The Best Hybrid Mattresses for the Best of Both Worlds

The Bear Elite Hybrid offers three firmness levels to choose from: standard soft, medium, and firm. However, if there's one thing that testers with back pain on our team believe in, it's the power of a firm mattress for support. Two WIRED reviewers have tested this mattress: Martin Cizmar and Nena Farrell. Both regularly deal with back pain, and they found that the firm Bear Elite Hybrid model really did the trick for lumbar support. They note that while it feels quite firm at first, the mattress feels more and more welcoming as time goes on.

The mattress cover uses phase change material, which sucks up heat and makes it feel cool to the touch. If you have incredibly awful back pain, though, you may want to consider the $210 Celliant cover, an infrared-infused fabric. We haven't tried it, but it supposedly helps with recovery. You've also got copper-infused foam for even more cooling, plus transition foam for pressure relief purposes. Surprise, surprise, there's also zoned pocketed coils, so those coils located in the middle are doing the heavy lifting.

I always empathize with couples attempting to mattress shop, because it's a tall order trying to find a suitable bed for two of everything: body types, sleeping positions, temperature preferences, and pain points. The Wolf Memory Foam Hybrid Premium Firm is a well-rounded, supportive hybrid mattress for couples (and their extracurriculars, if you catch my drift).

Its cooling cover does an outstanding job of staying cool-feeling, with a gel foam layer underneath that provides extra support. Four more layers of memory foam are present for pressure relief, which, from experience, it more than delivers on. You then have your pocketed coils in the middle, which lift heavier areas with firmer-feeling support. Overall, I thought it was more medium-firm, 6.5 out of 10, which is doable for all kinds of sleepers regardless of their build or sleeping position.

Shout-out to all of my hot sleepers out there: At the end of the day, we want to cool off. Many mattresses claim to be cooling, but Bedgear's H Series takes the hybrid cake, according to WIRED reviewer Molly Higgins. From top to bottom, this was a mattress made with cooling in mind. There are two versions, the H4 (medium-firm) and the H6 (medium-plush). Either way, you're looking at some superb cooling.

The cooling cover on this mattress uses a proprietary material called Ver-Tex, which felt silky and noticeably cool to the touch during Molly's testing. This cover's not doing all the work, though, as there are Air-X side panels that Molly describes as “meshlike” and are meant for air circulation. The memory foam layers on top are your best friend when it comes to pressure relief, and the pocketed coil core is contained within a foam perimeter for added edge support.

Most of the time, when I encounter a hybrid, it involves some variation of memory foam and coils. Many brands put their own twist on foam—and coils, for that matter—so it's often switched up for a unique mattress experience. Sometimes that experience is good, and other times, not so good. But if there were ever a hybrid mattress that nailed this balance, it's the DreamCloud Classic Hybrid.

DreamCloud expertly put together pressure-relieving foams, pocketed coils, and a temperature-regulating cover to create its Classic Hybrid. It's got a quilted surface, not a pillow top, but it still delivers on the pressure relief front. The medium-firm feel really supports stomach and back sleepers, but I've never had any complaints while sleeping on my side.

Hybrid mattresses aren't always just memory foam and coil pairings. While that does make up a good majority of the market (as far as I've seen), some people simply don't want that. Enter: natural, organic materials. In hybrid mattress mode, they're effective options that make them good contenders even if you weren't looking for something within this category. A prime example of this would be the Birch Luxe Natural.

According to WIRED reviewer Scott Gilbertson, the mix of organic wool, GOLS-certified latex, GOTS-certified organic cotton, and pocketed coils was a winning combination for responsive support. There's a lot to celebrate about latex, like its hypoallergenic status and natural heat resistance. The Luxe's pillow top added that cherry-on-top bit of luxury to sink into, while the rest of the mattress did plenty to help with spinal support.

As a side sleeper who struggles with chronic illness, I require support and pressure relief in a mattress. This is where I like the Saatva Rx as a specialty option for those dealing with literal pain points. The Rx, if you couldn't already infer from the name, was designed for more medically inclined situations where you need to treat joints with care.

By following a hybrid design of therapeutic foams and pocketed coils, the Rx manages to pull this off. While this may not be the firmest option to support sleepers with back pain, WIRED reviewer Nena Farrell found that the softer appeal speaks to side sleepers. She reports that her joints felt weightless with no pressure buildup. The Rx features an organic cotton cover, support quilting, and a focused layer in the middle of the bed for lumbar support, incorporating microcoils, phase-change material, and graphite-infused memory foams. Additionally, it includes pocketed coils, with extra reinforcement on the edges for enhanced edge support. Another perk for pain purposes? This mattress also comes with included white glove delivery, so you won't have to handle the setup and removal of your old mattress.

Thuma offers its mattresses in Plush, Medium, and Firm—I tested it in Medium, which was much firmer than I expected. I loved the support around my lumbar zone and the whole-body lift it provided. Firm mattresses can be helpful for all sorts of sleepers, like couples, combination sleepers, those with back pain, heavy-bodied sleepers, and anyone who needs to maintain spinal alignment. If you’re looking for the best mattress for sex, the Thuma Hybrid delivers on this front as well, as its dense, five-layer construction makes for easy movement, strong edge support, and less sink.

I also appreciated the materials that went into this mattress. There’s a Tencel cover for softness and light cooling, along with organic wool, CertiPur-US-certified memory foam, organic Dunlop latex, and recycled steel pocketed coils. Just like the brand’s bed frames, there’s a strong emphasis on natural, sustainable materials to deliver a high-quality mattress. The latex and coils stand out in particular, as they contribute a lot to this bed’s firm feel. Dunlop-method latex refers to a production process that makes latex firmer, and pocketed coils provide targeted support.

The Avocado Green mattress is one of the most highly certified organic mattresses we’ve come across. It has 13 certifications, mainly for the latex it uses. The organic latex is Global Organic Latex Standard certified, for one, and there’s also GreenGuard Gold, EWG, Made Safe, and Global Organic Textile Standard certifications. These all certify that you’re getting genuine, environmentally friendly materials in your mattress. There are three variations of the Avocado Green to choose from: Plush, Medium, and Firm. The Medium version has an extra 2 inches of Dunlop latex in a pillow top; the Plush has 3 inches of Talalay (a latex made to feel slightly softer) in a pillow top. If you go either of these routes for increased cushioning, know they cost a bit extra.

WIRED reviewer Scott Gilbertson tested this latex mattress for two years and has a few takeaways to share with the class. He tested the Firm version, which features Dunlop latex and recycled steel pocketed coils as its core components. Both the latex and coils contour lightly around your body, but where there is heavier weight, they supply firmer support. Being a firmer mattress that helps with lower back support already qualifies the Avocado Green as a good option for back and stomach sleepers. However, Gilbertson noted that the latex also performs well at maintaining its coolness and providing pressure relief. He said that while this bed wasn’t winning any awards for preventing motion transfer (latex is very bouncy, to the point where his kids took the liberty of impromptu mattress/trampoline park sessions), it didn't sag—a common issue with latex mattresses over time. If you’re looking to skip synthetics in favor of a more natural way to sleep, it doesn’t get much better than this.