Consumer Reports Best Pillow Top Mattress Pad

Top Mattresses For Comfort and Style

You may not be ready to buy a new mattress or your old one might have lost its comfort. The right top mattress can bring a new life to your bed.

Pillow top mattresses have extra padding sewn to the top of the mattress cover. They’re typically comfortable but not suited for every sleeping style.

Support

A mattress topper is an inexpensive way to give your bed a comfortable makeover. It sits right on top of your mattress, held in place by straps. They can vary in thickness from about an inch or two to as thick as eight inches or more. The thinner ones are not as supportive or cushioning but can hide lumps and bumps on your mattress.

Memory foam conforms to the body, providing comfort and pressure point relief. It also provides good motion isolation, meaning partners won’t disturb each other as much when changing positions in bed.

This topper is available in six bed sizes and is made in the U.S. using natural latex that’s sustainably farmed. It’s breathable, helping to keep the sleep surface cool and dry. It’s encased in a cotton cover that looks and feels luxurious. It is hypoallergenic and washable, and resists mildew and mites. It is backed by a generous warranty.

Comfort

This mattress is built with foams that create a plush feel and medium amount of body contouring. It provides a solid support that can promote spinal alignment and relieve back pain. It’s a great choice for back, stomach, or side sleepers.

Flip it over to choose between the firm or soft side. It has a layer made of softer latex and a layer made of memory foam.

Comfort varies by person and can be hard to quantify, but this mattress has plenty of positive feedback from our team, including anecdotal evidence like waking up without back pain or never sweating through sheets. It’s also affordable and comes with a generous trial period. However, it doesn’t have the same cradling feel as an all-foam model and tends to compress around the edges more than some other mattresses. To properly cover the mattress, you’ll need a fitted sheet with a deep pocket.

Durability

A pillow top mattress has a thick layer of soft material that is glued or stitched to the mattress cover. It’s usually between 2 and 4 inches thick and can be made of many different materials.

The cushioned topper helps reduce pressure on key points like the hips, shoulders and back. It also distributes weight evenly for a better night’s sleep. This is especially important for people with back, shoulder or hip pain.

Pillow top mattresses tend to sag with time. This is often unavoidable, but rotating the mattress every few months can help prolong its life. Also, pillow top mattresses tend to be deeper than standard mattresses, so it’s important to select sheets that can accommodate the additional cushioning.

Value

The Allswell mattress-in-a box is the newest offering from Walmart. It offers great value for $699 per queen. It’s a hybrid bed with layers of temperature-regulating foam and copper-gel-infused memory foam. It’s not as plush as top ten mattresses, but it is still comfortable for most people.

It has excellent edge support for a mattress made of foam. It is available in a wide range of sizes, including California king and a huge 80 x 76-inch king for heavyweight couples.

Claire is Tom’s Guide’s expert on mattresses. She is responsible for testing all sleep products for the website. She has years of product-testing experience and is a certified sleep coach to help readers find the best beds for them. She formerly covered home and bedroom buys for Real Homes, and has also written for The Spruce, Apartment Therapy, and Livingetc. She loves to help readers find solutions to their sleep issues and wind down at night. Her favorite mattress is Nest Bedding Alexander medium firm.