Bear Original mattress review

Bear Original mattress review in brief

• All-foam mattress at a mid-range price
• Comfortable and supportive for back, stomach, and side sleepers
• Not ideal for those who sleep hot

The Original is the most affordable — and, relatedly, the most basic — mattress in the Bear line-up. However, with Bear beds rating among some of the best mattresses we’ve tested, we were eager to see how this entry level model compares. Opting for a queen size with the additional cooling cover, we put it to the test.

Delivering on its promise of a medium-firm feel, our testers agree the Bear Original mattress is supportive from head to toe, with just a touch of that squishy ‘hug’ that defines a classic foam mattress. We think it’s a crowd pleaser and like its close rival the Nectar Classic, will appeal to back, stomach and most side sleepers. If you prefer a touch more cushioning, however, the Zinus Green Tea Memory Foam Mattress is a softer alternative.

The versatile feel makes the Original a good choice for couples, as does the excellent motion isolation; you shouldn’t feel your partner move. This is a common feature of the best memory foam mattresses but it’s still appreciated. And few memory foam mattresses offer the edge support of the Bear Original — it on the side and the bed stays sturdy.

Bear is the brand behind the best cooling mattress we’ve tested, the Bear Elite Hybrid, and like its cousin the Original comes with an optional Celliant-infused cover. (Celliant is designed to transform heat into infrared energy.) However, we found the Original’s temperature control good but not great, so hot sleepers might find the nights get sweaty.

A good all-rounder at a mid-range price, you can find the full results of our Bear Original mattress testing below.

Bear Original mattress review: Price and deals

• The brand's most affordable mattress
• Regular sales knock 30% or more off
• Queen usually around $699

We consider the Bear Original to be a mid-range mattress, largely thanks to a year-round sale. You can generally find 30% off in the Bear mattress sale, knocking a queen from $998 to $699 (that's without the Celliant cover — you’ll have to pay roughly an extra $100 for this cooling upgrade.)

Here's the official pricing, and how much you can expect to pay (be aware prices have a tendency to fluctuate slightly):

• Twin: MSRP $712 (usually on sale for $499)
• Twin XL: MSRP $855 (on sale for $599)
• Full size: MSRP $855 (on sale for $599)
• Queen size: MSRP $998 (on sale for $699)
• King size: MSRP $1,284 (on sale for $899)
• Cal King size: MSRP $1,284 (on sale for $899)
• Split King size: MSRP $1,710 (on sale for $1,197)

In the sale, the Bear Original is priced comparably to the Nectar Classic Memory Foam Mattress (often $649 for a queen) and the DreamCloud Classic Hybrid Mattress (generally $699 for a queen.) We consider all these beds to offer good value for money, although if you’re on a tighter budget, head to our best cheap mattress guide.

Bear often celebrates the holidays with an extra saving — we’ve seen 35% off over sales events such as Labor Day and the Presidents' Day mattress sales. On very special occasions, that saving jumps to 40%. Keep an eye out around Memorial Day and Black Friday, and be prepared to act fast.

As well as free shipping and returns, Bear offers a limited lifetime warranty, which is the best you can expect from a mattress brand. The 120-night sleep trial is also longer than average and while it’s not as good as Nectar’s 365-night offering, we think it’s enough time to decide if the mattress is right for you.

See the Bear Original mattress at Bear
The Bear Original is available from Bear as well as select third-party sites, including Walmart and Bed, Bath & Beyond. For the best price, we recommend shopping direct around the major holidays and keeping an eye out for flash savings. Bear offers a 120-night trial and a limited lifetime warranty.

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Bear Original mattress review: Design

The Bear Original all-memory foam mattress has four layers, starting with a breathable quilt cover made with Celliant fabric, a type of textile that converts body heat into infrared energy. It is supposed to provide benefits like an average of 2.6% improved sleep efficiency and 18.3 more minutes of sleep per night. Bear also claims it can provide an average of 8.4% tissue oxygenation, which is supposed to give you more energy throughout your day.

The second layer is a cooling gel memory foam meant to provide spinal alignment and draw body heat away. That's followed by a Bear Dynamic Foam layer for balanced support and better pressure relief. A high-density support foam layer makes up the durable base.

To explore more memory foam mattresses, take a look at the best memory foam mattress guide.

Bear Original mattress review: Comfort & support

• A medium-firm mattress with a 7 out of 10 rating
• Supportive memory foam that keeps spine aligned
• Contouring foam provides some softness

The Bear Original is marketed as a medium-firm mattress, at a seven out of 10 on the firmness scale. Upon first lying on this bed, we thought it was quite soft, but when we took the time to really consider the mattress' firmness, we found we agreed with Bear's own score. When placing a 15lb weight in the middle of the mattress, it sunk about 2.1 inches, which also puts this mattress in the medium-firm bracket.

The mattress contours around the sleeper's limbs slightly, but you won't find yourself sinking too far into this mattress. During our review period, we found the memory foam pushed against the heaviest parts of our lead tester's 170lb body, to provide the ultimate support.

It took our main reviewer about four days to adjust to the firmness level of this mattress, and sometimes it felt too firm when trying to fall asleep on our back or stomach. We often fell asleep on our side and woke up on our back or stomach in the morning. However, overall we found this mattress was incredibly supportive of the hips and our lower back, and we never felt our hips were dropping too low.

Bear Original mattress review: Performance

• Very sturdy edge support
• Impressive motion isolation
• Doesn't offer a lot of breathability

We tested a queen size Bear Original mattress for two weeks, making sure to focus on the firmness, motion isolation, edge support, and temperature regulation. Set up and other important factors like the durability of the materials were also considered.

The overall construction appears to be good and with a lifetime warranty, we're hopeful that the materials will hold up over time. That said, this is a mid-range mattress and it's likely that the memory foam will soften over 10 years, though to what extent would be determined by many factors.

Setup 

Score: 4.5 out of 5

The Bear Original queen mattress weighs 70lb and was delivered by FedEx, vacuum-packed, rolled and boxed. Shipping is free and takes 2-7 business days (at time of writing). The reviewer moved the box from the porch to the bedroom without any difficulty or assistance. There's currently no option to upgrade to a delivery option that includes setup or placing in a room of choice, which is worth factoring in if you have any mobility issues, for example. There's also no option to have your old mattress removed, which is a service some more premium bed companies offer.

After easily removing it from the box and the plastic, we placed it on a platform bed frame, though Bear explains an adjustable flex bed and the Bear Foundation will also do. A traditional coil box spring is not recommended.

Though it can take 24-48 hours to fully inflate, the mattress appeared to reach its full height after an hour, and we slept on the Bear Original mattress the same night we opened it.

The Bear Original is made with CertiPUR-US Certified Foams and is GREENGUARD Gold Certified by UL for low emissions. Best of all? It did not emit any kind of off-gassing smell during the unboxing, decompression, or review process.

Use the arrow icons to scroll through our reviewer's setup process

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Motion transfer 

Score: 4.5 out of 5

Our reviewer does not have a partner and thus couldn't test the mattress' motion isolation capabilities but based on solo sleeping experiences, hypothesized that it would be excellent – and she wasn't wrong.

To objectively test the mattress' motion isolation, we placed an empty wine glass at the center of the mattress and dropped a 15lb weight 4, 10, and 25 inches away to mimic the motion of a partner moving on the bed. The wine glass didn't budge when we dropped the weight 25 inches away. However, it shook only once and very slightly when the weight was dropped 4 and 10 inches away. That's a very strong result.

During our visit to the Bear showroom, members of our testing team were able to lie and move around on the Bear Original, to further explore how motion isolation performs in real-world circumstances. They agreed that the Original did a great job with motion isolation, dampening all but the most vigorous of movements. Based on this, we feel the Bear Original mattress would be a great choice for co-sleepers.

Temperature regulation 

Score: 3.5 out of 5

The mattress' Celliant quilt cover and cooling gel memory foam are supposed to improve airflow and remove unwanted body heat, but it didn't do as well as we would have hoped.

We tested this mattress with a light comforter and microfiber sheets during Texas' fall season when some days were in the low 80s and some nights the temperature dropped below 40 degrees. On warmer days, we were hot sleeping on this mattress. Alternatively, on cold days, this was a very cozy mattress temperature-wise. This leads us to say that the Bear Original may not offer the breathability desired by hot sleepers (especially those in hot climates).

Bear admits that the Bear Original Hybrid offers more breathability than the all-foam option we reviewed. For more options, check out our guide to the best cooling mattresses — the Cocoon by Sealy Chill is an all-foam mattress with a similar feel but superior cooling.

Edge support 

Score: 5 out of 5

Edge support shouldn't be overlooked when buying a mattress as it increases the sleep surface, lets you sleep near the edge without falling off, and helps you to get out of bed. When sitting on the edge of the Bear Original, we felt completely supported and able to get in and out with ease. We didn't notice any inclination in the mattress to sag or give way to our weight when sleeping near the edge.

To further test this, we placed a 15-lb. dumbbell on the edge, and watched it sink about 1.5 inches. The edge support of the Bear Original was more impressive than others we have tested like the Zinus Green Tea Memory Foam mattress.

Durability 

Score: 4 out of 5

The mattress looks and feels about the same as it did when we first began testing it. There is nothing to suggest that the mattress' materials will break down quickly, though we imagine that overtime, it will soften a bit. It's hard to say how the mattress will fair within 10 years, but the craftsmanship appears to be good and even if it does soften, the Bear Original would likely not break down to more than a 5 on the firmness scale, which means it would still be quite comfortable and supportive.

Bear Original mattress: customer reviews

The Bear Original mattress has a 4.7 out of five-star rating on the Bear website. Side, back, and stomach sleepers agree that the Bear Original is very supportive and met their comfort needs. Many enjoyed the mattress' contouring features and firm, but slightly bouncy, feel.

Most customers who gave it a one-, two-, or three-star review said that the mattress was too firm. There were a few outliers who said it was too soft, however, in our experience this is a firm mattress and likely those buyers need something that's an 8 or above on the firmness scale.

The second complaint from customers was that the mattress was too hot. It would be nice to know if these reviewers had upgraded to the Celliant cover, but, unfortunately, you can't filter reviews.

Should you buy the Bear Original mattress?

A medium-firm mattress with contouring properties is what you can expect from the Bear Original mattress. The temperature regulation isn't the best, but the mattress excels in everything from motion isolation to edge support and pressure relief.

It's a good choice for partners with different sleep styles and those who don't want to be awoken in the middle of the night. Plus, the GREENGUARD Gold and CertiPUR-US certifications add to the overall value of the mattress. We expect the Bear Original to remain on sale for a while, but even if it doesn't, we feel as if the regular price accurately reflects the materials, construction, and features.

Keep in mind, the Bear Original is a better fit for those who like a firm mattress. If you're looking for something soft or plush, this is not the mattress for you. Instead, consider the Zinus Green Tea Memory Foam or the Nectar Premier Memory Foam mattress.

Bear Original Mattress: Alternatives