What are hybrid mattresses & foams?

Updated 2024: Hybrid mattresses and foams burst onto the market back in 2020, and now (over four years later) the initial fervour has matured and consumers want a deeper understanding of their components and features. Then there’s the mix of pocket spring and foam mattresses. The issue with these is that they lack the detail you need to be able to work out their qualities and discern whether they’re suitable for your sleeping requirements.

This article will help to show you the details of a number of Hybrid mattresses and foams so you can make a more informed purchase decision.

Hybrid Mattresses

1. What is a hybrid mattress?
2. What is a hybrid foam mattress?
3. Benefits of hybrid mattresses and hybrid foam mattresses
4. Key components of hybrid mattresses and foams
5. How to choose the best hybrid mattress
6. One-sided Hybrid mattresses
7. What is Geltex?
8. What is Coolgel foam?
9. What is a mammoth sports mattress made of?
10. What is Kaymed foam?
11. What is Viscool foam?
12. Alternatives to Hybrid foam mattresses

What is a hybrid mattress?

A hybrid mattress is any mattress which uses a mix of comfort and mattress support materials or mattress design styles. A hybrid mattress is basically a mismatch of different foams, springs, comfort and support units. These hybrid mattress models usually use multiple forms of support and comfort, with a mixture of memory foam, mattress gel foams (like iGel), innerspring (open coil) or synthetic pocket spring technology. These are then all layered together to give different feels and marketing angles for different overnight mattress brands. Well-constructed hybrids can potentially provide the best of both worlds, but poorly-made ones may sacrifice comfort or support.

Hybrid mattresses often try to bring together ‘the best parts’ of other mattresses in their sales pitches. However, in our experience most hybrid mattresses fail disastrously when doing this. You really need to find out exactly what’s inside any hybrid mattress before you part with your cash! 

What is a hybrid foam mattress?

A Hybrid foam mattress is defined as any bed that is using multiple different foams in the comfort and support layers. Unlike traditional heat reactive memory foam or Tempurpedic mattresses that use layers of the same type of foam, a hybrid foam mattress incorporates different foams strategically layered for targeted benefits. Given the issues with memory foam being hot and slow to react, newer improved hybrid foams have been created. Hybrid foam mattresses can offer some excellent benefits over memory foam mattresses – which we’ll discuss later on in this article.

Remember though that there are hundreds of memory foams and hybrid Foams out there with varying qualities, so each supplier is trying to come up with a new way to say or sell the same idea. It’s important to avoid the jargon and spin and get down to the basics.

To summarise, while both hybrid mattresses and hybrid foam mattresses combine different materials, there is a clear distinction between them:

Hybrid mattresses incorporate an innerspring coil support system along with conforming foam comfort layers (typically memory foam or latex). The coils provide overall structural support and improve airflow, while the foam layers contour to the body for pressure relief.

Hybrid Foam mattresses, on the other hand, consist entirely of different foam types layered together without any innerspring coils. These mattresses combine various foam formulations – such as memory foam, polyfoam, gel-infused foam, and high-density support foams – to achieve a balanced feel.

Benefits of Hybrid mattresses and Hybrid Foam mattresses

Both types of hybrid mattresses aim to offer the best of the different materials by combining their strengths. 

Hybrid mattresses

• Conforming comfort from foam layers that relieve pressure points
• Supportive coil system that provides better support and encourages airflow
• Provides a more balanced feel, combining the contouring and traditional innerspring qualities
• Potential for better edge support from the reinforced coil perimeters

Hybrid Foam mattresses

• Targeted comfort and support by layering different foam types
• Can address issues like heat retention or slow response with specialised foams
• More flexibility in choosing the feel by adjusting the foam densities and compositions 
• Often provides good motion isolation for an undisturbed sleep

Key Components of Hybrid Mattresses and Foams

The Hybrid Mattress Support Layer Explained

The foundation of a hybrid mattress is its support layer, which normally consists of innerspring coils or pocket springs. The support layer in these mattresses is going to be either a firm ‘Reflex’ foam support layer or some form of an open coil or synthetic pocket springs. The support layer in any mattress needs to be matched to your body weight and height. This is essential and is the main error that people make when buying a new mattress. They don’t correctly choose the right mattress support for their body weight. With a foam, this is really difficult to do because the mattress manufacturers won’t tell you the density or ILD rating of these foams.

With spring units you should be able to quickly find out the suitability of the spring support for your body weight by using the spring wire gauge. Sadly, this detail is also frequently missed off by mattress retailers, meaning you’re just guessing! The spring count will not explain the firmness of the support so shouldn’t be relied on without the spring wire gauge.

• • With foam hybrid mattresses you need to know the density i.e. is it 30kg or 33kg reflex foam? (33kg is far firmer than 30kg)
  • With hybrid spring supports you need to know the spring gauge (ie soft 1.2, medium 1.4 or firm 1.6 gauge)

The Hybrid Mattress Comfort Layer Explained

Above the support layer, hybrid mattresses feature comfort layers designed to relieve pressure points and contour to the body’s curves. These comfort layers can be  made from a number of different fillings which are usually a mix of memory foam and hybrid foams. You will very rarely find a natural fibre filling in a Hybrid mattress as they are usually reserved for longer-lasting traditional 2-sided mattresses. Each mattress brand will no doubt have its own proprietary foam or memory foam layer. All claim different benefits. Some may claim to be cooler or more responsive. The bottom line is that you need to know the following to be able to understand the quality and comfort level that these layers will give you.

• What is the density of each foam? (Usually the higher the kg the firmer the foam)
• What is the ILD or hardness rating? (Which also gives an indication of responsivity)
• What is the depth of each layer? (5cm should be the bare minimum of each layer)

How to choose the best hybrid mattress

Before you jump into bed with a hybrid mattress, you need to spend some time fully understanding what’s inside each one. By knowing the foams, comfort, support and spring units it contains, you can start to see whether or not a hybrid mattress really is the best option for you.

As we’ve discussed earlier, there are two main types of hybrid mattresses:

• Foam Hybrid mattresses: These mattresses combine different types of foam like memory foam, polyfoam and specialty ones like gel infused or copper infused foams. They usually have a high-density support foam base and multiple foam layers. Most hybrid foams can be compressed and shipped in a box.
• Innerspring Hybrid mattresses: These incorporate an innerspring coil system as part of the primary support layer, combined with various foam layers on top. Due to the coil structure, innerspring hybrids are generally not compressed for shipping. 

When evaluating hybrid mattresses, consider the following things:

• The comfort layer materials – Assess the types of foam used in the comfort layers, their densities, and their respective properties (e.g. contouring, responsiveness, cooling abilities, etc).
• Construction of the support layer – For innerspring hybrid mattresses, you’ll want to find out the coil gauge and coil count to make sure there is enough support. For foam hybrids, evaluate the high density support foam base.
• Cooling features – Look for cooling technologies like gel-infused foams, phase-change materials (PCM) or advanced airflow systems to help regulate temperature.
• Edge support – Sturdy perimeter reinforcement can prevent sagging and improve edge support, which is especially important for innerspring hybrids.
• Motion isolation – Memory foam and pocketed coil systems typically offer better motion isolation, minimising sleep disturbances from a partner’s movements.

In addition to these factors, you’ll want to also consider your sleep position, body type and your personal preferences for firmness and contouring.

One-sided hybrid mattresses

You may have already realised that all of these mattresses are one-sided. This means that you can’t turn them, leaving you only able to sleep on one side. This is a flaw in the design of all hybrid mattresses. They are built from a firm support layer upwards with softer layers being placed on top. With memory and hybrid foams, the layers themselves are not as resilient or robust as a natural fibre. If hybrid mattresses were to be two-sided then these softer layers would simply be crushed when you turned the mattress over.

Given the fact that memory and hybrid foams compress at an alarming level, the layers that would be underneath the spring unit would quickly become compressed beyond the point of return. Consequently, all memory foam mattresses (including Tempur mattresses) are one-sided. This is why you shouldn’t really spend more than £500 on a hybrid mattress, as higher budgets than this should warrant a 2-sided mattress at least. You can watch more on the issues of one-sided mattresses below.

The majority of hybrid mattresses also arrived crushed, rolled and boxed for convenience. This is fine if the mattress is only being transported this way. However, mattresses left crushed and rolled for longer than 30 days will start to be impacted by damage,  due to the stresses placed on the foams and spring units which are not meant to be contorted in this way. You can read more about the disadvantages of boxed rolled mattresses here.