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Your great-grandparents slept on traditional spring beds and some people still do to this day. But does that mean all mattresses have springs? Are hybrid mattresses the same as innerspring mattresses? Let’s find out.
Do all mattresses have springs inside?
No, they most certainly do not. The two mattress types that have springs are called innersprings and hybrids. Mattress types that don’t have springs include memory foam, latex, air beds, and waterbeds.
In the first half of the last century, pretty much all commercial mattresses were spring mattresses and almost all beds had springs for about 70 years or so. Then waterbeds hit the market and completely changed the general public’s opinion of what a bed should look and feel like.
As waterbed popularity was tapering off in the 90s, a completely new mattress type appeared – the memory foam mattress by TempurPedic.
People now wanted soft beds, and Tempur delivered. At this time, you could still buy traditional spring mattresses, and most doctors were still recommending them as the best type of bed for spinal alignment.
But enough of the history of mattresses; the point is that there are different mattress types and that they differ by what’s inside, be it water, air, springs, or foam. It might as well be a hybrid mattress (a combination of two types of materials).
Types of mattresses that have springs
You’ll only find springs in two types of mattresses – innerspring mattresses and hybrid mattresses.
There are four different types of springs (more on that below), but for now, you can just think of springs as a system of metal wires which create a springy feel of a mattress.
Innerspring (spring mattress)
The metal springs take up the biggest portion of an innerspring mattress and they make the support layer, but there are other materials that also go inside innersprings.
This is because you need some padding to make the mattress comfortable; otherwise, people will end up waking up with wire marks on their skin (ouch!).
The padding can be made of wool, cotton, foam, and fiberfill. Most traditional innerspring beds have a foam layer and/or fiberfill on each of the sides and they are flippable. Not something you can expect out of most foam beds.
The traditional spring mattresses were typically used with box springs which were supposed to add extra comfort.
Mattresses popular with the modern crowd (especially bed-in-a-box mattresses) contain individually wrapped coils also known as pocketed coils.
Pocketed coils are not laced together with metal wire; each coil is placed in a thin polyester pocket and they are then lined up inside a mattress.
Pocket-coil-spring mattresses are better at motion isolation (they prevent motion transfer) but may create a too-soft feel for those who love themselves a firm mattress.
Bonnell coils and pocketed coils are the most common types of coils found in innerspring mattresses, but there are a couple more types as well.
Offset coils look a lot like Bonnell coils, but they aren’t perfectly round at the top and bottom. There’s a straight part of wire which allows them to connect better to the rest of the system, gives them more responsiveness, and makes them quieter than Bonnell coils. Finally, the continuous coils are rows of single wires shaped to be springy.
Although cheaper, they aren’t as contouring as other coil types.
Hybrid
Hybrid mattresses typically have much more foam on top of the coil system than traditional innerspring mattresses.
In simple terms, a hybrid mattress is 50% coil and 50% foam or some other filling, like wool or latex, while an innerspring mattress is more like 80% springs and a thin layer of padding.
There are two things important to consider in coil mattresses – coil count and coil gauge.
Although the quality of coils is important, when people are shopping for hybrids, they are more focused on what lies on top of them.
And I can’t blame them.
The top part of hybrid mattresses is what you directly feel on your skin. Memory foam can accumulate body heat and sleep hot, while latex foam doesn’t.
Cotton, wool, and latex are excellent natural materials that don’t off-gas chemicals, but memory foam tends to be cheaper.
Most mattresses with coils you’ll come across today are actually hybrids, even if, in some cases, manufacturers label them as “innerspring”.
It’s rare to find companies that produce coils with thin padding anymore. It’s all about the comfort and plush feel. The variety of firmness options comes from different foam types. On top of that, pocketed coils are easy to squish into a vacuum bag and ship to the customer.
If you prefer a traditional spring mattress over a modern bed-in-a-box-type mattress, you might still be able to find one, but you’ll have to look for old local companies which have managed to survive without changing their ways of production.
Finally, some hybrid mattress manufacturers produce hybrids that don’t even have coils. There are waterbed and foam hybrids, wool and coconut fibers, inflatable air mattresses with foam layers, latex and wool hybrids, etc. Pretty much any combination that comes to your mind is being made and sold somewhere.
The only hybrid I haven’t come across is a coil spring waterbed combination and I’m very happy that’s the case because it makes no sense. It means that the world’s not that crazy. At least, not yet.
Types of mattresses that don’t have springs
If you encounter a mattress labeled as “hybrid”, it may or may not contain springs.
But mattresses described as:
- memory foam
- latex
- air bed
- waterbed
usually do not have coils inside. You might come across words like “an all-foam mattress” for latex or memory foam mattresses, and that means you won’t find anything other than foam in it.
Memory foam
Memory foam is a type of polyurethane foam, but it contains some additional chemicals which make it “viscoelastic”. The material was supposed to keep astronauts somewhat comfy when they were on their missions.
The first memory foam mattress popped up in 1991, but the foam itself has changed since then.
Traditional memory foam mattresses started with the “stuck in the mud” feel and high heat accumulation which made people sleep hot. However, newer memory foam mattresses are made of slightly different chemicals (manufacturers usually refer to it as their “proprietary foam” and some avoid the words “memory foam” altogether).
This basically means that companies have been working on improving their foam to make it more breathable and not as unfriendly to hot sleepers.
Cheaper memory foam mattresses are normally made of one big slab of foam while the more expensive ones have several layers of foam. The firmer foam is usually at the bottom and it makes support layers, while softer foam makes comfort layers. Cooling layers (such as gel memory foam, aka gel-foam or gel-infused memory foam) are on the very top.
Memory foam mattresses offer really good pressure relief. They’re great mattresses for side sleepers. Memory foam molds around the body and it allows shoulders and hips to sink in more than others, while still managing to offer support to the entire body. The pressure gets distributed evenly and pressure points don’t feel like pressure points at all.
Latex
Latex is a natural alternative to memory foam.
But it’s also more expensive. It’s made of rubber tree sap and is whisked into foam.
Unfortunately, it’s somewhat tricky to find real, natural latex because many latex foam mattresses actually contain synthetic latex or a blend of synthetic and natural latex.
Either way, latex mattresses can also be made of one piece of foam or they can have different foam layers. There is a firmer type of latex called Dunlop and it’s usually used as a support layer and a softer type called Talalay, which they often put on top for more pressure relief.
The only difference between them is in the process of manufacture – the way they fill in molds and bake the foam. You can find a Dunlop and a Talalay version of either natural or synthetic latex.
Latex is popular among people who want their mattresses to be natural and free of harmful chemicals.
Latex foam mattresses have another flex – they tend to be the longest-lasting mattresses. They are also responsive and comfortable regardless of the sleeping position.
If latex and memory foam started tickling your curiosity, read our article about latex vs. memory foam mattresses for more details.
Air bed
Air beds have a variety of designs of internal structure, and some of those designs include what we could call coils. But they are not metal coils. They are polyvinyl chloride coils that serve to give an air bed the shape of an actual bed.
Air beds have their own pros, like being easily storable, making great guest beds, and, by the words of some, helping alleviate back pain.
They do require some maintenance such as occasional inflating, and if they get punctured, they need to be patched.
Waterbed
Waterbeds are well out of fashion, but they aren’t completely gone. They are similar to air mattresses in that they are made of polyvinyl, have various designs of internal structure, and need occasional maintenance, except instead of air, there’s water.
Waterbeds can help hot sleepers sleep cool, but are heavy and the risks they carry are quite unpleasant, such as water leaks and mold.
FAQs
A simple spring mattress does not sleep hot as opposed to memory foam mattresses or hybrid beds with memory foam on top. On the other hand, a very firm, high-quality memory foam mattress can actually be firmer than a spring mattress, but you’d have to pick carefully because most of the time the opposite is the case. Overall, if you want to know how to choose the perfect mattress, you need to know what exactly you need and then search for a mattress that can deliver.
Any old and saggy mattress can cause back pain, including innerspring beds. But if we speak of brand-new spring mattresses, they generally shouldn’t. I’d go as far as to say that a traditional spring mattress might be less likely to cause back pain than a memory foam mattress, but it generally depends on the health of your back and what type of mattress gives you spinal alignment.
Conclusion
Although they were considered a standard for a very long time, innerspring mattresses have made way for other types of mattresses.
The most common place you can find springs today is in the hybrid mattress. It’s a bit sad to see traditional innerspring mattresses go, but it’s also a sign of changing times.
Mattresses that do not contain springs at all include memory foam mattresses, latex mattresses, air beds, waterbeds, and the less-common hybrids which have materials other than coils in their support layers.
Next step: Read our Emma Original mattress review. The Original is BY FAR our top-rated springless mattress. We like it because it’s good for all sleeper types, great for back pain, and offers excellent pressure relief. If you aren’t sure which mattress without springs to go with, choose Emma.
You can read our Nap Queen mattress review to see how it compares to a much cheaper budget brand. I think you’ll find that Emma is worth the premium!
With over 5 years experience writing about sleep and mattresses, she's considered one of the go-to experts on the topic.
She likes cycling, nature, art, and languages. She pays special attention to providing you with accurate and useful information when it comes to your sleep quality.
After solving her personal sleep and tiredness problems, she is on to help others by sharing this invaluable information.
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