger problem, start with our best mattress for back pain guide, which covers the clinical trials on firmness in detail. If the pain shoots from the lower back through the buttock and down the leg, it may be sciatica rather than a hip problem; see best mattress for sciatica. And if you sleep mostly on your back, our back sleeper picks are worth a look.

Sleep on the side that doesn’t hurt. Every clinical source we checked agrees. OrthoInfo notes that bursitis pain is worse lying on the affected hip. The NHS Ayrshire & Arran leaflet on GTPS tells patients to avoid lying on the painful side or with the painful leg crossed over the other, and instead to “lie on your good side with pillows between your legs to keep them parallel.” The Arthritis Foundation gives the same advice for arthritic hips: lie on the hip that isn’t painful, with one or more pillows between the legs.

The pillow matters more than it looks. When you lie on your good side, the painful hip is on top, and without support the top leg drops forward and across your body. That position — hip adduction — stretches the gluteal tendons over the trochanter, which is exactly the compression the LEAP trial’s education programme taught people to avoid. A firm pillow between the knees and ideally the ankles keeps the top leg level with the hip. Hinge Health’s physical therapists say a firm pillow “helps keep your top leg from dropping forward.” The Arthritis Foundation suggests experimenting with one, two or even three pillows.

Back sleeping is the other good option, and the one surgeons usually want after a hip replacement. Put a pillow or rolled blanket under your knees; the Arthritis Foundation adds that another under the small of your back can help. If both hips hurt, alternate sides through the night and lean on the pillows, or spend part of the night on your back. Stomach sleeping isn’t recommended by any of the clinical sources we read for hip pain; they all point you to your good side or your back.

Not every sore hip needs a new mattress. If your bed is a few years old, flat and supportive, but simply too firm at the hip, a topper is a far cheaper fix. Hinge Health suggests “adding a soft mattress topper or extra cushioning under your hip” for pain that is worse on that side. Two to three inches of memory foam or soft latex is enough to change how the surface feels without making the bed unstable.

In our best mattress topper guide, the 3-inch Tempur-Adapt + Cooling is Tom’s Guide’s pick for hip pain and our pick for side sleepers. Heavier sleepers should go thicker and denser, because thin soft toppers can bottom out. NCOA makes a fair point too: toppers add comfort but rarely add support.

The hard limit is sagging. A topper follows the shape of the mattress underneath, so if there is a dip where your hip sits, the topper sinks into it and you still wake up twisted. The Arthritis Foundation’s advice is blunt — if your mattress sags or has depressions where you sleep, it is probably time for a new one — and Sleep Foundation suggests most mattresses last around six to eight years. Our best time to buy a mattress guide can help you avoid full price when you do replace it.

The data says these beds and choices are the wrong fit for most people with hip pain:

• Bear Original — pressure relief of 6.0, the lowest of the beds compared here, and testers measured it 6.5 to 8 firm. A good back-sleeper bed, a poor hip bed.
• Nectar Classic — a medium-firm all-foam bed with an RTINGS side-sleeper score of 6.8. Mattress Clarity says it is not for strict side sleepers.
• Saatva Classic in Luxury Firm — RTINGS scored it only 5.9 for lightweight side sleepers. Choose Plush Soft if you want a Saatva Classic for a sore hip.
• Plush all-foam beds if you are over 230 lb — you sink through to the firm core, and lower-density foams soften fastest under heavier hips.
• Slow, deep memory foam if you have stiff, arthritic hips — the hollow makes turning over and getting up harder. Choose a responsive hybrid.
• Any new mattress if your hip pain is new, severe or comes with fever, swelling or a fall — see a doctor first.

If you share a bed, look for motion isolation as well as relief; our best mattress for couples guide ranks it. Hot sleepers with hip pain should favour coil hybrids over thick foam, covered in our cooling mattress guide. For all-round picks, start at our best mattress roundup, and if you are new to this, read how to choose a mattress first.