Bear Hybrid Mattress Review – Designed With Performance In Mind
Bear burst onto the mattress market five years ago and thanks to their innovations targeted at promoting muscle recovery while you sleep, continue to be one of the fastest growing companies in the crowded online mattress space. What makes Bear so popular? Do their mattresses really live up to their promises? In this Bear Hybrid mattress review, I’ll take an in-depth look at the only coil based mattress in the Bear range.
I’ll compare the hybrid with the other Bear mattresses, delve into the science, and analyze reviews from real users (good and bad) to help you figure out if the Bear Hybrid Mattress really is the best mattress for you.
- Bear Mattress Overview
- Bear Hybrid Mattress Features
- Compare The Bear Hybrid To The Other Bear Mattresses
- What Does The Bear Hybrid Mattress Mattress Feel Like To Lie On?
- Is The Bear Hybrid The Right Mattress For You?
- Are There Any Problems With The Bear Hybrid Mattress?
- What Are People Saying Who Love Their Bear Hybrid Mattress? (Reviews From Real People)
- Final Opinion
Bear Mattress Overview
Bear was established in 2014 by a marathon runner who used to work in Wall Street. Bear is a brand of a family owned mattress business that has been in business for more than 25 years. This combination of savvy business expertise, industry authority and the desire to sleep well after hard training sessions lead to the founding of Bear. The company catchphrase is “the best sleep for your active lifestyle”, and Bear partners with many professional athletes across a wide range of sports to market their products.
Bear currently offers three mattresses; two all foam models and the hybrid mattress which is the focus of this review. Bear also makes bases and accessories such as cooling pillows, so you can fully adorn your bed set up in Bear gear if you wish.
Bear Hybrid Mattress Features
The Bear Hybrid mattress is 14 inches high with a support core of 8 inch pocket coils topped by foam comfort layers and a unique, “smart” cover that I haven’t seen used anywhere else.
- 100 Night Sleep Trial
- 20 Year Warranty
- Free Shipping
FIRMNESS RATING: Bear rates itself as 6.1 out of 10 on the mattress comfort scale, which is a touch softer than the industry standard “medium firm”.
Here’s a detailed breakdown of the materials:
COVER: This is one of the main features that really sets Bear apart from its competitors so I’ll describe it more than I usually describe mattress covers.
The cover is hand quilted and made from a textile called, Celliant, which is a “smart” textile that has been infused with a variety of minerals (13 to be exact, kinda like the Colonel’s secret recipe but for your mattress). The claim from Celliant is that the infusion helps regulate your body temperature as you sleep, as well as promoting better blood flow and oxygen levels, which would definitely be something athletes would be looking for from a bed.
Celliant has been approved by the FDA as a medical device, which is a first for a textile, and a massive coup for Bear, who is the only mattress company I am aware of currently using it.
Here’s a short video from Celliant explaining exactly how the technology works.
COMFORT LAYERS: There are three foam layers making up the comfort layers of the Bear Hybrid Mattress. There are 5 inches of foam in total here. The foams themselves seem pretty on par with the foams used by other hybrid mattresses in this price range, but 5 inches is a more generous offering than the 3-4 inches you’ll see in similarly priced mattresses from other companies.
- Cooling gel foam is quilted into the cover – this is there to provide a soft to touch feel for the top of the mattress. As it’s quilted into the cover, it is a thin foam layer.
- The thickest comfort layer is a proprietary foam called Serene, which is similar to a memory foam. It is the thickest of the foam comfort layers and is there to provide pressure relief without a feeling of sinking into the mattress (a common complaint with traditional memory foam)
- The third layer is a polyfoam which is porous to provide some air flow. This is the firmest of the foam layers and acts as a transition between the softer comfort layers above it and the support coils directly below.
SUPPORT LAYERS: There are two components to the Bear Hybrid Mattress support core:
- 8 inch pocket coils, which provide better air flow than all foam bases. The pocket coils in the Bear Hybrid have been engineered to provide good edge support, but do not offer ergonomic zones, which is a big marketing point for some of Bear’s competitors.
- The pocket coils sit on top of a high density foam base, which is purely there to give the coils something to sit on to maximize their life.
OTHER FEATURES:
All Bear mattresses come with a 100 night sleep trial, but only the Hybrid model comes with a 20 year warranty. The two foam models come with a more standard 10 year warranty. Shipping is “free”, but we all know that just means the cost is built into your mattress cost, just like any other online mattress company offering the same thing.
You must keep your Bear mattress for at least 30 nights (this is a common requirement, and it’s about how long your body needs to truly adjust to a new mattress), but if you find you don’t like it, Bear will come and collect the mattress themselves to donate it to charity. This is important to point out, because other companies may make you arrange the charitable donation yourself before giving you your refund. This means the returns process with Bear is super simple and makes it easy to take them up on the 100 night trial.
Compare The Bear Hybrid To The Other Bear Mattresses
All Bear mattresses come with the Celliant cover and 100 night sleep trial. All are popular with a range of people and athletes, but there are some features of the Hybrid that distinguish it from the other two Bear mattresses:
- It is the only mattress in the range with a coil support core
- It is the softest mattress in the range, with the most luxurious feel
- It has the best edge support (coils always beat foam here)
- It will have the best air flow through the mattress (again because of the coils)
- It is the tallest at 14 inches
- It is the only mattress in the range with a 20 year warranty
- It has more environmental certifications
All this also adds up to the Bear Hybrid being the most expensive of the three Bear mattresses, which you might expect given everything it has above and beyond the other models. Here’s an image from Bear showing a side by side comparison of all three:
What Does The Bear Hybrid Feel Like To Lie On?
With its firmness rating of 6.1 out of 10, the Bear Hybrid should feel pressure relieving and comfortable for a wide range of people. From reading through reviews from real customers, most agree with this firmness rating.
It feels soft to the touch and through the very top layer thanks to the quilted cover.
The comfort foams are responsive, meaning the mattress springs back quickly when you lie on it or put any weight on it, rather than feeling like you sink into the mattress.
The coil support core gives the mattress a slight bounce, which you would expect.
With the Celliant cover, responsive foams and coil core this mattress should do well at dissipating body heat and therefore prevent you from sleeping too hot.
While there is much talk and hype around the Celliant cover, you won’t necessarily feel it “doing” anything as you sleep. You’re more likely to notice its benefits in feeling more refreshed or energized when you wake up, or as you go about your day.
Is The Bear Hybrid The Right Mattress For You?
The Bear Hybrid has been designed to suit a wide range of people. Indeed as you can see from the snapshot, a wide range of athletes from a wide range of sports use Bear Mattresses to help them sleep (across all Bear models).
Based on the features of the Bear Hybrid Mattress in particular, here is who I think will love this mattress, and who should look for something else:
Bear Hybrid Is Great For:
- Pretty much everyone of average to lighter body weight. For most people weighing 120-230lb, this mattress should provide the right combination of pressure relief and support.
- The firmness rating of the Bear Hybrid (6.1) means it is well suited to back, side, and combo sleepers.
- Active people or athletes looking to try out the Celliant cover.
Don’t Buy The Bear Hybrid If:
- You weigh more than 230lb. Even though hybrid mattresses are a great choice for people in this weight range, this Bear model is probably going to feel too soft for you. I don’t think it will provide enough pressure relief and you’re better going with something firmer. Here are my tailor made recommendations for you.
- People looking for a very soft mattress. It’s true that Bear is slightly softer than many others out there with similar ratings, it’s still not a really soft mattress. If you want a softer mattress, I recommend you read about a better option here.
- You like that real memory foam feel of sinking into a bed. The foams in Bear are quite responsive so they probably won’t give you that sinking feeling. This mattress will be better for you.
Are There Any Problems With The Bear Hybrid Mattress?
I scoured the thousand plus reviews of this mattress to see if there were any recurring themes from people who did not like their Bear Hybrid. One of my favorite things about reading through the Bear Hybrid Mattress Reviews is that Bear make it really easy to find the bad reviews as well as the good ones, and you can even search by sleep type and how the reviewer rated the firmness of their mattress. Here’s what I found:
- The usual comments of “too firm” or “too soft”. You’ll find this with any online mattress, the truth is that one mattress won’t work well for everyone, and there are bound to be people who it does not suit.
- I didn’t really find much else! There were no recurring comments that indicated any issue with the quality of the mattress itself, or the customer service provided by Bear.
Unfortunately, those who left negative reviews often didn’t outline their sleeping style or tell us anything about their body weight. I wonder if they were the people who I specifically say this mattress is NOT so great for, as outlined earlier in this article.
What Are People Saying Who Love Their Bear Hybrid Mattress? Reviews From Real People
According to Bear, less than 10% of their customers ask for a refund, so there are thousands of people sleeping happily on Bear mattresses across the USA. Here’s a small selection of testimonials from the many who love their Bear Hybrid Mattress:
“I used to struggle with back pain and sleeping hot, but after 2 months of sleeping on this mattress I feel amazing.”
“This mattress is everything and more than we expected. I think it’s by far the best mattress for the price.”
“I sleep on my side and my husband sleeps on his back, we are very happy with our purchase.”
“I work out 5-6 days a week and feel so much better using this mattress with the Celliant fibers.”
“This mattress has completely changed our quality of sleep.”
Final Opinion
So, would I buy this mattress for myself? It would certainly be a top contender for me, as my personal preference is for a coil based mattress with a touch of softness, so those two factors make it appealing before I even consider the technical aspects.
The biggest thing that separates Bear from its competitors is the Celliant cover. Bear really relies on this in its marketing, as otherwise the materials in the mattress are pretty standard in my opinion. As a runner, I’d be interested to give it a try. From reading real reader reviews, it seems that people from all walks of life sleep well on their Bear, some of whom attribute it to this feature.
Even though the other materials are pretty standard in this mattress, you’re getting a really generous amount of them for your money with the mattress being 14 inches high. You’re also getting a 20 year warranty, which is much more than other companies offer so I think the Bear hybrid is good value for money.
Does it truly provide “the best sleep for your active lifestyle”? I certainly think that at this price point it’s worth taking advantage of the 100 night sleep trial to find out.