Memory foam vs hybrid mattress: how foam, latex, pocket coil and hybrid beds are built, and who each suits

How foam, latex, spring and hybrid mattresses are built

Memory foam is viscoelastic polyurethane, which Sleep Foundation says "reacts with your body heat, and slowly adapts to the shape of your body". The Harmony Relax 10 at our Campbell River store is 2 inches of gel memory foam and 2 of firmer memory foam on a 6-inch core. Ashley's 10-inch memory foam queen, carried at Port Alberni, puts 1.5 inches of memory foam over 8.5 inches of support foam and ships compressed in a box. The Tempur-Pedic Align, LuxeAlign and ProAlign beds at Campbell River are all-foam, made of the maker's own TEMPUR material.

Latex is natural rubber, "made mostly from the rubber tree" in HealthLink BC's words. Sleep Foundation calls it bouncier and more temperature-neutral than memory foam, at roughly twice the price of an average memory foam bed. On our listings latex turns up only as a comfort layer, such as the 1-inch Talalay latex in the Restonic Treviso and Vernazza. Restwell's Elite beds, the Starling, Nightingale and Sparrow, add zoned latex and a micro coil layer above their pocket coils. Talalay is the less dense, more breathable of the two main latex foams, by Sleep Foundation's account.

Coil beds are the innerspring family, and the split between pocket coils and wired innersprings comes down to how the springs connect. Bonnell coils are hourglass springs wired to their neighbours, a design Sleep Foundation says tends to carry movement across the bed. Pocketed coils are wrapped one by one in fabric so each moves on its own, and Beautyrest dates its pocketed coils to 1925. Every coil bed listed for Duncan names pocket coils: a foam-encased zoned unit in each Restonic, a 5-zone unit in each Restwell. One listing on our site names a Bonnell unit, a 6-inch firm Ashley queen on 13.5-gauge coils at our Port Alberni store.

Restwell's spec sheets give the count. The Canary and the Robin list 1,200 pocket coils in five zones, firmer under the lower back, inside a foam-encased edge. The sheets don't give the wire gauge, which runs backwards: on Sleep Foundation's 13 to 17 scale, the lower number is the thicker, firmer wire.

What does a hybrid mattress feel like?

A hybrid's feel depends on how thick its comfort layers are, and makers don't share one definition of hybrid. Two beds our listings say Restwell makes in BC show how loose the word is. The Savannah Plush, listed for our Duncan store, is a plush pillow top with gel memory foam over a 5-zone pocket coil, 1,200 coils in a queen. The Grand Hybrid Aura, which its listing says Restwell makes for Spring Air, is carried at our Port Alberni store. It has gel memory foam over 1,200 pocket coils and is called a hybrid. Restonic's Minto also puts gel memory foam over pocket coils, and calls itself a Euro top. The layer list says more than the label. It reads more easily once you know the main mattress types and their layers.

Memory foam or hybrid: who each suits by sleep position and body weight

Sleep position and body weight do more to settle memory foam against hybrid than the construction name does. Sleep Foundation's comparison splits the two like this.

Sleep position has guides of its own: the shoulder test for side sleepers, the hand test for back sleepers and what the back pain research found. HealthLink BC's page on sleeping with back pain suggests a pillow between the knees for side sleepers.

For body weight, Sleep Foundation's firmness bands run soft to medium under 130 pounds, medium soft to medium firm up to 230, and firmer above that. The Harmony Relax 10 at Campbell River prints a 350 lb limit. None of the Restwell or Restonic listings for Duncan prints one, so it's worth asking us before ordering for a heavier sleeper.

For a side sleeper who runs hot, the one Duncan hybrid, the Copper Hybrid, is listed in plush as well as medium and firm. Two coil beds with plush tops cost less. The Robin is Restwell's Plush Top Euro top, with gel foam under a Tencel cover, at $1,049.00 in queen. Restonic's Mondena sleeps plush overall under a Copper Cooling Fabric quilt, at $1,688.00. Both prices are before applicable taxes.

Do I need a firm or soft mattress?

Firmness is a separate choice from construction, and what firm, medium and plush mean in practice has a guide of its own. For a sore back, ask your doctor first: a 2003 Lancet trial of 313 adults with chronic low-back pain favoured medium-firm over firm.

Does a memory foam mattress sleep hot?

Memory foam is the warmest of the four in Sleep Foundation's comparisons, which say it "tends to absorb and trap body heat". Coils leave room for air to move. A small 2018 study in PLOS ONE points the same way. Healthy men slept on a high-rebound polyethylene-fibre topper and on a memory foam topper, in random order. On the high-rebound topper, core body temperature fell further early in the night, and a measure of deep sleep rose 27.8% in the younger men. Their lowest core temperature was 36.05°C on the high-rebound topper and 36.15°C on memory foam, though the abstract gives 36.35°C.

The study had 10 young and 20 older men, and airweave, which makes the high-rebound topper, sponsored it, so I'd treat it as a pointer. Memory foam also reacts to the room. Tempur-Pedic Canada says that in a very cold bedroom its mattress "can feel less responsive and slightly firmer", and softer in a hot one. If your bedroom is the cold one in winter, a TEMPUR bed can feel slightly firmer there than it did in the store.

As for whether people are no longer buying memory foam mattresses, we have no Canadian sales figures by construction, so I can't say.

Does gel memory foam really sleep cool?

Gel memory foam is memory foam with small gel particles or beads mixed in, or a gel layer on top, meant to draw heat away. Sleep Foundation's own testing still gave its best temperature ratings to hybrid and innerspring models, and which cooling covers help a hot sleeper has a guide of its own.

Which type of mattress is healthiest? Off-gassing, latex and a safety rule

I know of no study showing that one mattress construction is the healthiest, and the back pain trial above compares firmness. Where they do differ is in what they give off into a room, and in latex allergy.

New mattresses can off-gas. Health Canada lists mattresses among household products that "can emit gases into your indoor air". HealthLink BC ties those gases, volatile organic compounds or VOCs, to eye, nose and throat irritation and headaches. Its advice is to open windows and, where practical, store new furnishings for a few weeks before use. Tempur-Pedic says any smell from its material is harmless and "will dissipate in a week or two".

Health Canada also notes that products give off formaldehyde faster when humidity is high. In a damp winter bedroom, that's one more reason to air a new bed with a window open. The indoor humidity levels we suggest for wood suit a bedroom too.

CertiPUR-US is the foam certification that listings from four of our makers mention, 13 of Merit's 62 listings in all. Seven of those are Restwell beds listed for Duncan. A non-profit, the Alliance for Flexible Polyurethane Foam, runs it. Foam producers certify their foam through it, and CertiPUR-US says it cannot vouch for a brand that isn't in its directory. Certified foam is made without formaldehyde, ozone depleters, mercury, lead and other heavy metals, with VOC emissions under 0.5 parts per million.

Latex allergy is the other question. HealthLink BC says it usually affects people routinely exposed to rubber, such as health care workers. Its list of common latex products names gloves and balloons and leaves out mattresses. Even so, if you have a latex allergy, ask your doctor before choosing a bed with a latex layer. On the Duncan list, the Restonic Treviso and Vernazza and three Restwell Elite models name latex in their layer lists.

One rule covers every construction. A mattress sold in Canada falls under the federal Mattresses Regulations, which set a smoulder test with a lit cigarette. It fails if, in more than one sample, the surface melts or chars more than 50 mm in any horizontal direction from the cigarette. Burning that continues 10 minutes after the cigarette goes out fails it too. Crib, cradle and bassinet mattresses and one-of-a-kind prescription mattresses are among those excluded.

Do you need a box spring for a memory foam or hybrid mattress?

A memory foam or hybrid mattress needs a flat, firm base, and a foundation or a sound slatted platform does that job. No box spring or flat foundation is listed for Merit's Duncan store. The Restwell bases listed for Duncan are two adjustable ones, the Peak and the Pinnacle. A queen Peak is $1,249.00, before applicable taxes. Sealy's 9-inch foundation, a spruce frame on a steel grid, and Tempur-Pedic's solid-panel flat foundation are carried at our Campbell River store.

Tempur-Pedic says a slatted platform may be used if it's structurally sound, with slats, as a general rule, 3 inches wide and no more than 4 inches apart. It warns that plywood over a box spring "will void your warranty". Sealy's advice is to replace the box spring along with the mattress, with centre support under a queen or king.

An adjustable base is the other option. Of Merit's 14 Duncan mattresses, only the Restwell Savannah Plush listing calls itself adjustable base friendly. For any other, it's worth asking us before pairing it with a Restwell Peak or Pinnacle base, and which mattresses bend on a power base is covered separately.

How to choose a mattress in a showroom: testing foam, coil and hybrid

Choosing a mattress in a showroom works best with a plan, because a few minutes lying down is all the test you get to find a match. These are checks to run yourself in any showroom, ours included. A short lie-down can't show how a bed sleeps on a warm night, so heat is the one thing they miss.

1. Call ahead. Ask which beds the store has set up. Duncan's are Restwell and Restonic, and the all-foam beds on our list are at Campbell River and Port Alberni.
2. Lie the way you sleep. Lie on your side if that's how you wake up, for several minutes on each bed, with your own pillow if you like.
3. Check the line of the spine. For a side sleeper, someone standing behind can see whether the spine runs straight from neck to hips.
4. Sit on the edge. Sit where you'd put your socks on and see whether the edge holds you level.
5. Test with your partner. One lies still while the other gets in and out, which shows how much motion crosses the bed.
6. Ask for the layer list. Comfort layer depths, coil count and gauge, foam certification, and the base the warranty needs.
7. Bring your measurements. A heavier hybrid still has to reach the bedroom, so bring the door and stair measurements our size guide lists.

The steps come at the four questions in our mattress finder from the other side, starting with the bed instead of the sleeper.