Get easy tips to make a mattress more comfortable and improve your sleep NOW. I’ve got six fixes, some of which you can get up and try right now. These work if your mattress is too soft, or too firm, or if you’re traveling. Jump straight to the solutions you need:
- My mattress is too firm
- My mattress is too soft
- I’m traveling and I need a quick fix for my hotel bed
- What to do if your bed is still uncomfortable after trying all the things
My Mattress Is Too Firm
Is the mattress quite new? If so it might need a bit of “breaking in”. You can walk on it (don’t jump) and rotate it regularly. Bought your mattress from a shop and the floor model felt softer than what’s been delivered to your house? Your mattress needs breaking in – the showroom model has had lots of people testing it out, and it will have a bit more give.
Your mattress is already broken in and it’s still too firm? Get a soft mattress topper. A mattress topper is a layer that sits on top of your mattress and underneath your bedding. It is designed to supplement the support a mattress gives.
My Mattress Is Too Soft
Again, a mattress topper could be the solution to make a mattress more comfortable, but a different type of topper is needed. You’ll want one that offers more support, such as a memory foam mattress topper. If you are a “hot” sleeper, look out for one with cooling properties.
I’ve gone out and found the firmest mattress topper you can possibly buy, read more about it here.
Another popular trick is to put a piece of board underneath the mattress to firm it up. When I first met my husband, he had a pretty old mattress that should have been replaced but hadn’t gotten around to it. He practically had a jigsaw puzzle of different pieces of wood underneath it. This had helped him extend the mattress’s life, but he extended it a bit too long, in my opinion! There was no saving that mattress!
A third option you can try is adding pillows for extra support. This works particularly well for side sleepers as adding pillows wedged under your back or between your knees tends to be most comfortable. I did this myself during my two pregnancies. Admittedly, this is a different circumstance than the mattress being too soft, but it really was great for that extra bit of support. It was like having a pillow fort in the bed but it made me a lot more comfortable than I would have been otherwise. So if you don’t want to splash on a new topper or re-engineer your bed this could be a quick solution for you to try.
Another thing you can try is modifying the box spring, read more about that over on the home hacks from hunker.com.
I’m Travelling And My Mattress Sucks!
To make a mattress comfortable in a hotel or guest room you have a couple of options.
If the mattress is too soft, try putting extra blankets or pillows from the room underneath the mattress so it offers a bit more support.
If the mattress is too hard, ask for extra quilt/s to put under sheets to act as a makeshift mattress topper.
These are pretty makeshift solutions that are less than ideal. But when you’re in a hotel your options are probably limited. If the above aren’t satisfactory for you, I’d recommend asking to change rooms. Check the bed out in the new room before you accept it of course!
None Of These Worked!
If your bed is still uncomfortable it might be time for a new mattress. Sometimes, it won’t matter what you do to improve the comfort level of the mattress if it just really needs to be replaced. Read here for everything you need to know about whether it’s time for a mattress upgrade. We’ve got some great mattress reviews here on the site too if you decide you need to take the plunge.
