Best Hybrid Mattress For Side Sleepers: Reviews and Buyer’s Guide

Side sleepers typically need a softer bed to cushion their hips and shoulders and prevent pressure points that would occur on firmer mattresses. While a foam mattress may offer plenty of cushioning, hybrid mattresses provide plenty of bounce—while still being soft—so side sleepers won’t feel trapped inside of their bed.

With their comfort layers and breathable support coils, hybrid models are the ideal choice for a side sleeper. In this article, we share some of the best hybrid mattresses for side sleepers to alleviate pressure and support the spine.

Best Hybrid Mattress For Side Sleepers

	Mattress	Highlights
	Amerisleep AS5 Hybrid	Best Hybrid Mattress For Side Sleepers Overall
	Zoma Hybrid Mattress	Best Hybrid Mattress For Pain Relief
	Amerisleep Organica	Best Natural Hybrid Mattress For Side Sleepers
	Vaya Hybrid Mattress	Best Budget Hybrid Mattress For Side Sleepers

At 14 inches thick, the AS5 Hybrid is Amerisleep’s thickest and softest mattress. It contains four layers—3 inches of Bio-Pur®, 2 inches of Active Flex, 8 inches of pocketed coils, and a 1-inch foam base.

Bio-Pur® is Amerisleep’s proprietary plant-based memory foam. If you’ve ever slept on traditional memory foam, you may have noticed that it can get incredibly hot and even stink. Amerisleep offsets this issue by producing Bio-Pur® with castor oil in place of some petroleum oils.

So, Bio-Pur® is not only eco-friendly but cooler and more durable than traditional memory foam, while still being pressure-relieving and comfortable.

Lots of soft mattresses can cause you to feel trapped and unable to move in bed. Thus, the Active Flex layer. This layer quickly adapts to your movements, whether you’ve just laid down and need cradling or if you’re trying to shift positions and don’t want to feel stuck. It helps the mattress stay buoyant without negatively affecting the bed’s soft feel.

The mattress’s pocketed coil layer is designed to offer superior support and relieve any pain you may have. It provides solid edge support—making getting in and out of the bed easier–and isolates motion. This layer also maximizes breathability since air flows between the coils.

The bottom of the mattress is a thin transitional layer made of durable foam. This layer acts as a surface for the coils to rest upon.

The AS5 Hybrid is CertiPUR-US® certified, minimizing off-gassing. It comes with a 100-night sleep trial and a 20-year warranty. Along with that, Amerisleep provides free shipping and returns for their mattresses.

The Zoma Hybrid is a medium-soft mattress featuring a breathable mesh cover known as AirCloth. It wicks away moisture while securing the four layers inside the bed.

The top layer of the bed is 2 inches of gel memory foam with Triangulex™. This comfort layer cradles your hips and shoulders while you sleep, ensuring they aren’t sore and achy when you wake up in the morning. The gel infusion is cool so to ease any existing pains you have as coldness reduces pain sensitivity.

The second layer in the Zoma Hybrid is 2 inches of Reactiv™, a buoyant foam designed to boost the bed’s responsiveness.

The core of the mattress is made from pocketed coils, a feature unique to hybrid beds. Since the coils are pocketed, the mattress has minimal motion transfer and noise production.

At the base of the Zoma Hybrid is an inch of durable foam to reinforce the mattress.

Zoma offers a 100-night sleep trial and a 10-year warranty for their mattresses. This way, you have time to decide whether or not the mattress is improving your sleep.

The cover of the Organica Mattress is made from cotton, a cool, durable fabric. The knitted top includes woven rosettes to secure the mattress and minimize wear.

The top of the mattress is made from 1 inch of quilted New Zealand Joma Wool®. Not only does the wool have a soft feel, but it acts as a natural flame barrier.

Underneath the wool layer is 3 inches of natural Talalay latex. Talalay latex is breathable and springy, all while providing excellent cushioning and relieving pressure.

The Organica features a pocketed coil support system. This layer promotes a healthy spine, isolates motion transfer, and boosts the airflow throughout the mattress. At the base of the mattress is a thin transition foam made of natural Dunlop latex.

The Organica is Standard 100 OEKO-TEX®, Rainforest Alliance, GOTS® organic, and eco-INSTITUT certified. The Amerisleep Organica is made in the USA, has a 100-night sleep trial, and a 20-year warranty. The bed also comes with free shipping and returns.

The Vaya Hybrid is supportive and cushiony, so it’ll promote spinal alignment while still cradling your body to ease the pain on your spine.

The mattress has a soft and stretchy fabric designed to help you stay cool and dry while sleeping. The Vaya Hybrid contains 3 inches of Vaya Comfort Foam. Vaya Comfort Foam doesn’t trap heat or retain moisture as other foam mattresses do.

The bed’s support system is made from 8 inches of pocketed coils, a durable and spring layer. A pocketed coil base is both supportive and breathable, ensuring your back is well-supported. Beneath the support layer is a 1-inch base foam for added durability.

You can test out the Vaya Hybrid for 100 nights to determine whether or not it’s helping your pain. The mattress is also backed by a 10-year warranty.

The top of the Purple Hybrid Premier is Purple Grid™, Purple’s unique gel foam. This flexible material features a grid cut-out, as the name suggests. It’s built to quickly adapt to your body and relieve pressure. Purple Grid™ features hundreds of air channels to optimize the bed’s breathability and keep it temperature-neutral.

The Purple Hybrid Premier has two comfort layer options: a 3-inch Purple Grid™ or a 4-inch Purple Grid™. For side sleepers, we recommend choosing the 4-inch variation for deeper pressure relief.

Beneath the comfort layer is a 7.5-inch coil layer. These pocketed coils relieve pressure while also supporting your body. On either side of the support layer is thin transition foam to enclose the coils.

The mattress is wrapped in a stretchy and soft material. It’s breathable and ensures you can enjoy the benefits of the mattress.

The Purple Hybrid Premier is hypoallergenic and made in the USA. It comes with a 100-night sleep trial and a 10-year warranty. Purple provides free shipping and returns, as well.

The Bear Hybrid contains six unique layers and a hand-quilted Celliant® cover. Celliant® is an FDA-determined cooling technology. The cover absorbs your body heat and transforms it into energy before releasing it back into your body to improve your sleep quality and boost muscle recovery.

Underneath the cover is a thin layer of gel memory foam. This layer is not only cool but enhances the softness of the Bear Hybrid mattress.

The second layer of the bed is a comfort foam to cushion your hips and shoulders. It closely cradles your body to minimize pain without overheating.

The mattress features a thin transition foam to relieve pressure and maximize airflow to the bed.

The mattress’s support system is made from pocketed coils.  The coils have enhanced support around the perimeter of the mattress to prevent sleepers from rolling off of the bed. This feature also makes getting in and out of bed easier.

Finally, the bottom of the mattress is a simple, but durable support foam.

The Bear Hybrid is backed by a 100-night sleep trial and a 20-year warranty. The mattress ships to your home for free, and if you don’t like it, you can return it for free as well.

Benefits of Side Sleeping

Side sleeping isn’t only a comfortable sleeping position, but it’s also one of the healthiest sleeping positions. With the right mattress, side sleeping can alleviate issues such as sleep apnea, acid reflux, poor digestion, and pain.

Reduces Snoring and Obstructive Sleep Apnea

Both snoring and sleep apnea are disruptive and harmful to your sleep quality. Obstructive sleep apnea is a sleep disorder in which your breathing periodically stops and starts at night. When left untreated, obstructive sleep apnea can cause heart attacks, diabetes, and cognitive issues.

When sleeping on your side, your airways stay open so you can breathe at nighttime. For back sleepers and stomach sleepers, your airways can get blocked, thus worsening both snoring and sleep apnea.

Minimizes Acid Reflux and Heartburn

When back or stomach sleeping, your body is generally flat on your bed—unless you have an adjustable bed base or a high loft pillow, such as a wedge pillow. Gravity causes stomach acid to travel to your throat and cause acid reflux or heartburn, especially if you’ve eaten before sleeping. If you’re sleeping on your side, this isn’t a problem.

Improves Digestion

Side sleeping can help your gut function better compared to other sleeping positions. When sleeping on your side, gravity helps the body digest waste and encourages bowel movements.

Reduces Muscle and Joint Pain

Although back sleeping was once popular for relieving pain, research shows otherwise. Side sleeping is best for aligning your spine and reducing issues such as back and neck pain, especially if you sleep on a supportive mattress and pillow.

Using a pillow between your legs can further improve alignment and reduce joint pain and lower back pain.

Safe For Pregnant Women

During the second and third trimesters, it’s safest to sleep on the side. Pregnant women often experience muscle and joint pain, heartburn, and poor circulation, all of which side sleeping can help with.

Pregnant women should generally sleep on their left side as it takes more pressure off the liver and kidneys amd improves circulation to the heart and the fetus.

What is a Hybrid Mattress?

In a sense, hybrid mattresses are a blend of both foam and innerspring mattresses. They have the benefits of both types of beds, which is why hybrid mattresses are highly regarded.

Hybrid mattresses have at least a 2 to 3-inch comfort layer. This thick layer is generally made from memory foam, poly-foam, or latex as they’re better at relieving pressure compared to down or cotton.

High-quality hybrid beds contain pocketed coils—this is partially what differentiates them from traditional innerspring beds. Pocketed coils are springs individually wrapped in fabric.

Individually wrapping the springs not only prevents the metal from scraping together—thus being noisy—and from breaking through your mattress. The coils move independent of each other, so they’ll respond to your movements and distribute your body weight more evenly. Most hybrid beds feature foam framing or sturdier coils around the perimeter.

At the base of most hybrid mattresses is a durable foam to act as a surface for the coils.

Benefits of a Hybrid Mattress

Since hybrid mattresses are a blend of both innerspring and foam mattresses, they provide the benefits of both types of mattresses. Hybrids beds are a good choice for side sleepers because they are cool, reduce pressure, isolate motion, and ease pressure points.

Breathable

Hybrid mattresses are less prone to trapping heat when compared to mattresses made entirely of foam. This is due to the coils in the bed. Compared to a foam support layer, more air can circulate between steel coils, keeping both you and your mattress cool.

Isolates Motion

Compared to the continuous coils on an innerspring mattress, independent coils on a hybrid mattress perform much better. On a hybrid mattress, your movements are less likely to transfer from one side of the bed to the other. A mattress with good motion isolation is crucial if you share your bed because if you or your partner were to shift around or get in and out of bed, you won’t disturb each other.

Excellent Support

Since each coil moves and responds to your body separately, the coils can provide better support overall.

Some companies build their hybrid mattresses with targeted support, meaning the coils or foam layers offer different levels of support to evenly distribute your body weight and prevent pressure points. Hybrid mattresses typically contain between three to five support zones.

Alleviates Pressure

As a side sleeper, a common issue is pressure build-up around the shoulders and hips. Traditional innerspring beds aren’t very comfortable due to their poor cushioning, but hybrid mattresses offer much better cradling.

With comfort layers made from materials such as memory foam, poly-foam, or latex, hybrid mattresses are capable of relieving lots of pressure without being overly soft or causing you to sink.

FAQs

Should side sleepers have a firm or soft mattress?

Mattresses for side sleepers should be medium to soft. When side sleeping, the widest parts of your body—the hips and shoulders—need lots of cushioning to prevent pressure points, achiness, and numbness.

Medium-firm and firm mattresses can throw your spine out of alignment when side sleeping and cause long-term pain.

Is a memory foam or hybrid mattress better for side sleepers?

This partially comes down to personal preferences since both types of mattresses work for side sleepers.

Memory foam mattresses offer superior pressure and pain relief, are virtually silent, and have little to no motion transfer. Hybrid mattresses are still a good option for receiving pressure relief, but they’re also highly supportive, bouncy, and breathable compared to memory foam mattresses.

With this in mind, memory foam mattresses are generally cheaper than hybrid mattresses. Memory foam mattresses can cost less than $1000, while most hybrid mattresses cost more than $1000.

Can you flip a hybrid mattress?

No. Hybrid mattresses are built with a top-down construction. Flipping your hybrid mattress will not only be uncomfortable to rest on but also potentially damage your mattress.

Unless a brand clearly states that their hybrid mattress is flippable, don’t flip your mattress over. Otherwise, most mattresses should be rotated every 3 to 6 months. Still, more and more companies are designing their mattresses to be durable and won’t form body indentations quickly, so you won’t need to rotate them.

Do hybrid mattresses need a box spring?

No, innerspring mattresses are the only mattresses that require box springs. Innerspring and hybrid beds need different types of support. Placing a hybrid mattress on a box spring can cause your mattress to wear down prematurely and may even void the manufacturer’s warranty.

Some mattress foundations compatible with hybrid mattresses include:

• Slatted or solid mattress foundations
• Platform beds
• Bunkie boards
• Adjustable bed bases

How long do hybrid mattresses last?

Hybrid mattresses last roughly 6 to 7 years on average. This is fairly standard considering that most mattresses last between 6 to 8 years. With proper maintenance, you can potentially help your mattress last longer. Since most mattresses warranties are over 7 years, some brands may repair or replace your old hybrid mattress for a fee—this would still be significantly less than buying an entirely new mattress.

Conclusion

As a side sleeper, you can’t go wrong with choosing a hybrid bed. Hybrid mattresses offer a balance of softness, breathability, and bounce.

We hope our guide helps you when hunting for the best mattress. Knowing your sleep style and the mattress type you want makes the search drastically easier, but it still takes time to choose the best mattress for you. When browsing, we recommend considering your budget and weighing the pros and cons of the different hybrid mattresses we’ve listed.