Best Lightweight Mattress

Your Murphy bed could be failing you. The mattress it came with was terrible from the beginning and over the years has only gotten more so. You’d like to replace it with something that won’t send your guests screaming to a hotel or you lurching off to sleep somewhere else, but standard mattresses probably won’t work because of their weight and depth.

A Murphy bed mattress should be lightweight and thinner so that it will fold back up to the wall without you having to throw your back out. Let’s take a look at our top picks for a lightweight mattress for your Murphy bed and answer a few questions you may have about how to pick one.

What Kind Of Mattress Do I Need?

Murphy beds have a particular set of requirements that you need for the mattress to work. On average, they should be about ten inches in depth or less so that you don’t have a considerable portion sticking out of the wall. It should also be absolutely as light as possible because you’ll be needing all your power to push it back up against the wall when you aren’t using it.

Those two considerations are first, but once you find some mattresses that meet both your size and weight requirements, there are a handful of other things you need to decide. These characteristics can help you narrow down to your perfect Murphy bed.

Best Lightweight Mattress For Murphy Bed – The List

Our list includes quality mattresses that come at just the right depth with an excellent weight limit. They shouldn’t cause you too much issues getting back up into storage, and all have some kind of guarantee to make sure it’s the right choice for you.

Best Overall – Puffy Original Mattress

Our first mattress is an all foam option that uses three layers to achieve both cooling and contouring. The first layer is a soft bit of foam that allows your body to sink into the mattress at its widest points while the foam fills in gaps around your waist and lumbar region. The layer underneath is a transitional foam that’s highly adaptive. It provides support where you need it and contouring where you need it. It’s temperature neutral as well, helping keep you comfortable whether you’re hot or cold.

The bottom layer is dense support foam that pushes back against your weight and keeps your spine aligned. It gives the mattress good edge support and helps cut down on motion transfer from one side to the other. It has a stain resistant cover material to protect the layers and the depth measures at ten inches.

It comes in a range of sizes and ships to your door for free. You unpack the box and gently tear the plastic away to help it inflate. It comes with a 101-night sleep trial, so you have plenty of time to try things out and a lifetime guarantee against mattress defects.

What Customers Like:

• Lengthy sleep trial
• Simple cooling features
• 10″ Deep for Murphy Beds

Common Complaints:

• may have a slight odor
• no white glove delivery option

Runner Up – Nectar Mattress

Nectar uses four different layers plus a Tencel cooling cover to help keep you cooler at night without adding extra weight. The top layers are gel infused to help prevent heat buildup in the core of the mattress. An adaptive foam layer helps offer support where you need it and give where you need to reduce pressure. The dense support layer underneath gives you edge support and prevents sagging while keeping your spine aligned.

The Nectar is highly breathable and uses open cell memory foam to allow air to flow smoothly. It’s lighter than standard mattresses, so it should be able to fold up into your Murphy bed without much trouble. It has a slight odor from off-gassing, but it should be ready to sleep on with just a few hours of airing out. You can unzip the outside cover for cleaning to keep the mattress protected from common allergens.

It ships free to your door and is a medium firm rating on a ten point firmness scale. The mattress ships for free and arrives at your door ready to be unpacked. It comes with a 365-day sleep trial, giving you one of the longest trials in the industry. You get a full year to figure out if the Nectar is improving your sleep and making everything feel better. It also comes with a forever warranty that protects against mattress defects.

What Customers Like:

• Lifetime warranty
• Year-long sleep trial
• Cooling layers

Common Complaints:

• No soft options
• 11″ height might be too deep for some applications

Budget Alternative – Zinus Green Tea Memory Foam Mattress

Zinus has excellent options for those of you on a budget, and one particular benefit of this mattress is the depth options. You can get a mattress as thin as six inches and as deep as twelve, giving you a lot of control over how your Murphy bed works.

It uses simple layers of contouring and supporting foams to help mold to your body to relieve pressure. The top layer helps keep your pressure points from getting compressed while filling in gaps around your spine and waist to help keep the spine straight. The foams are infused with green tea and charcoal to help cut down on odors and keep the mattress cooler.

It has open cell foams for better airflow and to quickly wick away heat and sweat. The mattress comes to your door compressed in a box should be ready to use just a few hours after you unpack it. It comes with a ten-year warranty against mattress defects and has a trial period of 30 nights for you to decide if it’s going to work for you.

What Customers Like:

• very affordable
• green tea and charcoal keep odors at bay
• 6″ and 10″ depths

Common Complaints:

• not as supportive as some would like
• has an odor

Best For Heavier People – Ghostbed

Ghostbed may be a better fit for those on the heavier end of the scale because its mattress is rated to handle up to 750 pounds of weight without sagging or breaking down. The top layer is an aerated latex that helps draw in air and improved breathability. Underneath, a gel infused memory foam pulls heat away from the body to dissipate out of the mattress instead of getting stored up in the core.

The high-density foam base gives the mattress structural integrity and helps prevent sagging. It isolations motion and provides edge support. The bed shouldn’t off-gas much because it’s CertiPur-US certified. It does have a depth of 11 inches, which may push the boundaries of a Murphy bed a bit, but if you’re needing more support, this one is the way to go.

Ghostbed mattresses have a trial period of 101 nights so that you can figure out if the mattress is the right one for you. Make sure you give it at least a few weeks so that you get a good feeling for whether it’s the right one for you. It also has a 20-year warranty against mattress defects, so be sure you have the right supports. You don’t want to void the warranty accidentally.

What Customers Like:

• Higher weight rating
• Aerated latex layer
• 20 year warranty

Common Complaints

• May be too deep for some Murphy bed frames
• Slightly on the heavier side

Best For Active Use – Bear

Bear’s mattress is designed for recovery. Bear uses a material called Celliant, an infrared yarn that helps turn the body’s own energy back into a healing force. There aren’t many studies out now, but we think that it may be a good option for you if you happen to be an athlete or prone to injuries.

The top layer is a gel-infused foam that helps pull heat away from the body and dissipate it from the mattress. The middle layer is a transitional foam that helps support you where you need it and keep contouring where you have pressure points. The two layers allow your body to sink into the mattress and relieve common areas of compression that can give you trouble.

High-density support foam gives mattress structural integrity and edge support. It’s covered in materials that use Celliant, so you should hopefully see some relief and better recovery from things like workouts or minor sports injuries.

The mattress is certified by CertiPur-US so there’s very little off-gassing and it has a 100-night sleep trial. Be sure you give the bed at least a few weeks to see if it both sleeps comfortably and seems to make a difference in your recovery times. If not, return it for a full refund. It’s covered by a ten-year warranty against mattress defects, so make sure it’s properly supported.

What Customers Like:

• Celliant technology for better recovery
• cooling layers
• transitional layer for adaptable support

Common Complaints

• Celliant studies aren’t conclusive yet
• may be too firm for some people

Best Mattress Type for Murphy Bed

Both foam and innerspring options could work with the depth and weight parameters. Foam mattresses offer contouring and support with that typical “hug” that can help keep you warm and discourage you from tossing and turning. The top layers are usually a softer foam that allows your broadest points to sink into the mattress. Underneath, the dense support layer pushes back against your weight to help keep your spine aligned and prevent sagging. Memory foam mattresses tend to be lighter in weight.

Innerspring mattresses give you a little more bounce and help you feel like you’re sleeping on top of your bed rather than in the mattress. Springs push back against your body, and many of them now are individually pocketed so that there’s less motion transfer across the bed. They sometimes sleep cooler than memory foam, but they may not be as contouring.

Features

Murphy mattresses come in a variety of styles. If you often sleep hot, you may consider a bed that has cooling properties in place. A material like gel or graphite is infused into the mattress and gently pulls heat away from your body, allowing it to dissipate throughout the bed.

Other features could be premium materials that help with sensory issues or possibly a pillow top layer if you’re using innersprings. Some mattresses retain all the unique features of regular or deep mattresses, just in a smaller, lighter version.

Edge support can help keep the structural integrity of the bed intact as you sit on the edge or lay there. If you plan to use the Murphy bed as a couple, every bit of edge support is essential because you’ll need to sleep at the ends of the bed to have enough space.

Motion isolation is another excellent feature because if you sleep with pets or partners, their every movement can prevent you from getting a peaceful night’s rest. Motion isolation helps dampen the feeling of activity on the other side of the bed so that you don’t have to feel your partner’s cha-cha steps in the middle of the night.

Size

Your Murphy bed can be in all different sizes, so make sure you choose the right size mattress. In this scenario, you can’t just move your headboard around or fill in the gaps. The Murphy bed has to fit just right back into its slot, so it’s vital that you choose a size that can work exactly right.

Also, make sure you measure your Murphy slot anyway just to be safe. The depth is also necessary for your bed to work, so check that each measurement matches the space you have, so you aren’t disappointed.

Sleep Position

Your sleep position can help determine the type of mattress as well. Side sleepers will need something with a bit more give, so that common pressure points like shoulders and hips don’t receive as much compression. Side sleepers can get away with mattresses that are a little bit softer but be careful about going too soft. Usually, a medium firmness or about a five or six on a ten-point firmness scale should do the trick.

Stomach sleepers, on the other hand, will need something very firm without a lot of give or sag. An eight or so on the firmness scale should keep the back straight and prevent too much spinal overextension. Stomach sleepers can also benefit from a bed with excellent edge support.

Back sleepers and those with back pain need a medium firm mattress at least. This allows the top layers to fill in the gaps around the lumbar region but never causes the back to sink and twist strangely. Make sure you consider your sleep position before you invest in the wrong mattress.

Price

Here’s the thing about price. If you spend money on a quality mattress that lasts a long time, you may find that it actually saves you money in the long run. Cheap mattresses don’t have the type of support or contouring that you need, and they can be difficult to adjust to once you’ve got them in place. A cheap mattress can make your pressure points feel a lot of pain and could cause long term issues with spots like your back because of lack of support.

You should balance your budgetary needs with the quality of the mattress so that you never get stuck with a terrible mattress again. It’s possible to have a quality mattress without spending thousands and thousands of dollars, but you do need to make sure you’re giving yourself enough leeway to get something quality.

How Do I Choose A Murphy Bed Frame?

The frame is central to the Murphy bed’s function. They come in all standard bed sizes and can be installed in just about any room in your house with a supporting wall. You can consider what size bed you need first, and then determine if you want something already made for you or something you can finish and decorate yourself.

You should also consider the method of operation. Piston lifts are simple and noiseless, working a bit like silent close cabinets on a larger scale. Spring lifts are noisier but sometimes more affordable. Once you decide on the frame, you may want to invest in complementary pieces of furniture to enhance the bed. For most beds, larger duvets and pillows don’t fit in the bed slot itself so you could get large drawers to store your bed accessories while the wall unit is folded up.

It’s best to have a professional install the frame, so you know it’s done correctly and safely. Most places that sell the frames have the option for professional installation. If you decide to do it yourself, be sure you know what you’re getting into and that your skills match the task at hand.

Final Thoughts

Choosing a Murphy bed gives you more space to move around and can make all the difference in your area. It’s helpful for when you don’t’ have a bedroom, or if your guest room also functions as another room in the house (office, perhaps). Having the right mattress to fit into the dimensions of the Murphy frame and be light enough to move up by yourself is important, but so is your sleep. Choose the right mattress, and you’ll get that tied up too.