The only exception is if you have hardwood or tiled floors, as your mattress won’t be insulated on that type of flooring and heat will escape faster. If you’re a hot sleeper (prone to overheating at night), this could lead to broken sleep. That means there’s no place other than the top and sides for heat to escape, so more of it will pool in the mattress. When you place a mattress on the floor, you restrict airflow. The mattress will feel hotter to sleep on Hybrids and innersprings will fare better than dense all-foam beds as air moves more freely through and around the springs. There’s zero air flow between your bed and the floor, making it a lovely moist spot for bugs and other nasties to gather, breed and dig in. We usually see this in warm or humid places, but in truth most mattresses run a higher risk of mildew or mold when placed on the floor. Mattresses need space to breathe to remain healthy, and they can’t do that when squished against your bedroom floor. Mattresses made from memory foam are particularly sensitive to being placed on the floor, as the porous material is more prone to developing mildew and attracting bacteria when positioned this way. There are several types of bed base, including box springs, platforms and divans, but what if you don’t want to or can’t buy any of those? It’s certainly more simple to put a mattress on the floor, but it isn’t always the right decision. When you buy a new mattress, one of the next decisions you’ll need to make is what surface to put it on. So whether you’re doing it for budget reasons, health reasons or because it looks minimalist and chic, here’s our take on the mattress on the floor argument… Can you put a mattress on the floor? However that isn’t the case for all mattresses, and while the reasons not to put yours on the floor will outweigh the reasons why you should – especially if you have a memory foam mattress – it’s an interesting debate.