Tom’s Guide Sleep Awards 2025: Best Mattress for Back Pain

The image shows two women sitting on top of the cream and gold Saatva Classic mattress. One is examining the surface of the mattress while the other is making notes on a laptop. There is a Tom's Guide Sleep Awards 2025 badge laid over the top of the image. — (Image credit: Future)

When selecting the Best Mattress for Back Pain, we searched for a mattress that boasted outstanding lumbar support, blissful pressure relief and universal appeal for all sleep styles. Because while there are plenty of mattresses on the market that offer some of these metrics, very few can deliver on all.

Taking the crown as the Best Mattress for Back Pain in our inaugural Tom’s Guide Sleep Awards 2025 is the Saatva Classic, a luxury hybrid-style bed that sits at the top of our guide to the best mattress of the year for all sleepers and budgets.

Read on for a closer look at why the Saatva Classic is our Best Mattress for Back Pain winner for most people…

Tom's Guide Sleep Features Editor lies on her side on the Saatva Classic mattress during a testing panel review session at our sleep studio — (Image credit: Future)

Unbeatable back support for most people

The Saatva Classic is a luxury innerspring hybrid mattress that’s handcrafted in the US and approved by the American Chiropractic Association. It’s available in three firmness options and two heights, making it suitable for (nearly) all sleepers.

While it wouldn’t look out of place in a five star hotel, it’s what’s going on beneath the cream and gold cover that impressed our testers most in our Saatva Classic mattress review. First, a 3” Euro top cover delivers blissful pressure relief along the touch points of the mattress, while denser quilting provides the much-needed lumbar support.

Beneath this cushioning layer, a ½” CertiPUR-US certified memory foam lumbar crown gently cradles your lower spine, preventing it from falling out of healthy alignment with the rest of your body (that’s a big no-no for back pain.)

This is underpinned by a breathable dual coil support system that contours to your body as you sleep, while increasing the overall durability of the bed. This is an important feature for anyone looking to invest in a quality mattress for back pain that is built to last.

A tester sits on the edge of the bet fiberglass-free mattress, the Saatva Classic — (Image credit: Future)

As the best hybrid mattress we've ever tested, the Saatva Classic was a clear winner for this award — but that doesn't mean it didn't face stiff competition. The biggest threat came from another mattress in Saatva's suite of high-quality beds; the Saatva RX.

In our Saatva RX mattress review our lead tester, who has recurrent back pain and mild scoliosis, felt an improvement in her pain levels while sleeping on the bed. That's likely down to its memory foam lumbar crown and therapeutic support core.

However, as a specialist mattress for those with chronic back and joint conditions, the RX is on the pricey side at $2,999 for a queen (even with $400 off in the Saatva mattress sale.) Unlike the Classic, which is available in three firmness options and two heights, the RX is available in one tension, which we found slightly too firm for lighter weight side sleepers.

In contrast, the Classic is an excellent all-rounder for all sleepers, including most people with back pain. Plus, a queen size Classic has dropped to $1,739 in the Saatva Black Friday mattress sale.

While it is worth noting that it has a weight capacity of 600lbs (the Saatva HD has a weight capacity of 1,000lbs), the Classic is our recommendation for anyone seeking blissful support for general aches and pains, phenomenal pressure relief, plus reliable temperature regulation for hot sleepers.

Nicola is the Sleep Editor at Tom’s Guide, where she helps steer the mattress and sleep content published on Tom’s Guide, including our Best Mattress for Back Pain buying guide. With a career in journalism spanning the best part of two decades, Nicola brings experience to the team and the knowledge of what makes a great article, whether that’s a how-to mattress cleaning feature, a deep dive into melatonin gummies, or an in-depth mattress review. As a sleep editor, few better understand how important a decent mattress is to the overall quality of our sleep, and precisely how our sleep impacts our physical and mental health. As well as tackling the vast topic of sleep, Nicola joins the raft of expert mattress specialists at Tom’s Guide, who test and compare a wide range of mattresses in order to guide readers towards the very best options on the market.

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