A hybrid mattress uses both coil and foam layers to help you sleep better at night. A hybrid isn’t necessarily an even 50/50 split of foam and coils, but they have more foam layers than an innerspring mattress.
This is why hybrids are often described as the best of both worlds. In the comfort layer, you get the pressure-relieving, even support of memory foam; in the support layer, you get the familiar, comfortable responsiveness (or “bounce”) of a coil mattress.
But what separates the best hybrid mattresses from the ones you wouldn’t want to sleep on even if they were free?
That’s what we look at in today’s post, breaking down the five main qualities of the best hybrid mattresses.
Note:At Slumberland, we created a universal rating system that lets you compare all mattress brands and mattress types on key qualities like pressure relief, support, cooling, and more. To find the best mattress for you, visit a showroom today or shop online.
Five Qualities of the Best Hybrid Mattress
Whenever you shop for a mattress — be it a hybrid mattress, a latex mattress, an all-foam mattress, or an innerspring mattress — you need to evaluate how much support it has, how well it relieves pressure while you sleep, how well it isolates motion from your partner, how comfortable it feels, and how cool it sleeps. Here’s how to judge a hybrid mattress on those five core qualities.
1. Back Support
One of the main ways a mattress supports your back is by keeping your spine aligned, making sure your hips don’t sink too deeply into the bed. If your hips sink too much into your mattress, that puts painful and uncomfortable pressure on your lower back.
There are several ways mattress companies try to keep your spine aligned, but it all comes down to providing you with back support. This could mean special zoned support, such as dense foam in the middle of the bed where your hips are, or a thicker coil gauge in the middle of the mattress.
But how much back support do you need from your mattress? That depends on quite a bit.
If you have back, spine, or hip issues, then you might need more support than the average sleeper. Also, if you’re working on your feet all day or are taller or bigger framed, then you will definitely want extra support.
The problem then becomes, how do you measure back support?
It used to be really difficult to compare back support levels across brands. You were left trying to figure out which mattress offered more back support by trying it on the showroom or reading hybrid mattress reviews online. But at Slumberland, we made a better way to comparison shop.
We looked at how mattresses (across all different brands and types) provide back support and created a universal rating system that lets us rank a bed’s back support level.
In our Sleep Solutions department, all mattresses can be rated on a 1-5 scale when it comes to back support. A mattress with a rating of 1 has very little back support, while a 5 has the most back support.
You can also use these ratings to make online shopping easier. For example, let’s say you want a hybrid mattress with at least medium back support. You can go to Slumberland.com, filter your searches to only hybrids with a back support rating of 3, 4, or 5.
2. Pressure Relief
If your hybrid doesn’t provide you with pressure relief, then you’re going to feel your body being pushed up against the surface of your bed.
Imagine yourself lying on the kitchen floor. It’s firm and sturdy. But even just by imagining it, you can begin to feel the pressure building up on your shoulder blades and hips. That’s a sleeping surface with zero pressure relief.
But how much pressure relief do you need?
If you have a serious medical condition like sciatica, then you’re probably better off looking for the most pressure relief possible. That’s because sciatica (and other back pain) can flare easily when pressure is applied to your sciatic nerve. By sleeping on a bed that provides a lot of pressure relief, you reduce the chance of painful flare-ups.
At Slumberland, we rate the mattresses in our Sleep Solutions department as having either:
- Moderate pressure relief, or
- Advanced pressure relief
Most hybrids are going to give you a good amount of pressure relief because they use layers of memory foam at the top of the mattress. At Slumberland, we have a variety of different hybrids with advanced pressure relief.
If a bed at Slumberland doesn’t have a pressure relief rating, that means it doesn’t do anything extra to provide you with pressure relief. That doesn’t mean it’s as uncomfortable as your kitchen floor, it just means it doesn’t use any extra technologies to take pressure off your body.
3. Motion Isolation
Motion transfer is when you feel the motion or movement of someone else in the bed. So if your partner gets up in the middle of the night, you’ll feel that movement on your side.
A hybrid mattress has a coil support base — and anything with coils is more likely to transfer motion. Yet, most hybrids won’t have a lot of motion transfer. This is because hybrids are generally made with pocketed coils (which stop motion transfer) and thick layers of foam that absorb motion.
At Slumberland, we don’t have “levels” or a scale of motion isolation. We simply mark which beds reduce motion transfer. This is a great way to narrow down your search. If you want a zero motion transfer mattress, you can quickly see which mattresses you should consider (and which ones you should avoid).
4. Feel (Comfort/Firmness Level)
Feel is relatively subjective, and can be difficult to describe. Mattress companies will use terms like medium-firm, luxury firm, firm, soft, and plus to describe their firmness options. The problem is those terms aren’t really transferable — one brand’s firm may be another brand’s medium firm.
This confusion is frustrating because how a mattress feels is critical to how well you sleep on it.
You can get a hybrid that has great back support, advanced pressure relief, and motion isolation, but if it’s too firm or soft for you, then you’ll struggle to get a full night’s sleep.
At Slumberland, we rate all of our mattresses on a scale of 1 to 5, with 1 being the firmest, letting you directly compare different mattress and mattress types. Once you find your preferred feel, it’s easy to navigate our showroom and focus on mattresses that you’ll find comfortable.
The Relationship Between Your Sleeping Position and Preferred Feel
There’s a strong relationship between what position you sleep in and which feel is better for you.
Most of us are side sleepers, and side sleepers tend to like a softer feel mattress. At Slumberland, this would be a 3, 4, or 5. A softer mattress works well for side sleepers because that plush top layer fills in the curves of your body when you’re sleeping on your side.
Meanwhile, back sleepers and stomach sleepers often choose a 1 or 2 on the firmness scale.
These preferences aren’t set in stone — your body type and any medical considerations, like chronic back pain, play a big role in what’s best for you.
Is a Firm Mattress Better for Your Back?
It’s a misconception that a firmer bed is more supportive or better for back pain. Feel is just how a mattress feels — softer or firmer. The misconception is rooted in the idea that a firm bed won’t let your hips sink too far into the mattress. But that has more to do with back support than feel.
At Slumberland, you can get a hybrid mattress that’s a 5 on the firmness scale (that’s the softest there is) and a 5 on the back support scale (that’s the most supportive rating there is). It’s called the Stearns and Foster Lux Estate Pollock Hybrid, and it’s a great hybrid bed.
5. Cooling Features
Not every customer is concerned about a mattress’s cooling features. In fact, some customers really don’t want or need a bed that’s going to keep them cooler at night.
Still, plenty of hot sleepers come into our Sleep Solutions department because their body heat gets trapped in their current mattress and they’re struggling to get a good night’s sleep. There are several reasons why someone could be sleeping hot (and several ways to sleep cooler at night). But for this article, let’s focus on how hybrid mattresses can help keep you cool.
Different hybrid mattresses will use different cooling technologies, including:
- Gel memory foam: Brands will sometimes infuse memory foam with gel. This could be swirls or beads of gel. The gel helps dissipate heat, by making sure it doesn’t get stored in a block of memory foam.
- PCMs: PCMs are the short-hand for phase change materials. PCMs react to the temperature. So if you get into bed and you're warm, the PCMs will draw that heat from your body and turn cool. They can also do the opposite — if your body temperature drops below a certain threshold, they will react by getting warmer. PCMs are very advanced technology found in medical equipment, athletic gear, and the best cooling mattresses.
- Breathable and moisture-wicking fabrics: Moisture-wicking fabrics draw the sweat from your body, so it can evaporate quickly on the fabric’s surface. This creates a cooling effect for you — it’s imitating what your body does naturally (sweating to cool you down) but more effectively.
At Slumberland, it’s easy to compare which hybrid models offer you the cooling you want because we label our mattresses as having either:
- Moderate cooling properties, or;
- Advanced cooling properties
Next Steps: Trying a Hybrid in Person
We broke down the core qualities you want to consider when shopping for a hybrid:
- How much back support it provides
- How much pressure relief it provides
- How it handles motion transfer
- How it feels when you lie in your preferred sleeping position
- How it keeps you cool
You can filter most of these core attributes on Slumberland’s online store.
But we do recommend that you visit us in person to try the hybrid mattress you’re considering buying. Trying out a mattress in the showroom gives you a better idea of how it feels and how it’ll support you.
FAQs
Is a Hybrid Better than a Memory Foam Mattress?
No. A hybrid mattress is not better (or worse) than an all-foam memory foam mattress.
They feel very different. A hybrid mattress has a coil support system, whereas an all-foam memory foam mattress has a poly-foam core support system.
While the feel of the mattress will vary depending on the model, generally an all-foam memory foam mattress will feel firmer than a hybrid mattress. The innerspring coils in a hybrid are more responsive — they push back more than an all-foam bed. This gives a hybrid a responsive/bouncy feel. Whereas, when you lie on an all-foam memory foam mattress, it’s generally more rigid. But as you continue to lie down on the bed, the memory foam contours to your body.
How Long Does a Hybrid Mattress Last?
All high-quality hybrids (like the ones we have at Slumberland) come with a 10-year warranty.
That means the hybrid bed has to perform for 10 years. When a bed is defective, it sags. And that sagging can actually cause you a lot of pain and discomfort because your spinal alignment is out of whack.
If your hybrid mattress develops a sag greater than allowed (the exact size of the allowed sag is described in the warranty), then your mattress is considered defective and will be replaced or fixed by the manufacturer.
Do Hybrid Mattresses at Slumberland Come with a Trial Period?
Hybrids — like all mattress types at Slumberland — come with our 365 Night Sleep Trial when you purchase a mattress protector with your bed.
We ask that you sleep on your new mattress for 30 nights. This gives your bed — and your body — time to adjust. Buying a mattress is a bit like buying a pair of shoes: there’s a break-in period.
After those 30 days, if you’re not satisfied with your mattress, you can exchange it for any model on our floor. If the new model costs more, you pay the difference. If the new model costs less, then the difference is paid back to you as a gift card, minus a $99 re-select fee.
At Slumberland, we have our Sleep Solutions department, where we created a universal rating system that lets you compare all mattress brands and mattress types on key qualities like pressure relief, support, cooling, and more. To find the best mattress for you, visit a showroom today.