Best Bunk Bed Mattresses – Which Will You Choose?

Our Expert’s Take

If we’re talking about the best bunk bed mattresses, we have to start off with our Editor’s Pick, the Helix Kids mattress. The Helix Kids is a flippable mattress that features one side for 3 to 7-year-olds and a side for 8 to 12-year-olds. As your child grows, you can simply flip the mattress to offer comfort for older children.

This also makes it a good fit for many different sleeping positions. If your child sleeps on their side, you can opt for the softer side and, if they sleep on their back or stomach, choose the firmer side.

The mattress is also thinner, making it a great fit for most bunk beds. The 8” mattress will sit low in bunk beds, allowing kids to have some good headroom.

What We Love About the Helix Kids Mattress

• It has a flippable design with two firmness levels, so it works well for a wide range of ages and sleep positions.
• The mattress has a Tencel cover and breathable innerspring layer to keep your kids sleeping cooler.
• It has excellent edge support, so you can spread out to the sides of the mattress without feeling like you’ll slide off.

What to Keep in Mind About the Helix Kids Mattress

• Families with limited budgets will want to seek out cheaper options.
• If you like a slow-moving memory foam feel, this one will likely be too bouncy.

Other User Reviews

Based on 479 reviews on the company website, the Helix Kids has an average rating of 4.7 out of 5. Many customers liked its grown-up quality and comfort and felt that it did a good job of supporting growing sleepers. Some, however, felt that both sides of the mattress felt too soft.

Read our full Helix Kids mattress review for more information. Or check out our list of Best Mattresses for more great options. 

Our Expert’s Take

Bunk beds are a great idea for kids’ bedrooms as they help conserve space and leave plenty of room for floor activities. If you have one or two children who will be posting up on your bunk bed, it’s time to take a look at the Nolah Nurture mattress.

The Nolah Nurture is a hybrid mattress that features organic wool, organic cotton, and CertiPUR-US® certified foam. It is designed specifically with children in mind and features both a soft side and a firm side for children of different sizes and ages.

This also makes the Nolah Nurture ideal for growing children. As your child gets older, you can simply flip the mattress to give them the comfort and support they require!

What We Love About the Nolah Nurture

• Like most of our picks, it has a flippable design with dual firmness levels, so it suits all sleep positions and ages.
• It has excellent cooling thanks to its coil construction and gel-infused memory foam.
• The mattress is made from organic, eco-friendly materials.

What to Keep in Mind About the Nolah Nurture

• Parents on a tight budget will likely prefer a cheaper mattress.
• It doesn’t have the best edge support, so if you’re sitting on the sides, you might experience some dipping.

Other User Reviews

The Nolah Nurture gets an average rating of 5 out of 5 on the company website, where there are no available reviews.

Read the full Nolah Nurture mattress review for more information. Or check out our list of Best Mattresses for Kids for more great options.

Our Expert’s Take

Fiberglass has started to be used as a less expensive flame retardant in cheaper mattresses. However, prolonged or, in some cases, short-term exposure to fiberglass particles can cause eye damage, skin irritation, and lung inflammation, to name a few. The Bear Cub is a competitively priced but luxury-grade hybrid mattress designed for kids and teenagers that is free of fiberglass and notably GREENGUARD Gold and CertiPUR-US® certified. This means the Bear Cub is built to be more hypoallergenic and eco-friendly while still living up to fire safety standards. 

Beyond being fiberglass-free (using rayon, a natural fiber as an alternative), comfort and support are key features of the Bear Cub’s three-layer hybrid design. The bunk-bed-friendly mattress has a 6-inch coil base for spinal support and airflow, a polyfoam comfort core, and a gel memory foam layer for pressure relief and solace. In addition, on top of the Bear Cub is a eucalyptus-derived tencel cover that is meant to help wick moisture while preventing body heat from getting trapped. 

The Bear Cub is designed for kids and teenagers. However, it will still deliver the comfort and support expected from an adult-targeted luxury mattress, just in case you need extra space in your home for guests. 

The Bear Cub is a great choice for chemical-weary parents and sleepers seeking a quality mattress brand that doesn’t cut corners in pursuit of the company’s bottom line.

What We Love About the Bear Cub

• You’ll get plenty of years of use: The Bear Cub is designed to support children and teenagers.
• The Bear Cub offers a healthier and non-toxic sleeping experience, making it more suitable for children or teenagers prone to allergies.
• The Bear Cub uses higher-quality materials in its construction while still being competitively priced for a luxury-brand bed.

What to Keep in Mind About the Bear Cub

• The Bear Cub is only available in a medium-firmness option (6.8/10), which may be too firm or soft for your child’s needs.
• The bed is not waterproof.

Other User Reviews

Out of 53 verified buyer reviews on Bear Cub’s website, the mattress achieved an average rating of 4.7/5. One cute review shining a light on the bed’s versatility writes, “After scouring reviews, I decided to get the Bear Cub mattress for my 4-year-old’s first big boy bed. He loves it, and so do I, since inevitably, I have to crawl in bed with him to help him fall asleep. I end up falling asleep, too!”

Our full review of the Bear Cub is coming soon. In the meanwhile, you can also check out our list of Best Mattresses without Fiberglass for more great options.

Our Expert’s Take

Twin-size mattresses are usually a good size for bunk beds, and the Saatva Youth is one of the best on the market. The mattress comes from Saatva, a producer of high-quality, luxury mattresses.

As the name suggests, the Saatva Youth is made specifically with children in mind. It boasts supportive coils, high-density foams, and an overall luxury design. The Saatva Youth is also flippable and offers one side for 3 to 7-year-olds and one side for 8 to 12-year-olds.

The Saatva Youth is also 10” tall, making it the best Saatva mattress for a bunk bed. Low-profile mattresses work better with bunk beds, and this is the thinnest Saatva mattress. We will note that you should use the Saatva Youth on the bottom bunk, as it might be unsafe to put it on the top bunk.

What We Love About the Saatva Youth

• Its flippable design and dual firmness levels means you can use this mattress for many years.
• Lightweight back, side, and stomach sleepers should enjoy a balance of comfort and support in all positions.
• It’s highly durable, with a construction made from sturdy coils and high-density foam that should hold up for years.

What to Keep in Mind About the Saatva Youth

• Because it’s designed for kids, heavier sleepers will likely find it doesn’t provide enough support.
• The mattress comes with a 365-night trial, so your kid has a full year to see if it works for them.

Other User Reviews

Based on 25 reviews on the company website, the Saatva Youth has an average rating of 4.8 out of 5. Many customers liked its comfort and quality levels. Some, however, complained about the customer service.

Read our full Saatva Youth mattress review for more information. Or check out our list of Best Twin Mattresses for more great options.

Our Expert’s Take

Finding the perfect balance between price and quality is a staple of choosing the right bunk bed for your home. Having said that, bargain hunters should take note of the Brooklyn Bedding Essential, a luxury mattress available for an affordable price. By manufacturing their mattresses in-house and shipping directly to the consumer, the Brooklyn Bedding Essential keeps its quality up and the price down ($399 for a twin), which they call “smart pricing.”

The Essential is a four-layered hybrid mattress with a medium-firmness (6.5/10) that is not too hard or not too soft. At 10″ tall, it has a .25-inch flex base for durability underneath an 8-inch coil layer for support, bounce, and airflow using Brooklyn Bedding’s proprietary Ascension X coils. The top two comfort layers consist of a high-density foam layer for additional support and to prevent sinkage, plus a 1.5-inch thick quilted comfort top layer for pressure relief and easement. Despite not having some of the fancier temperature-regulating technology associated with some luxury beds, our testers still found the Essential to be a good choice for people who sleep warm, as it didn’t trap body heat.  

The Brooklyn Essential should provide quality rest for both side and back sleepers; however, our testers did find that stomach sleepers may struggle to get the support and comfort they need. Overall, Brooklyn Bedding offers its Essential mattress at a haggler-friendly price without compromising quality by producing it in the USA and bypassing the brick-and-mortar retail middleman.

What We Love About the Brooklyn Bedding Essential

• The Brooklyn Bedding Essential is an affordable luxury mattress made in the USA.
• Testers found the bed’s coiled layer to help enhance impressive support and contouring.
• Testers found that back and side sleepers should experience adequate lumbar support without problematic sinkage despite having two all-foam top layers.

What to Keep in Mind About the Brooklyn Bedding Essential

• It doesn’t have the best edge support, so you might not feel fully supported when sitting on its sides.

• Testers found that the Essential may be too soft for stomach sleepers (particularly heavier ones) to feel comfortable and supported.
• While testers believe this mattress should last you a solid seven years, they did find that the Essential model may be a bit less durable than some other Brooklyn Bedding mattresses.

Other User Reviews

The Brooklyn Essential managed to keep a quality 4.8/5 score out of 566 reviews on its website. One reviewer, who bought twin sixes mattresses for bunk beds, said the beds were a breeze to unbox. “We left it lying on the floor of our living room for about a week before transporting it up to our grandson. I did lay down on it, and it is very comfortable. Our grandson thinks so too.” Some reviewers left negative feedback who didn’t find the mattress met their firmness preferences, however.

Read the full Brooklyn Bedding Essential mattress review for more information. Or check out our list of Best Cheap Mattresses for more affordable mattress options.

Our Expert’s Take

Considering how much of our lives we spend in our beds, you probably want yourself or your kids to have the least “toxic” sleeping experience possible. The Birch Kids mattress is a certifiably 100% all-natural and organic bed. It is both GOTS (Global Organic Textile Standard) certified and GREENGUARD Gold Certified, providing reassurance of its safety. 

Notably, Birch Kids has a unique two-sided design. One side has a firmer (7/10) feel to support children 3-7, and the other has a medium-firm (6/10) feel suggested for kids 8-12. This flippable design and the durable construction of the Birch Kids should get you plenty of years out of it. At the Birch Kids’ core is a layer of individually wrapped steel coils for support and breathability. Surrounding the coils is a layer of all-natural latex (eco-INSTITUT Certified Latex) that furthers support and helps the mattress be more responsive to your body. Above the latex layer are two plush 100% organic wool layers that stimulate breathability, increase coziness, and act as a natural flame retardant. On top is a layer of 100% fair-trade organic cotton, which is softer or firmer based on which side of the bed you use. Technically, the Birch Kids has seven layers if you count them all, but from the coiled core to the top, it has four layers, meaning it’s kind of two beds in one. 

For anyone seeking a higher-level hypoallergenic and eco-friendly mattress, the Birch Kids really stands out, especially compared to the majority of conventional mattresses on the market today. 

What We Love About the Birch Kids Natural

• The bed’s flippable design, offering versatility and adaptability, makes it a great choice for the long term.
• For eco-friendly or health-conscious consumers, this mattress is really hard to beat in terms of the materials it uses or the certifications it has.
• Because the Birch Kids is 100% natural and organic, you don’t need to worry as much about off-gassing when you receive it as you would for less naturally made beds.

What to Keep in Mind About the Birch Kids Natural

• Because it’s designed for kids, heavier sleepers will likely find it doesn’t provide enough support.

• Due to the costlier materials used in its construction, the Birch Kids may be a bit pricier than other children’s beds.
• If the mattress doesn’t meet your standards, returning it will come with a $99 removal fee.

Other User Reviews

Birch Kid’s website has over 4,500 reviews of this mattress, averaging 4.5/5. One parent, who is a verified buyer, wrote, “I bought this for my son, and it’s so comfortable. I wish I bought these for my older kids, too! Organic and clean yet comfortable. Highly recommend!”

Full review of the Birch Kids Natural coming soon. Check out our list of Best Organic Mattresses for more great options.

Our Expert’s Take

The bottom bunk of many bunk beds can hold a full size mattress. This gives that lucky person a bit more room to move around. If your bunk bed requires a full size mattress, consider the Dreamfoam Essential mattress.

The Dreamfoam Essential is a memory foam mattress that comes in numerous heights. The 6” model is the thinnest mattress on this list, so it will also work well for the top bunk. It won’t rise above the safety rails, making it safer for those sleeping on the top bunk.

The Essential also has one of the lower price points for a full size mattress. For a full size, 6” mattress, it costs less than $500, which is quite a steal!

What We Love About the Dreamfoam Essential

• The mattress is firmer than average, which helps back sleepers get the lumbar support they need.
• It’s an excellent option for budget shoppers—a queen costs less than $500, even before discounts.
• Lightweight sleepers and kids will get excellent support without having to worry about bottoming out.

What to Keep in Mind About the Dreamfoam Essential

• Stomach sleepers won’t get the firmness and support they need, nor will heavier sleepers.
• It’s less durable than some other mattresses.

Other User Reviews

Based on 4,041 reviews on the company website, the Dreamfoam Essential has an average rating of 4.7 out of 5. Many customers liked its firmness level and extensive size options, and felt that it did a good job of contouring to pressure points. Some, however, felt that it was too hard.

Read the full Dreamfoam Essential mattress review for more information. Or check out our list of Best Full Size Mattresses for more great options.