9 best kids’ mattresses that ensure a good night’s sleep

This high-end hybrid mattress certainly means business, featuring six layers, including foam, 960 pocket springs, comfort base and super-soft bamboo cover. It arrived tightly rolled up but puffed up incredibly quickly – It took just a few hours to transform into a sumptuously thick mattress, and I didn’t notice any odours as it settled. The handles on the underside of the made carrying and moving it into place very easy.

The mattress offered the perfect medium firmness for my six-year-old tester, and it was immediately and consistently comfortable – in fact, I was quite reluctant to leave the comfort of the Panda mattress after bedtime stories were finished. My tester has ‘The Princess and the Pea’ levels of sensitivity, so naturally she loved the smooth top layer and absence of any tufted buttons.

Bamboo is such a perfect temperature-regulating fabric, particularly for little kids who can often overheat during deep sleep. My tester is quite a sweaty sleeper, but I’ve noticed a dramatic improvement since we started trialling this mattress. The bamboo-infused foam is highly breathable, as well as being odour-resistant and, paired with the removable (and machine washable) bamboo cover, it really does help keep little snoozers at the perfect temperature. I’m very impressed.

I appreciate that it has a high price point for a children’s mattress, but with a generous 10-year guarantee, I think it’s such a worthwhile investment. While it’s too thick to use on a bunk bed, I feel it’s durable, high quality, and the perfect mattress to see your kids through those ‘never stops growing’ years.

If you’re after the bespoke support of a hybrid mattress for your child, but can’t stretch to the likes of the Simba, this is an excellent budget buy at just over £200. Arriving neatly rolled and tightly wrapped, I was impressed with how lightweight and easy to manoeuvre the mattress was – perfect if you need to carry it up numerous flights of stairs to reach your home.

While I found the mattress expanded slightly after unboxing, it remained relatively compact at just under 16cm in depth – perfect for use with bunk beds or high sleepers. After 10 hours, I felt it had reached full ‘puffiness’, although I did notice a slight odour remained for a few days before disappearing.

Despite its modest price tag, the Stompa S was rated as super comfortable by our 10-year-old tester. The soft cushioned top layer and pocket spring system provided a fantastic level of support. What we loved the most, though, was the active airflow tech, which promised to regulate the temperature of little sleepers while wicking away moisture for a cool night’s sleep. Our tester is usually a sweaty sleeper who likes to bundle up, but we noticed a significant difference when using the Stompa S over his usual mattress. He remained cooler and slept a lot better.

The fact it has a removable and washable cover just makes us love this mattress even more.

Designed for children aged between four and 12, the mattress is packed with traceable British wool fibres and a pocket sprung core to help alleviate pressure points and promote optimal spinal alignment. In testing, we definitely found this mattress gave great support and felt reassuringly firm yet undeniably comfy to sleep on. In fact, my first thought was “I want one of these mattresses” (good news, adult singles and doubles are available).

Wool is the star of the show here, offering excellent temperature-regulating properties. It’s breathable and does a great job of wicking moisture away for an undisturbed night’s sleep. It’s also naturally flame-retardant and antimicrobial, so suitable for children with allergies.

My tester loved this mattress, and I was a big fan of the edge-to-edge support it provided. If I’m being picky, I would have liked handles on the side to help move it around and flip, but overall, it’s a great quality mattress that is designed to last.

My nine-year-old has never paid much attention to his mattress before, but he immediately noticed the difference when we swapped to the Slumberdown two-in-one, declaring it “the comfiest mattress ever”. It’s a genius concept designed to accommodate growing kids, with one side of the mattress a medium firmness aimed at pre-teens, and the other slightly firmer, aimed at children aged 15 years and up. Essentially, you get two mattresses in one, simply by flipping it over. I was unsure as to whether the double-sided nature of the mattress would affect comfort or support, but both sides are excellent quality.

While we tried out both sides, my nine-year-old tester favoured the softer side (ideal for his age group). This provided fantastic edge-to-edge support – the reinforced edge features firmer outer rows of pocket springs, perfect for stopping younger kids rolling out of bed, as well as helping to prevent sagging when teens use the edge to sit on while gaming. Genius!

The high-resilience foam did a good job of supporting our sleeping tester, while comfortably moulding to his body, and I found the Temperature+ treated fabric (designed to keep the body at the optimal temperature of 37 degrees) kept him sweat-free at night. I also like the addition of a pro-bio planet-friendly treatment to prevent dust mites, allergens and bad smells (music to any teen parent’s ears).

Made by hand in Devon, this is one of the best non-toxic, organic and fully natural mattresses I’ve ever tested. Arriving full-size, the quality was instantly obvious after unboxing and the faint wool smell vanished within an hour. Designed specifically for older children and teens in mind, it’s a luxurious investment buy that feels made to last.

It was an overwhelming hit with our testers – grown-ups included – who all rated the firm yet slightly springy support. One of my testers isn’t usually a fan of tufting buttons, but we found these to be very well covered and you cannot feel them at all, even without a mattress topper.

The mattress is filled with organic coir fibres from coconut husks, sandwiched between natural latex, cotton and wool layers. The result? Next-level comfort that made it hard for our tester to get out of bed. It offers brilliant breathability, and the cotton-wool cover is naturally fireproof, as well as bedbug and dust mite-resistant, making this ideal for children with allergies.

It's one of the priciest mattresses in my roundup, but for good reason. The artisan quality shines through here, and this is one durable mattress that will last you a good 10 years. A very close contender for my best buy.

Simba is renowned for its high-tech, high-spec hybrid mattresses, and all of that fancy innovation has been tweaked to suit younger sleepers in this rather impressive children’s hybrid design.

Five layers of foam and pocket springs – there are 970 titanium alloy springs spread across the single mattress – including a very soft sleep surface, make this a really luxurious choice for growing kids. My 12-year-old tester absolutely raved about it, and we found it firm to the touch, while providing responsive and adaptive support as our tester moved around in their sleep.

The open-structure foam base includes heat-diffusing graphite, and we certainly found it to offer a good level of breathability and temperature regulation. It also adds another level of comfort, making this mattress grown-up friendly, too.

Made using 75 per cent upcycled foams and featuring a soft, zip-off cover made from 100 per cent upcycled ocean plastics, this is perfect if you’re after an eco-friendly kids’ mattress that doesn’t cost a fortune.

Arriving rolled and vacuum-packed, we found it took a couple of days to fully puff up and the faint plasticky smell disappeared after a day. At 15cm, it’s the thinnest out of all the mattresses we tested, but we didn’t feel this affected comfort in any way.

The three foam layers include a reflex foam layer for responsive bounce-back support, as well as a memory foam upper for a cocooning, body moulding comfort. My seven-year-old tester loved the smooth cover (”no bumpy bits”), and I loved that it could be removed and machine-washed when needed. The head-to-toe support and medium firm tension make this a great all-rounder, particularly for bunk beds or high sleepers.

This good value offering from Jay-Be is foam free and free of potentially harmful chemicals. It also features a soft, knitted fabric top layer, made from hypoallergenic material.

Once unrolled, this mattress sprung into shape and expanded quickly, although we did find it took a couple of days to properly fill out and become more comfortable. It features deep e-pocket springs, which are designed to respond independently as your child moves around. We certainly found the mattress moulded well to our eight-year-old tester’s body.

The Quest Q2 extreme comfort lived up to its name, with our tester enjoying some great nights’ sleep while trying it out. I liked the addition of the advanced spacer layer to help with breathability and temperature regulation, as well as the three fibre layers that upped the comfort factor even more. At 18cm, it may be slightly too tall for bunk bed use – I’d suggest checking the height of your guard rail to make sure it’s at least 16cm taller than the mattress height.

If you’re searching for a seriously luxurious mattress for your teen and budget is no option, this high-end design from Sealy is the dream. Our 16-year-old tester was blown away by the plush comfort of the hydra 2300, which at 32cm was literally double the thickness of his old mattress. Arriving full-size, it took two of us to get this up the stairs (a job made slightly trickier as there are no handles on the mattress).

Teens need plenty of support as they grow, but can get away with a slightly softer level of firmness, and this mattress definitely hits the right balance between comfort and support. The pocket springs offered responsive support as our tester slept, while the 100 reinforced springs around the outer edge of the mattress are perfect for helping it keep its shape no matter what.

Endorsed by Allergy UK, the mattress is ideal for teens with allergies. It boasts some fancy tech to keep teens cool, offering excellent breathability, temperature regulation and moisture wicking, and our tester felt cool and comfortable at night as a result.

There’s no getting around the incredibly high price point, but if you’re after supreme comfort and gentle support for your growing teen, this really is next level. It’s durable, maintenance-free (no need to flip or rotate the mattress, ever) and truly indulgent. The only downside, according to our teen tester? “It makes it too hard to get out of bed in the morning.” Currently, the hydra 2300 is only available to buy in-store.