What Is a Hybrid Mattress?

As a result, says Chris Regan, who oversees CR’s mattress testing, it’s up to manufacturers to determine whether their mattresses count as hybrids. He says that hybrid construction can vary greatly among the mattresses in our ratings.

For instance, the Casper Dream has two layers of memory foam (totaling about 3 inches thick) on top of a layer of 6-inch-high coils. Under the springs is an additional layer of foam that’s 2.3 inches thick. The construction is a departure from what most shoppers would expect to see in a hybrid because most of these mattresses are just layers of foam on top of coils. It’s why Regan says you can’t assume you’ll get the same makeup with every hybrid mattress.

As another example, Regan points to the Therapedic Agility Hybrid. Its coils—actually, micro-coils—are only 1.5 inches high. And while we found just over an inch of latex on top, the bulk of the foam (two layers of polyurethane, about 8 inches thick in total) exists under the coils.

The variation makes it “difficult to say if a specific construction is better than another,” Regan says. You may very well find a hybrid that still has a quicksand memory foam feel, with only a whiff of resilience. You may also find a hybrid that’s bouncy, with just a touch of foam that barely conforms to your curves.

In short, “hybrid” is a marketing term—and a successful one at that. According to Technavio, a global market research firm, the hybrid mattress market is expected to grow by $1.83 billion by 2028. It makes perfect sense. After all, who doesn’t like hybrids? It has worked for cars, corporate work models, and my oh-so-adorable Labradoodle (part Labrador retriever, part poodle), Duke. But for the consumer, confusion about the term makes selecting the right hybrid mattress quite tricky. 

“When we look at the construction of the full slate of innerspring mattresses in our ratings—so 100-plus mattresses—we’re seeing similar characteristics between those with hybrid in the name and those without hybrid in the name,” Regan says.