“Choose the queen that keeps your partner's movement on their side and stays firm right to the edge, then settle the firmness by how each of you sleeps.”
Queen, full or king for two sleepers
The queen is the most popular mattress size in the US, according to the Sleep Foundation, and for most couples it is the right balance between sleeping space and floor space. The table shows the width each size leaves per sleeper, and the smallest floor area it needs once you add the Sleep Foundation’s recommended 24 inches of walkway at the foot and on both sides, before the frame.
The 5 extra inches of length over a full are what taller sleepers notice first. If you sprawl, share the bed with a child or a dog, or both stand over 6 feet, compare our best king mattresses. Sleeping alone in a small room, a full mattress saves space and money.
Foam, hybrid or coil-on-coil
All-foam queens, here the Nectar Classic, Leesa Original and Siena, cost the least and absorb a partner’s movement best, but they hold more heat and the edges compress when you sit. Hybrids put foam over pocketed coils, so they breathe better, hold the edge and feel livelier. The Helix Midnight, DreamCloud Classic and WinkBed are built this way, and our hybrid mattress comparison goes deeper.
The Saatva Classic goes a step further with two coil layers under a pillow top. That gives the most bounce and the firmest perimeter on this page, and it also lets through a little more of a partner’s movement than foam does. The Purple Mattress is a category of its own, a flexible polymer grid over foam.
Firmness when you sleep differently
Firmness should follow sleep position and body weight. Side sleepers usually need a medium feel so shoulders and hips can sink in, while back and stomach sleepers, and anyone over about 230 lbs, do better on medium-firm to firm. Couples who disagree should meet in the middle rather than buy for one person, which is easy with the Saatva Classic and the WinkBed, sold in several firmness levels at one price. If your preferences are far apart, a queen can’t be split, but a split king, two Twin XL mattresses side by side, can.
Frame, sheets and returns
A 60-inch mattress needs a frame with center support. Saatva’s warranty, for example, requires vertical center support on queen and larger frames, and slats spaced less than 4 inches apart on platform beds. Boxed mattresses go on a platform, slats or a foundation, so you rarely need a traditional box spring. Check the pocket depth of your fitted sheets too, since the 13-inch WinkBed and the 14.5-inch Saatva option need deep-pocket sheets.
Read the return terms before you order. Nectar, DreamCloud and Leesa give a full refund within a year, Saatva deducts a $99 processing fee, and Purple asks you to sleep on its mattress for 21 nights before you can send it back. For every size and type in one place, see our best mattresses ranking.