Should you flip your mattress? Sleep experts reveal if rotating has replaced flipping a mattress

Just like any other aspect of your home, mattresses have undergone a number of upgrades and modern innovations to make your goodnight’s sleep all the better and more comfortable. And in the process, we stopped hearing about mattress flipping – but should you flip your mattress still?

Do you remember the days when you had to flip your best mattress every few months to keep it in tip top shape? We sure do. But now, it’s all about how often you should rotate your mattress instead. Whatever happened to flipping?

So to clarify this confusion, we asked some mattress experts to shed some light on whether we should still flip our mattress. And this is what they had to say.

Should you flip your mattress?

There is a lot that goes into deciding what mattress to choose for your bed – the level of softness or firmness, whether to opt for a hybrid mattress vs a memory foam, and the list goes on.

And it turns out that whether you should flip your mattress or not depends on the type of mattress you’ve chosen or that was chosen for you. Do you have a one-sided or two-sided mattress?

Two-sided mattresses

Essentially, most of the traditional and older mattress designs were and are two-sided, meaning both of their sides are the same. And this is the type of mattress that requires flipping to maintain an even shape and help you sleep better.

‘Traditional mattresses used to require flipping to prevent sagging and prolong their lifespan,’ says Alison Jones, sleep expert at Sealy UK. 

And Chris Tattersall, sleep expert and MD of Woolroom, still advocates for these types of mattresses. ‘There is no doubt that a double-sided mattress will have more durability as the wear and tear on the individual sleeping surface is reduced by flipping the mattress.’

‘The process of turning will allow the natural fillings within your mattress to settle or ‘bed down’ evenly across the mattress, providing the optimum level of comfort for you and for the life of the mattress too. We recommend flipping and rotating your mattress once a week for the first twelve weeks and then every three months thereafter for best results,’ he advises.

One-sided mattresses

On the other hand, there are one-sided mattresses which make up the majority of modern day mattress designs like the Simba Hybrid Original mattress or the Emma Premium mattress – so if you changed your mattress recently, chances are you own a one-sided design. And this is why mattress flipping is a phrase hardly ever heard in recent years as these new mattresses should not be flipped. They require rotating instead.

‘With advancements in materials and construction techniques, most modern mattresses are designed to provide optimal support and comfort without the need for flipping,’ Alison explains. ‘Mattresses are constructed with bespoke layers that are carefully constructed to provide comfort and support throughout the night. The top layer of the mattress features cushioning foam layers and fibres, while supportive coils are beneath these layers in a unit.’

‘Flipping the mattress would therefore compromise the comfort and performance of the mattress, as it has been carefully layered to ensure the right level of pressure for our bodies through the night. The coils are engineered to respond to pressure in a specific way, compressing from top to bottom. Flipping the mattress would disrupt the design, as the coils aren’t intended to work upside down,’ she concludes.

So before you settle on flipping or rotating your mattress, just make sure you know what type of mattress it is you have in your possession.