Have you ever woken up with a sore neck, hip, shoulder or back pain? If so, there’s a good chance your mattress may be the cause. A mattress that is too soft or too hard, and isn’t suited to your body type and needs, can inflame pressure points.
Pressure points are the areas of your body that feel the most pressure when lying down. These can vary from person to person and will also be dependent on the sleeping position.
For instance, someone sleeping on their side will feel much more pressure on their shoulder and hips as opposed to their back. But with so many mattresses to choose from, it can be hard to determine which one to buy; until now.
The Best Mattress for Pressure Relief
Sleep experts at SFGATE have revealed that the Purple Hybrid Mattress is the best mattress for pressure relief. Purple is a brand that is well known for its online presence and direct-to-consumer approach, something they cemented with the original Purple mattress. Since then, the Utah-based brand has broadened its product offerings to include a variety of hybrid and foam mattresses. Of these, the Purple Hybrid mattress is the perfect combination between flexibility and firmness, allowing the sleeper to rest on a sturdy yet comfortable mattress for a good night’s sleep.
The medium-firm mattress consists of Purple’s very own unique GelFlex Grid system, which provides 2″ of support to pressure points while bracing the rest of the body. The GelFlex Grid technology, combined with responsive support coils sandwiched between two transition foam layers, and topped off with a Premium StretchMax cover, ensures your body is pain-free no matter what your sleeping position is. The GelFlex grid system will also allow proper air circulation, making this mattress a top choice for hot sleepers.
The Purple Hybrid mattress has an incredibly unique feel, one that is almost too hard to describe. This is primarily due to the GelFlex Grid system. The grid has unmatched flexibility on its surface, feeling soft and conforming whilst maintaining the structure it needs to provide stability and relief. It can be described as cradling, gentle, buoyant, and supportive, which may sound contradictory. Still, it’s something that must be experienced to truly comprehend.
Unlike memory foam mattresses that conform to the sleeper’s body, allowing you to sink deeply into it, the adaptive and responsive GelFlex material allows heavier parts of the body like your hips and shoulders to sink further into the mattress. This provides a pressure-relieving cushion that feels natural, while at the same time, areas of the body that need support, such as your legs, back, and head, don’t sink as far into the mattress and are sufficiently reinforced. This results in a combination where the mattress is soft and comfortable but firm and responsive to the body. For stomach sleepers or side sleepers, your body will be optimally supported in all the right areas.
The Purple Hybrid is available in twin XL, full (double), queen, king, California king, and split king sizes. To ensure you’ve selected the right size, each mattress has a 100-night sleep trial and comes with a 10-year warranty, and free returns policy should anything go wrong. Prices range from $1899 to $3798, which can seem steep, but financing is available for as low as 0% APR.
What makes up the Purple Hybrid Mattress?
At its core, the Purple Hybrid consists of a 1″ polyurethane foam base layer that supports the 7.5″ pocketed coils on top of it. The individually wrapped coils are muffled with noise-reducing premium fabric to ensure there is minimal noise when you are moving around in your sleep. On top of the coils is another layer of polyurethane foam, but only 0.5″ this time, acting as a barrier to smooth out the feeling of the coils.
The top layer consists of a 2″ Grid that is made from a hyper-elastic and temperature-neutral GelFlex polymer material. It is much more adaptive than memory foam and is a material engineered by Purple themselves to provide immediate responsiveness. The grid structure also acts as a channel for air to flow through, ensuring maximum air circulation. Finally, a Premium StretchMax cooling cover with ultra-breathable woven side panels finishes off the top layer. It is a soft top and stretchy material that lets you feel the grid below it without hampering airflow.
The materials in this mattress are certified Clean Air GOLD – the highest certification that can be awarded. Clean Air tests products under rigorous conditions to determine if there are any volatile organic compound (VOC) emissions from its materials. For the Purple Hybrid mattress to achieve gold certification, they must measure the mattress material and deem it to be free of toxic chemicals, non-impactful to indoor air quality, and considered to be made from environmentally friendly, sustainable, and hypoallergenic materials. This shows that the Purple Hybrid is a high-quality product.
Variations of the Purple Hybrid
The Purple Hybrid mattress is the firmest mattress in the hybrid range, being rated at a 5 to 6 out of 10 in terms of firmness. For the majority of cases, slightly firmer mattresses should more than suffice.
However, consumers who prefer slightly less support and more cushioning can opt for the Purple Hybrid Premier 3. The Hybrid Premier 3 comes with 3″ of GelFlex Grid instead of 2″ for a more medium-soft mattress and responsive feel, akin to what you would expect in latex mattresses.
The third and final mattress in the hybrid range is the Purple Hybrid Premier 4 mattress. As you might have guessed, this hybrid mattress comes with 4″ of GelFlex, providing less support but maximum cushioning, pressure relief, and air circulation. It is the softest mattress in the range and is meant for those who need extreme pressure relief.
Who would benefit from the Purple Hybrid mattress?
Hybrid mattresses, in general, have numerous benefits in comparison to their memory foam or innerspring mattress counterparts. This is mainly due to hybrid mattresses being a combination of traditional designs mixed with innovative technology, providing an excellent sleeping experience. But the Purple Hybrid is a particular case since it’s considered a luxury hybrid mattress due to its unique materials and components. Let’s take a look at all the benefits it provides.
Pressure point sufferers
As the title of this article suggests, the Purple Hybrid will benefit those who need pressure relief the most. You will no longer have to compromise between comfortability and support due to the innovative GelFlex material and its grid structure. Due to the numerous layers in the hybrid mattress that slightly soften the top, it feels like your body is lying on a buoyant surface and being cradled, almost as if it’s floating. It will give you just the right amount of flexibility to move and sleep in various positions whilst also providing the firmness to relieve your pressure points from strain, resulting in a blissful and pain-free night of sleep.
Back pain and spinal alignment
As with pressure points, choosing a mattress that aids all sleeping positions is crucial since your back and spine need to be supported. If not, you are at a much greater risk of back pain. The springs in the mattress combined with foam layers create a firmer mattress to support your back and encourage proper spinal alignment whilst maintaining the cushioning needed for a comfortable experience.
Added comfort
As mentioned above, the added comfortability is a massive component of the Purple Hybrid. It combines the benefits of traditional foam mattresses and innerspring mattresses, ensuring you have the support from the coils and padding of the foam and GelFlex to achieve a cloud-like experience.
Hot sleepers
Unlike innerspring or memory foam mattresses, both of which absorb and retain heat, hybrid mattresses are temperature neutral, meaning they will keep you cool and dry, so you never get too hot. This is achieved by engineering unique materials and structures which better facilitate airflow.
The Purple Hybrid mattress gives hot sleepers a good night’s rest, with its coils which promote air circulation much more quickly, followed by the GelFlex Grid on top, which compounds this effect even more. The grid structure is not only responsive, but it is also almost 80% air, meaning that there is plenty of air circulation. To further aid airflow is the breathable and plush Premium StretchMax mattress cover which ensures moisture is wicked away, allowing you to regulate your body temperature better whilst you sleep.
Hygiene-focused sleepers
Due to the impressive airflow and air circulation of the GelFlex grid, as well as its sustainable materials, this mattress is also hygienic and hypoallergenic. Smells and sweat won’t stick and linger on the mattress, and the chemical-free materials ensure that you won’t be inhaling any toxic fumes whilst asleep.
Motion transfer & edge support
The way the coils are set up in the Purple Hybrid mattress, they are incredibly sturdy and only react to a certain pressure, with some of them not moving at all. This means that when your partner moves on the other side of the bed, there will be no motion transfer to your side, allowing you to stay asleep instead of being woken up at every change in sleep position.
Additionally, the spring system spans across the whole mattress; you will feel the same support and benefits of the mattress in the middle as you will at the edges. Compared to some traditional mattresses, this alone allows you to dramatically increase the surface area in which you sleep without having to worry about the integrity and durability of the edges.
