Bear Elite Hybrid Mattress Review 2024: A Premium Bed for Athletes Tested by Experts

The harder you make your body work, the better it'll need to rest. So if you're an athlete, how do you make sure your body is getting optimal rest? Getting a bed fit for your needs might be a good way to get started. For years, Bear has geared its beds toward this demographic of people. It offers beds made with materials that help promote recovery and improve the quality of your sleep at night.

The Bear Elite Hybrid is one of the most premium beds in Bear's lineup. It's a hybrid mattress that offers the durability you expect from Bear, combined with a more luxurious design aesthetic. It's a high-quality coil bed with a lot to offer for the more athletic sleeper, but you may be wondering how that translates in the real world. In this review, I'll try to address that and more, including who it'll work best for.

First impressions

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The Bear Elite Hybrid showed up at our doorstep the same as any other online bed, inside a large cardboard box. We dragged it inside, and we freed the bed from its tight cardboard cell and plastic confinement and quickly started to expand on our foundation.

Once the bed was unboxed, it almost looked like the pictures advertised online, but not quite. Though some beds can look a bit misshapen right out of the box, it's a completely normal part of the bed-in-a-box experience. We simply gave it a solid night to sit out on the foundation in order to properly inflate to its true form.

In the morning, the bed looked right as rain and ready for testing. My initial thought was that the bed felt neutral and pretty responsive, almost like a Brooklyn Bedding Signature or Saatva Classic. In terms of comparing comfort directly to another Bear bed, I thought it was on par with the Bear Star Hybrid, with a less pronounced pillow top.

When I hopped on, this notion of general comfort was further confirmed. The bed was accommodating for all of the sleeping positions that I favor at night: my back, stomach and sides. It struck a nice balance of support and pressure relief for me -- it was love at first sleep.

Video: Bear Elite Hybrid mattress review

Watch me review the Bear Elite Hybrid in this video review. 

Bear Elite Hybrid mattress firmness and feel

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What does the Bear Elite Hybrid feel like?

This bed presents a soft, neutral hybrid feel. Simply put, it feels like a comfortable mattress. You get plenty of support from the coils below, with lots of cushion from the comfort foams on top. The cover also felt slightly cool to the touch, much more so than your average hybrid mattress.

If you're unsure what type of mattress feel you prefer, getting something with this accommodating neutral feel is often a safe way to go. Though the bed does have some memory foam near the top, it just gives the mattress a slight pressure-relieving quality that's not overwhelming in any sense.

How firm is the Bear Elite Hybrid mattress?

This bed is actually available in three separate firmness levels, which is a great thing to have in an online mattress offering. It gives the bed versatility and gives you, as the consumer, the ability to pick and choose the firmness that works best for your preferences.

We have their "medium" model, and we would say that it is around a proper medium on our firmness scale. This level makes it a great choice for all sleeper types but is ideal for combination sleepers who like to rotate around at night. If you're a strict side sleeper, you might want to check out the "soft" model, as it's between a medium and a medium-soft. Primary back and stomach sleepers may prefer the medium-firm profile of the "firm" model as well.

Bear Elite Hybrid mattress construction

This is a premium hybrid bed that's made up of some quality materials. It's comprised of the following layers:

1. On the bottom, there's a layer of base foam. This is a thin, dense foam that acts as a foundation for everything else to rest on.

2. Then you have the bed's main support system of pocketed coils, which have a Zoned Support design and reinforced edges to give the bed sturdy edge support.

3. Next, you have a dynamic transition foam to act as a buffer between the coils and the main comfort foams for the mattress.

4. Above that is a copper-infused memory foam for one of the main comfort layers, adding some pressure relief to the bed. 

5. Wrapping everything up is a quilted cover that contains some additional comfort, which combines a phase change material for cooling and Celliant for potential restorative qualities.

Bear Elite Hybrid mattress performance

Motion isolation

If you or your partner moves around a night a lot, chances are one of you might get jostled awake from time to time. In this case, you'll want a mattress that absorbs a lot of that nightly motion. The Bear Elite Hybrid deadens a good amount of cross-mattress movement. It's not as good as a dense memory foam option for isolating motion, but its memory foam layer does help out in this regard. There shouldn't be any glaring issues for light sleepers when it comes to this mattress.  

Edge-to-edge support

You'll want a mattress with some sturdy edges if one of you tends to hog the whole bed at night -- just ask my fiancé. On the Bear Elite Hybrid, since the coils are reinforced along the bed's perimeter, it'll provide plenty of support here and help keep you placed firmly along those edges at night.
Moreover, those coils have a Zoned Support design, where the middle section provides more lumbar support for your lower back. This type of design is great for those who have back pain at night, and is there to help keep your back in a more neutral spinal alignment as you sleep.  

Temperature

Though its cover has a phase-change material and is noticeably cool to the touch, I'd still classify this bed as temperature neutral to most sleepers. If you're a hot sleeper, this bed should provide the most cooling advantage out of the entire Bear lineup, but I still don't think it's going to actively cool you down at night. Temperature neutral is the sweet spot for most beds when it comes to sleeping temperature, though, and lots of external factors come into play rather than just the mattress itself.

Durability

Coil beds generally last longer than those that have dense support foam. Since this is a premium hybrid mattress with a souped-up support system of pocketed coils, I'd say this bed will be plenty durable for all sleeper types and body sizes. Compared to your average all-foam bed online, this mattress goes above and beyond in the categories of support and durability.

Off-gassing 

There's no getting around it; sometimes, there's a bit of a smell after you get a mattress out of its box. As with other products that ship to you in a box, there's often a factory odor. Rest assured, nothing is wrong with your new mattress. This smell is a normal part of the process and should dissipate after a couple of nights.

Who is the Bear Elite Hybrid mattress best for?

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Though this is a premium hybrid bed that could work for a variety of sleepers, it still might not be the best option for everyone. Here's who we think will benefit the most from this bed.

Sleeping position

Looking at the "medium" firmness level, I think this version of the mattress will work for all sleeper types but be best for combination sleepers who like to rotate around at night. The coils and more responsive foams provide enough support for back and stomach sleepers, but it's also not too firm for side sleepers, thanks to that copper-infused memory foam layer near the top.

Of course, we all have different sleeping preferences, which makes this a pretty subjective conversation topic. However, after testing well over 200 beds at this point, I can confidently say that side sleepers usually gravitate toward softer beds, and back and stomach sleepers often prefer firm ones. A medium firmness is a safe choice for just about anyone, though.

Body type

This is a hybrid mattress by default, so it should work for all body types just fine. Medium to petite-sized people will get plenty of support, but all-foam beds could also be better for those body types. If you're heavier, you shouldn't have any support concerns with this bed.

Bear Elite Hybrid mattress pricing

Keeping in mind that this pricing reflects Bear's top-tier offering, I'd say the pricing is up there but still reasonable for the quality you're getting. After a discount is applied, you should expect to pay closer to the $1,500 range for a queen size. Bear, as a brand, also throws in two pillows, a sheet set and a mattress protector with every mattress purchase for free, which is nice if you're in the market for a whole new sleep setup.

Trial, shipping and warranty

As a brand, Bear backs its beds with very generous policies. Its beds ship to you in a box for free, and once it's in your possession, you get a 120-night trial period to try it at home risk-free. If you happen not to like it within that time frame, you have a return option, but if you decide to keep it, you're backed by a lifetime warranty. Just be sure to use the right foundation for the bed. Otherwise, you could void your bed's warranty.

The final verdict

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If you're looking for a premium hybrid bed with a soft neutral hybrid feel that's available in three different firmness options, the Bear Elite Hybrid might be a great option for your sleeping preferences. Not to mention, if you're an athlete who's interested in sleeping on something that could provide you with some potential restorative qualities, I'd say it's worth checking out -- if your budget allows it.

You might like the Bear Elite Hybrid mattress if:

• You want a supportive hybrid mattress for an athletic lifestyle
• You want three firmness levels to choose from
• You like something with a soft, neutral hybrid feel
• You're an average to heavier-sized person

You might not like the Bear Elite Hybrid bed if:

• You're looking for an all-foam mattress
• You're a smaller-sized person who doesn't need extra support
• You're looking for a dense memory foam mattress
• You're on a super strict budget

Other mattresses from Bear

Bear has a plethora of other mattresses to choose from. If you're in the market for an all-foam option, you can also check out the original Bear mattress, which is a bit firmer and has more of a dense memory foam feel. It's the brand's flagship bed and the most affordable one.

Bear also has the Pro Hybrid, Star Hybrid and Natural mattresses, which all have coils for support and are more affordable than the Elite Hybrid. It even has a kid's mattress called the Bear Cub -- I know, isn't it adorable?

How does the Bear Elite Hybrid compare to other mattresses? 

Bear Elite Hybrid vs. Bear Star Hybrid

These are the two more enhanced hybrid options from Bear. Though they're similar, there are some key differences between the two. The main ones have to do with comfort and price. The Star Hybrid has a pillow top, whereas the Elite Hybrid has more of a quilted cover. The Star Hybrid is only available in one firmness profile, while the Elite Hybrid has three different ones to choose from. If you want to save the most amount of money though, you'll be saving a few hundred dollars by going with the Star Hybrid. Either bed would be a fantastic choice for most athletes. 

Bear Elite Hybrid vs. WinkBed

This decision is more difficult since these two beds are similar in terms of policies, firmness levels and pricing. Either way, you're getting a multitude of features in a more enhanced hybrid mattress. It just depends on the type of bed you want. Like the Star Hybrid, WinkBed has a pillow top to provide the bed with some more cushion. Bear Elite has that phase change cover with that celliant material woven in, which might be more suitable for athletes. I'll admit I'm splitting hairs. Both are worth considering.