Best Mattress for Disabled People
Last Updated: April, 2024
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A good night's sleep is crucial for everyone, but it's especially important for disabled people. A good mattress can make all the difference in the world when it comes to getting a restful sleep. In this blog post, we will discuss some of the best mattresses for disabled people. We'll also provide tips on how to prepare a room for people with physical disabilities, so stay tuned!
Examples of disabilities include cerebral palsy, where a person isn't able to move correctly or have a normal posture. Another one is arthritis; for example, with leg arthritis, you'll experience lots of pain in one of the joints and possibly swelling which may limit your movement. Other conditions that can be categorized as disabilities are sciatica, scoliosis, blindness, deafness, and back pain, among others that limit movement, cause loss of balance or bring pain to a body part. Surgeries can also be categorized as temporary disabilities since the patient isn't able to take care of themselves.
Such conditions enormously affect sleep quality. The medications they take may cause them to experience a sleep disorder like insomnia and endless pain when sleeping. As a result, they might not be able to get the restorative sleep that their body and mind needs. This is where a good mattress comes in to comfort disabled people.
After testing a couple of mattresses for disabled people, we give the crown to the GhostBed Head-to-Toe Bundle which is hands-down one of the most effective purchases anyone can make. It comes as a 4-in-1 bundle with a mattress, Ghost pillows, a set of sheets, and our favorite adjustable bed base.
If you're looking for reliable and affordable options that give disabled people better sleep, keep reading!
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Our Picks For The 3 Best Mattresses For Disabled People
Best Rated
GhostBed takes the hustle from shopping for bedding essentials for a disabled person, by giving you the ultimate bundle in one purchase.
"700 Tiny Mattresses in One", that's what SleepOvation calls their next level comfort mattress. It's the right mattress for a hot sleeper who often gets sleep deprivation from an uncomfortable hot night.
Pros
Cons
Someone with physical disabilities doesn't just need a good mattress. They also need a good bed base, bed sheets and more. GhostBed ensures that you have the full package with just one purchase. Their Head-to-Toe Bundle comes with several mattress options to choose. If the user is a hot sleeper, the GhostBed Luxe is the best choice. If they are a heavy sleeper, there's the Flex Hybrid mattress and GhostBed Natural for those that only use eco-friendly products.
You'll also get size options from twin xl to split king and 2 color options: gray and white for the mattress you choose.
To give the user the hospital bed experience, that makes them comfortable to sleep. GhostBed offers a queen adjustable base. It features head and foot adjustability, so you can find a comfortable position for sleeping (including zero gravity!). Adjustable beds are good for improving blood circulation, reducing acid reflux, pain relief and to give the user a relating feeling. Speaking of relaxing, GhostBed included a cool feature in their adjustable height bed - a massage technology that's so quiet you can almost not hear it. It comes with a wireless remote control that your loved one can use to adjust themselves in case the sleeping position gets tiresome in the night.
The two memory foam GhostPillows have a zipped washable cover and offer great cooling and breathability while helping with spinal alignment. Your loved one can also enjoy a luxury hotel-feel with the silky-soft TENCEL GhostSheets.
Pros
Cons
Good news is that SleepOvation offers 2 free pillows with the purchase of their 700 Tiny Mattresses in One purchase. Unfortunately, the price is still more compared to the Ghostbed Head-to-Toe Bundle. However, their mattress offers some great deal of benefits.
To clarify, it's not a 700-in-one mattress - won't that be ambitious! - what they have is a memory foam mattress perforated into 700 cuboids. This feature improves airflow within the memory foam mattress, cooling and pressure relief too.
Being a hybrid mattress, it's base consists of innersprings/coils. The coils take airflow to another level and minimize pressure points giving the user a good night's sleep. They make up a good support system for the other layers not to sag. Usually, a memory foam mattress would retain so much heat but the coils and 700 mattress layer help a hot sleeper stay cool throughout the night. This SleepOvation hybrid mattress fits with any bed frame, even an adjustable base.
Pros
Cons
To start off with the last con, Puffy Lux is an all-foam mattress featuring 6 layers of memory foam. Unfortunately, original memory foam retains a lot of heat. While they have some cooling mechanism in place, it's not as effective as that of the last two mattresses discussed in this review. In addition to that, the mattress firmness of the Puffy Lux is a medium-firm feel which will not be a good option for heavy sleepers above 230lbs. Even with a sturdy bed frame, the mattress may still prove to be uncomfortable for heavier sleepers.
However, the Puffy Lux mattress is a quality and durable mattress known to offer a cloud-like feeling. Sleepers feel like they're sleeping on a cloud because of the plush top-most layer of the mattress.
The Lux is great for side sleepers and would also work for back sleepers that are lighter in weight. It offers commendable edge support and motion transfer as well.
Smart Beds For Disabled People
If you’ve been looking for a guardian angel to watch you through the night, you found one - smart beds! Smart beds are high tech electric beds with the ability to monitor your sleep and adjust to help you sleep better. Sounds too good to be true? Hold that thought! We believe that a smart bed is good for people with disabilities because as the night changes and our bodies change too, it’s hard to have someone monitoring your sleep every minute, making a smart bed a very convenient accessory. We have reviewed below two of our favorite smart beds for you to consider.
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Best Rated
1. Ghost SmartBed - 3D Matrix
This 12 inch mattress from one of the best mattress companies, has built in smart technology to promote cooling and comfort to those with physical disabilities. Read on to learn about it's tech features.
2. Pod Mattress
This is one of the best electric beds for people who require special needs. It can be used on any type of bed frame and the Pod cover can be used on any mattress.
Pros
Cons
Let's start by tearing apart the mattress to see its construction. First layer is the Ghost ice cooling cover that protects the whole mattress from damage. This cover is cool to the touch, so you know the effect is not a hoax. Second layer is their gel polymer where you can physically touch and feel the gel. After which we have the gel memory foam. As if not enough, they added an adjustable air chamber second to the last high density foam layer. We can say they have 4 layers of airflow and cooling features. Any hot sleeper will sleep on this mattress like a baby.
Onto their tech features. The mattress features smart sensors which are layered 5th right under the 2-inch soft transition foam. As you sleep, these sensors read your body. They check your pressure, your heart and adjust automatically in real time, taking aside the hassle of waking up to deal with a remote control. Like most quality mattresses for hip replacement patients, Ghostbed made their mattress with 5 body zones: head, shoulders, lumbar, hips and legs on each side of the mattress. This means that if you're sharing a bed with a disabled person, you'll both enjoy a comfortable sleep by setting different controls on the companion app (installed on your mobile device).
If you need more pressure point relief on the hips and your partner needs less pressure relief, you can both have your wishes granted without affecting the other. When getting in bed, you'll first need to adjust the comfort level using your phone. But after you fall asleep, the adjustments will be made automatically by the smart sensors.
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Pros
Cons
The mattress comes with an array of improved features from the Pod 2 that ensures a good night sleep. These features include; an improved sensor technology with up to 4000x higher resolution to support advanced sleep and health tracking. Dual-zone cooling & heating where the mattress has a thermoregulation mechanism set at each side of the bed, and can be set to scheduled personalized temperatures for each phase of the night.
The Pod 3 also features sleep tracking (habits and duration) and personalized health reports on things like your heart rate variability (HRV) and respiratory rate. If you'd like a tool that gently wakes you up, then Pod 3 can either slowly increase the temperature of your mattress or you can set it to vibrate. Both can be done only on your side of the bed. If you're sleeping with a disabled person and wouldn't want to wake them, use the temperature feature since the vibrating feature is too loud even at its lowest volume.
If you sign up for the 8+ Pro subscription, you can get other features such as a sleep content library with relaxation sounds, yoga guides, guided breathing and more (all these digitally on the Pod app). Mostly for disabled people, they may need a feature that notifies you whenever something in their sleep pattern gets abnormal. 8+ offers digital insights on sleep patterns and insights on how to sleep healthy. Finally, you'll get a temperature autopilot feature. When you enable temperature autopilot, this mechanism will learn your ideal thermal environment and automatically adjust to optimize your sleep.
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Preparing a Bedroom for a Disabled Person
Getting a good mattress, an impeccable bed frame, and luxury beddings isn't all you need to do to ensure that a disabled person has a restful night. You also need to consider a couple more things to accommodate them and make their bedroom life and home life bearable.
Give them a bedroom on the ground floor
Physical disabilities already make it hard enough for people to exist, let alone go up a million flights of stairs just to access their bedroom. To reduce the hustle, assign your loved one a bedroom on the ground floor. This will reduce the amount of time and energy they exhaust to get to sleep. It will also reduce the amount of pain they may experience climbing the stairs. Whenever they want to sleep, lie down for a rest, or take a nap, their bedroom should be less than two minutes away.
Have a toilet nearby
In addition to a ground bedroom, another important factor is having a washroom close to their bedroom. If your home has a guest bedroom and bathroom on the ground floor close to each other (or ensuite), that'll make everything easier for them. If not, then you can find a way to have a makeshift bathroom near their bedroom.
Ensure there's space for maneuvering
Free up some space around their pathway to the door, to the closet, and to the windows. You can take any unnecessary items to storage. A busy pathway can leave them struggling to find their way or even tripping on something and falling. The latter can cause much more harm to their situation.
Noise-free environment
Don't play loud music when they're taking a nap. Don't have animals or loud ticking clocks in their rooms. The environment should have pin-drop silence. Silence helps their mind relax and get into a state of rest. Noise will keep their minds actively thinking and bothering about their surroundings.
Hard not slippery floors
Just like a congested pathway can have a disabled person falling, so will slippery floors. In case your house is made of slippery floors, carpet the area where this person often walks, to keep the ground hard enough to support them and wheelchair users as well. On the same note, ensure their sandals or shoes have a strong grip too.
Waterproof mattresses or protectors
For people who often have accidents or spill water on their bed, a waterproof mattress should be your go-to. These types of mattresses will prevent any liquid from seeping in and ruining the mattress layers. Waterproof mattresses are also great for people with incontinence issues. If you can't seem to find a good waterproof mattress, then buy a mattress protector. The outcome will be the same.
Get Some bedding accessories to aid their sleep
Before we list some bedroom accessories, let's provide a few solutions to what we've already discussed.
We mentioned mattress protectors or buying a waterproof mattress. For this, another option would be buying a bed pad, which is also waterproof. You can either get ones that are disposable, or the washable and reusable bed pads.
If you can't situate a bedroom or sleeping area on the ground floor and the person with disability has to go up the stairs to access facilities, get stairlifts. Stairlifts work for wheelchair users as well. If the user can walk with minimal effort on their own, or is an elderly, then other aids like a climbing cane, among other stairlift alternatives.
Lastly, in case you can't have a toilet nearby, you can purchase a commode chair to reside in the bedroom close to the user.
Here's a list of other bedroom accessories to consider.
Safety mat - Also called a fall-out mat, these are placed on the ground next to the user's bed to protect them when they fall, so they don't hit the ground.
Fall alarms - Anything can happen when a disabled person wheels around the house and even when they are sleeping and they fall. To be informed immediately, consider getting them a fall alarm or a home safety alert, which they can wear even as they sleep.
Bed rails - Bed rails help with further protection from falls. Bedrails are installed on the sides of the user's bed and they can additionally use them as support when getting in and out of bed. An alternative can be grab handles and hand blocks that address the same mobility issues. Grab handles can also be used around the house like in the bathroom, or when getting into a car and for many other uses.
There's a long list of accessories you can purchase, so allow me to leave it at that for now.
How to Choose the Right Mattress for a Disabled Person
Now that you know how to prepare a bedroom for people with disabilities, it's time to talk about the best mattresses for them. The right mattress will help ease pain, reduce tossing and turning, and promote quality sleep. It should also accommodate their specific needs according to their disability and any sleep disorders they may have.
Mattress Firmness - Depending on the body weight of the sleeper, the required mattress firmness level for people with disabilities will vary. Anyone below 250 pounds can use a mattress with medium high density foam. Above that will require a firm or extra firm mattress to prevent joint pain and muscle spasms when sleeping.
Feel preference - Your sleep quality is also affected by personal preference. Some sleepers prefer the sink feel that a memory foam mattress offers. If your user doesn't, then you'll need to find a mattress that offers a lift or cloud-feeling. This helps them feel like they're sleeping on top of the mattress and not being cradled by it. On the same note, sprung mattresses are not everyone's choice. While it's not forbiden for disabled people to sleep on hybrid mattresses, one may not be a fan.
Sleeping positions - Is your loved one a back, side or stomach sleeper? Find a mattress that offers pressure relief in the right places. However, depending on where the disability is, it's more suitable to have them sleeping either on their back and elevated using an adjustable base or mattress elevators or sleeping on their side.
Mattress materials - different mattress types are made using different materials. It's important to confirm that the mattress you purchase is hypoallergenic and doesn't contain harmful chemical substances such as VOCs. These features can drastically affect the sleep quality of your loved one. Materials such as latex foam, while organic and eco friendly, it may affect anyone with allergy to latex.
Temperature - A foam mattress has high heat retention capabilities. However, some companies have managed to device features that help the mattress cool. For a cold sleeper, foam is okay. But, for a hot sleeper, natural latex foam mattresses, an innerspring mattress, hybrid mattresses, and gel memory foam mattresses will do.
Keep in mind the specific needs they have for their health condition.
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Conclusion
As you've seen, when it comes to choosing the best mattress for disabled people, there is no one-size-fits-all solution. The best mattress for a disabled person is the one that meets their specific needs. If you're not sure what type of mattress your loved one needs, we recommend talking to their doctor for orthopedic advice. They will be able to help you choose the ideal mattress for your loved one.