Plank Firm Mattress Review: Are These Flippable Beds for You?

These beds are definitely firm — but you may find one side more comfortable than the other

Taylor Leamey,

AARP

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Published April 15, 2026

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The Plank Firm mattress in a bright room

Courtesy of Plank

Get ready to flip — literally. The Plank Firm and Plank Firm Luxe offer something few mattresses have: two firmness levels in one bed.

Plank is a mattress company specializing in dense, firm beds you can flip over — one side is firm and the other is extra firm. In fact, the company offers two flippable mattresses: the all-foam Plank Firm made of high-density foam and the hybrid Plank Firm Luxe, made with memory foam and metal coils.

In our 2025 survey of 300 adults ages 50 and older who had bought a bed in the last three years, firmness was respondents’ second-most important factor in their decision, behind only “overall comfort.” So, older adults who are shopping for a firm mattress may find what they’re looking for in one of these beds.

Why is this factor important? Mattress firmness can have a big impact on sleep quality. Generally, for instance, research suggests a medium-firm mattress may offer more advantages for people with nonspecific lower back pain. But no single firmness level is considered to be the best for everyone.

For some older adults, a firmer mattress may provide the right support to promote spinal alignment. Firm mattresses also may offer assistance with mobility, as their lack of sinkage can make it easier to shift positions or get out of bed. That said, a mattress that feels “too firm” can cause pressure on joints such as the hips. It also can prevent your body from being able to sink into the comfort layers of a mattress, which can cause pain and stiffness. (You can learn more about pros and cons of firm beds in our sections on “Who may benefit from a Plank Firm bed?” and “Who may not benefit from a Plank Firm bed?”)

For this assessment, our AARP Smart Picks team worked with a group of older adults to test two popular Plank beds. We sought to learn if these beds could provide sturdy firmness without sacrificing comfort, looking at measures such as pressure relief and spinal alignment.

Read on for our review of the Plank Firm and Plank Firm Luxe, including details about each side of these flippable beds. (Both models tested were queen-size mattresses.)

Comparing Plank models

What we like about Plank

Plank is owned by Brooklyn Bedding, a company that designs and manufactures its own beds in the United States. Brooklyn Bedding says the Plank Firm and Plank Firm Luxe are designed with extra-firm, high-density foam to provide reinforced support for people with back pain.

Each side of these mattresses has its own firmness level — firm and extra firm — and our older adult testers said they most appreciated these beds for their pressure relief, flippable design and affordability. These attributes may make one of these beds a strong fit for older adults who know they want a firm bed but aren't sure how firm to go. The dual-sided design also may increase the bed’s longevity, since you can flip it if one side feels like it’s sagging.

Testers told us both sides of the Plank Firm Luxe provided very good or excellent spinal alignment and pressure relief for back sleeping, and they gave high-scoring ratings on these measures for side and stomach sleeping as well. However, the Plank Firm didn’t fare as well in pressure relief, earning only subpar marks on that metric across all tested sleeping positions. It performed slightly better for spinal alignment but still nabbed only mediocre scores.

Another thing we like? Plank Firm beds have been endorsed by the American Chiropractic Association (ACA), which means a review board of ACA doctors of chiropractic has endorsed this company after thorough review, analysis, testing and evaluation.

In addition, if you try the Plank Firm or Plank Firm Luxe and decide either bed is not for you, you can return it within the free 120-night trial period, paying just a $99 return fee. While this trial period is not as long as the free 365-night trial we’ve seen from companies like Saatva and DreamCloud, 120 nights is the industry standard. In addition, the company’s warranty fully covers manufacturing defects for the first 10 years, and it provides prorated coverage thereafter.

Plank Firm — Firm Side: Best Memory Foam

Courtesy of Plank

Score: 8.8 out of 10

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Pros and cons

Pros

Very good spinal alignment for back sleepers
Decent pressure relief for back sleepers
Near-perfect motion isolation

Cons

Some shoppers may prefer more edge support
Unfavorable pressure relief for side sleepers

Features

Type: Memory foam
Firmness: Firm
Best sleeping positions: Back and stomach

Key takeaways from our testing

Promotes spinal alignment for back sleepers. Bryan, a 62-year-old tester who has a higher weight, said the firm side of the Plank Firm kept his spine aligned when lying on his back and stomach. “This feels comfortable,” he said while lying on his back. “I don’t think I’d find myself tossing and turning in this position. My back feels supported.” Bryan awarded this bed a solid score for spinal alignment on his back, and a capable pressure relief score for the same position. While on his stomach, Bryan gave the bed passable marks for spinal alignment. “My lower back isn’t bending and I feel aligned,” he said. “I do feel a little pressure at my hips and chest.” But he didn’t like it for side sleeping. "My hips don't sink into the bed much on my side," he said, rating it unfavorably for both spinal alignment and pressure relief in that position.

A man lying on his stomach on a mattress

Tester Bryan said the firm side of the Plank Firm was comfortable while he was in the stomach sleeping position, even though he felt “a little” pressure in his hips and chest.

AARP Smart Picks

Above-average motion dampening. Bryan said he was impressed by this bed's ability to limit motion transfer. During our couples' motion isolation test, he lay blindfolded on one side of the bed as a lab tester switched positions on the other side and asked how much movement Bryan could feel. Bryan said felt significantly less motion than he expected, giving the mattress a near-perfect rating. The bed earned a similar score in our ripple test, which involves monitoring the movement of liquid in a beaker as testers switch positions and get in and out of bed. "I was able to roll around without causing more than a light ripple," he said of this test. The Plank Firm's dense foam construction may have contributed to its strong motion isolation performance. For older adults who are awoken easily and have a sleeping partner, this performance means they may be more likely to sleep through the night on this bed despite their partner’s movements.

Some people may want more edge support. Unfortunately, Bryan, who has a higher weight, said he didn’t feel secure when close to the edge of this bed, and he envisioned himself falling off if he tried switching positions. Our lab team’s edge support testing of the firm side of this bed, however, yielded a much better result. In our edge support test, we measure how much a mattress’s edges cave under a 150-pound sandbag. This bed’s firm side sank only 3 inches, almost a full point less than the 3.7 average sinkage depth across all mattresses we’ve ever tested. This performance earned the bed an excellent score. Edge support is important, since older adults with mobility issues may fall off a bed with weak edges more easily.

On a related note, Bryan said the bed’s extra-firm side’s edges felt stronger, and that side netted a similarly high score in our edge support test. Read on for our review of the extra firm side of this mattress.