What is an innerspring mattress? 

An innerspring mattress has a metal wire system that combines with springs to give it the support that an innerspring mattress offers, the wires are then topped with a supportive material that gives the mattress that extra support. Innerspring mattresses are the oldest, most commonly used mattress design.  

A defining feature of an innerspring mattress is its springiness and bounce due to the coil layers in the mattress. The coil in the innerspring mattresses are there to provide a supportive structure to the mattress, that is topped with a thin layer of a cushioning material to make the mattress comfortable.  

Components of an innerspring mattress 

Support layer 

The innerspring mattress has a support layer that has a spring base of continuous coils, offset, pocket coils or bonnell.  

A continuous coil is made from a single length of wire that makes it vulnerable to motion transfer, the continuity of the wire makes the bed strong, but it means that if one side of the bed has some motion then the rest of the bed has that motion too.  

The offset coils offer compression and support to your body, however the motion transfer with the offset coils is also bad so, if one side of the bed has some motion then the rest of the bed has that motion too. 

Pocket coils are made up of a lot of metal coils or springs that are individually wrapped in fabric pockets or sleeves, which helps with reducing the motion transfer in the mattress, this type of spring is the only one out of the 4 types that doesn’t transfer much motion, therefore not disturbing your sleep as much as the other mattress types do.  

Bonnell is one of the most ineffective support units that a mattress has to offer, the bonnell coils are wired together making the mattress durable but the motion transfer is high.  

There are some pros and con to buying a innerspring mattress.  

Pros 

The pros of buying an innerspring mattress is that the innerspring coils promote airflow therefore cooling the mattress and that there is a wider pricing option of this mattress in various different price points.  

Cons 

The cons of buying a innerspring mattress is that the comfort layer in fairly thin which doesn’t allow the mattress to conform to the curvature of your spine which could lead to some lower back pain. Another disadvantage that there is to the innerspring mattress is that the coil tension may decrease causing the mattress to sag and sink. Most of the coils aren't very good at stopping the motion from transferring to the rest of the bed, causing sleep disruption. The last con is that these mattresses usually have a shorter lifespan compared to the other mattresses with a lifespan of 7-8 years, so although you could be paying less for an innerspring mattress in comparison to what you would pay for a hybrid mattress but it would mean that you would be getting a much cheaper quality mattress and you would have to buy another mattress sooner, since most mattress have a lifespan of 10+ years, whilst this mattress only has a lifespan of 7-8 years.  

An innerspring mattress is a decent option if this is something that you are looking for specifically, however if you are looking for a mattress that feels like a cloud, soft, supportive, durable, cooling and long lasting this may not be the mattress for you, maybe look into a different type of mattress such as a hybrid or a memory foam mattress instead.