Hypnos Signature Mattress Review: is it worth the price?

Hypnos is a British mattress brand that makes a mix of midpoint and luxury mattresses in the UK. Hypnos has concessions in Bed retailers like John Lewis, Bensons for Beds and Land Of Beds to name a few. Here we give you our expert review of the Hypnos Signature mattress based on the technical specifications they have provided.

The Hypnos Signature is a medium to medium-firm feel mattress in the upholstery layers and comes in either medium, firm or extra firm spring tensions. Featuring a number of Natural Luxury mattress fibres we’re going to discuss in detail each layer providing you with the information you need when comparing mattresses.  All details have been taken from the Hypnos official product specification sheet. So let’s get ready to delve a bit deeper to really see what’s under the tufts, so to speak!

What’s inside the Hypnos Signature mattress?

This one-sided Hypnos mattress contains:

• Cashmere
• Pashmina
• Grey Hair
• British Wool
• Bamboo
• Silk
• Solotex (Polyester)
• ReActive 10 Pocket Springs System
• Optional Alpaca Topper – Priced at an additional eye-watering £759

It retails for around £4,000 for a king size and £4759 if partnered with the matching Alpaca topper.

Upholstery Layers

When we look at the fibres we can see that it contains a number of Natural Fibres but unfortunately, Hypnos don’t disclose the grams per square meter that you need to make a true and accurate comparison. However, we can use our expertise to give an estimate of these layers based on the technical specification and depth of the mattress. It would be far better if Hypnos disclosed the exact GSM but like most mattress retailers they seem to want to keep this secret for some reason. Given the majority of Natural Fibres listed it would actually be a selling point for them if they did this. We always disclose the full GSM and blend of our fibres as this is the only way you can accurately compare mattresses side by side when comparing construction, comfort and value of a bed.

Cashmere & Pashmina

This is one of the softest natural fibres just behind Alpaca fibre for the finest most delicate threads. Cashmere is also really high wicking like most high-end Natural Fibres. It’s an incredibly expensive fibre which means that most of the time it’s used in a 200gsm layers to a maximum of 600gsm in the top comfort part of the mattress. You wouldn’t place this any further down as it gets crushed and then becomes technically redundant.

There’s two types of Cashmere. There is the soft Cashmere wool used in comfort layers, more often than not blended to make it more affordable. 100% Pure Cashmere is only found in mattresses £4,000 plus and in small amounts. There is also the coarse Cashmere, just as luxurious, but firmer and used as an insulator layer such as our Artisan Bespoke.

Pashmina is a wool which has an inbuilt crimp to it (Think of 80’s crimped hairstyles). This enables it to have a really light and fluffy texture great for trapping air within the fibre. It’s even more expensive than Cashmere. We’re not sure why you would put this fibre beneath Cashmere as ideally it would be the top layer. This makes us believe that the Cashmere and Pashmina in this model have been blended together. Probably as a 200gsm joint pad.

Grey hair mattress fibre

This is a really confusing and intriguing layer. We have never heard of ‘grey hair’ as a specific fibre. Grey Horsehair or grey Alpaca can be found. Usually, these are cheaper alternatives of pure white Alpaca or black horsehair. The grey hair being the rejected fibre from the cleaner looking other fibres. There is also ‘Cattle fibre which is used in mattress manufacture. Cattle fibre is not usually listed as people get put off from it even though its a wonderful fibre. Maybe connotation of cattle markets and mucky farms doesn’t fit the ‘luxury’ market? However, without further confirmation from Hypnos we can’t be completely accurate. This layer would be around 500gsm in weight.

British Wool, Bamboo & Silk

British Wool is incredibly soft and warm yet also high wicking. We use it in the majority of our Artisan Mattresses as a softer comfort layer and during the mid-layer to give bounce to a mattress comfort layer. We believe that Hypnos have used a blended pad again here as Silk and Bamboo are far too soft on their own to serve any purpose. Especially this low down in the upholstery layers. Care needs to be taken with blended fibres. Quite often really high-end fibres are blended with Wool or cotton to stop them from compressing too much and losing loft. It also means that some mattress manufacturers can claim far more Natural Fibres in their descriptions. Even though some of the percentage blends may be as low as 1-3% of that fibre mixed in with others. We can’t be sure with this model but would hazard a guess that again its a 500gsm layer of blended Wool, Bamboo and Silk.

Solotex – the polyester white elephant in the room

Here’s where the luxury Natural Fibre story ends we’re afraid with the Signature. Hypnos then use a Solotex layer, again GSM unknown. Solotex is a newly innovated version of polyester.

It also has to be pretty firm to act as a spring insulator. If you used a softer fibre it wouldn’t allow the spring unit to work correctly and could end up migrating inbetween the pocket springs. At the price point of £4,000 for a mattress, there is absolutely no need to be using polyester or Solotex. At this level Horsehair, Horsetail, Coir or Flax could be used alongside a Wool blend to far better suit this style of mattress. Solotex is nowhere near as breathable as Natural Fibres and having this layer here negates a lot of the amazing properties of the above fibres. Acting as a potential heat barrier between you and the rest of the mattress. It’s also the far cheapest component in this mattress. We would estimate that there’s 1000-1200gsm of Solotext polyester in this mattress.

The Spring Support

The spring support in the mattress is listed as a medium to firm feel but no specific spring gauge information is given on the ‘Reactive 10’ pocket springs which are exclusive to Hypnos. Ideally, you need to know the exact spring count and gauge to fully understand the support a mattress will give you. This detail is missing from their technical specs.

Reactive 10 Pocket Springs explained

We’ve already discussed Reactive 10 Pocket Springs in answering this ladies question comparing Hypnos mattresses but further detail is required here. The Reactive 10 is a 10 turn pocket spring. For context, most quality pocket springs have 8 turns. This allows them to compress and the extend correctly when a load (ie sleepers weight) is placed on them. We’ve studied extensively the design and manufacture methods of springs specifically for mattresses. Adding another 2 turns will allow a spring to compress marginally faster than an 8 turn spring. However, it also puts the wire under more stress. Why is this?

It’s because the average length of the pocket spring remains the same to ensure they compress in a linear fashion and don’t simply bend over sideways when a load is applied. Think the leaning tower of Piza as an example of how an overly long spring would react. It would lean. So these springs may react ever so slightly faster and make them feel a tad bit softer. Again the longevity needs to be taken into account.

There’s no detail on whether these are Calico pocket springs or Spunbond. However, given that there’s only a handful of Calico spring makers in the UK, with our models, Vispring and Savoir being the main Calico spring users we would guess these Reactive 10’s are synthetic.

Lastly, there’s no spring gauge, tension or tensile strength given for these Hypnos pocket springs. Again, making it very hard to fully compare or even give guidance on what weight range the Hypnos Signature can cope with. Hazarding another guess we would say that its a 1000-1500 pocket spring model probably in a 1.4 medium tension spring gauge suitable for 12-15 stone sleepers.

Hypnos Signature Finishing details

The Hypnos Signature has some nice finishing details such as its hand-tufted, which is usually a sign of a high-end mattress. This hand-tufting process runs a ribbon through the mattress at various increments, wool or synthetic tufts, are then placed onto the ends. These tufts help keep the fillings inside a mattress in their correct position and help compress the mattress to give a consistent feel. The mattress cover is a standard ‘Belgium Damask’ nothing exciting to report there. There’s no mention of an Organic Fire Retardancy treatment like our Artisan Range, so we can assume that the FR in this model is a chemical synthetic version applied to the cover. The mattress weighs in at 55kg for a king size and is 27cm deep which is how we have estimated the GSM. Our Artisan Bespoke 004 which is 100% natural weighs in at 61kg (6kg of more Natural Fibres) for the same depth of 27cm.

One-sided Mattress Issues

The main drawback with the Hypnos Signature is that it’s one-sided. We can’t for the life of us believe that a £4,000 mattress is still one-sided. You’ll often see these referred to as ‘No turn‘ but it does not benefit you. It means you’re sleeping on the same side night after night meaning there’s no way to even out mattress settlement which is usually done by turning the mattress each month. Meaning all the wear is on one side which can lead to increased sagging and dipping far faster than a two-sided mattress model equivalent. It’s a real shame that Hypnos has not made this model two-sided, especially given the price.

The Benefits

• This model features high wicking Natural fibres, sadly in unknown amounts
• The Alpaca optional topper is a separate component and not like the dreaded pillowtop construction method – well done Hypnos!
• The mattress features hand side stitching which is a real skill and benefit holding the mattress contents in a more stable position.

The Drawbacks

• The majority filling is Solotex a polyester
• This is one-sided mattress limiting its lifespan when compared to a 2-sided equivalent
• The fibres listed don’t have any GSM or blends referenced so there’s no way to know exactly what’s being used.
• Grey hair is a non-descript term that doesn’t specifically relate to any Natural Fibre we know of.
• The mattress topper is incredibly expensive