WinkBed vs. Bear Mattress Comparison

The Bear Original is a medium-firm memory foam mattress made with athletes and active lifestyles in mind. It pairs gel memory foam with a stable foam base and advanced recovery technology. The WinkBed is a luxury hybrid mattress made with foam and coils. It comes in four firmness levels, including one model designed for plus-size sleepers. 

The Bear is best for people who like to sleep “on” the surface of their mattress. It’s well-suited for back and stomach sleepers, specifically for lightweight and average-weight folks. The WinkBed is a better fit for side sleepers, couples, and anyone who likes the cloud-like feel of a pillow top mattress. Read on to see which is best for you.

Comparing Bear & WinkBed Mattresses

Differences

• Construction: The Bear is an all-foam bed made with a memory foam top layer. The WinkBed is a hybrid mattress made with a pillow top and individually wrapped spring coils. 
• Feel: The WinkBed’s Euro pillow top has a softer, more body conforming feel, while the Bear’s firmer foam construction has a little sinkage, but mostly keeps you lifted on top of the foam layers.
• Support for Side Sleepers: Only the Softer WinkBed is cushioning enough for the average side sleeper. The Bear provides excellent pressure relief, but it’s probably too firm for most side sleepers.
• Support for Heavyweight Sleepers: The WinkBed Plus is built specifically for the needs of plus-size people, while the Bear isn’t quite supportive enough for people weighing more than 230 lbs. The WinkBed Plus even makes our list of best mattresses for heavy people.

Similarities

• Good for Hot Sleepers: The Bear sleeps relatively cool for a memory foam mattress, thanks to gel infused memory foam and a breathable mattress cover. The WinkBed also has gel infused foam, as well as a breathable coil system that allows ample airflow through the bulk of the mattress. 
• Support for Back and Stomach Sleepers: The Bear supports both back and stomach sleepers under 230 lbs. The Firmer WinkBed and WinkBed Plus work for stomach sleepers of any body type, and the Luxury Firm and Firmer WinkBeds work for back sleepers. We even included the WinkBed on our list of best mattresses for back sleepers.  
• Lots of Motion Transfer: Both the Bear and WinkBed mattresses performed poorly on our motion isolation test. That means they allow motion to spread across the mattress surface—not the best news for couples and light sleepers. If motion transfer is a concern for you, check out the best mattresses for couples.

Who the Bear Mattress is Best For 

Best For…

• People With An Active Lifestyle: Bear designed its original mattress for athletes and active people. The brand claims Celliant fabric is intended to transform body heat into infrared energy, which promotes blood flow, tissue oxygenation, and, as a result, faster muscle recovery.  
• Back and Stomach Sleepers: The Bear has a firmer feel that supports the spines of back sleepers, plus just enough pressure point contouring for comfort.
• Memory Foam Fans: The Bear has a top layer of traditional memory foam that has a slow response time and close, contouring feel that will please memory foam fans.

May Not be Best For…

• Plush Mattress Fans: As a medium-firm mattress, the Bear doesn’t have the plush feel that sleepers often associate with a pressure-relieving mattress. If you like to sink down into plush comfort layers, the Softer WinkBed is a better choice.
• Side Sleepers: Despite excellent pressure relief scores, we don’t think the memory foam and polyfoams used in the Bear are soft enough for the average side sleeper. There’s a good chance that side sleepers’ shoulders and hips will feel jammed, so they should opt for a mattress with more cushioning.

Read our full Bear mattress review to learn more! 

Who the WinkBed Mattress is Best For 

Best For…

• Combination Sleepers: The best mattresses for combination sleepers quickly adapt to your changes in position, and the WinkBed does just that thanks to responsive coils and foam. 
• People of All Shapes and Sizes: The WinkBed Softer option brings the softness that most lightweight folks need for adequate pressure relief. The Plus model has the support required by heavier people, and the Luxury Firm and Firmer versions have the balanced feel that most average-weight people prefer. 
• Luxury Mattress Shoppers: The WinkBed is considered to be a luxury hybrid mattress. Its Euro pillow top looks and feels luxurious, while the coil base layer delivers the durability that you expect from a high-end bed.

May Not be Best For…

• People on a Budget: While the WinkBed has competitive pricing for a luxury mattress, it costs more than the average bed-in–a-box mattress. 
• Innerspring Mattress Fans: The WinkBed does have responsive coils, but with thick layers of foam up top, it doesn’t have the distinct springiness of a traditional innerspring mattress.

Read our full WinkBed mattress review to learn more! 

Deciding Between Bear & WinkBed

Firmness / Feel

Brand Bear Performance By Sleeping Position:

Body Type:	BACK SLEEPERS	STOMACH SLEEPERS	SIDE SLEEPERS
Lightweight (< 130 lbs):	5	5	2
Average weight (130 – 230 lbs):	5	4	3
Heavyweight (> 230 lbs):	3	2	3

Brand WinkBed Performance By Sleeping Position:

Body Type:	BACK SLEEPERS	STOMACH SLEEPERS	SIDE SLEEPERS
Lightweight (< 130 lbs):	5	5	4
Average weight (130 – 230 lbs):	5	4	5
Heavyweight (> 230 lbs):	5	4	5

1 = Very poor, 2 = Not good, 3 = Fair, 4 = Good, 5 = Excellent

At Mattress Nerd, we measure firmness on a 1–10 scale, with 10 being the firmest. The Bear is a medium-firm mattress, falling at 7/10 on the firmness scale. The WinkBed comes in four firmness options with the following firmnesses: 

• WinkBed Softer: 4/10
• WinkBed Luxury Firm: 6/10
• WinkBed Firmer: 7.5/10
• WinkBed Plus: 8/10

Generally, lightweight people (<130 lbs) require a softer feel and heavyweight people (>230 lbs) need a firmer, more supportive feel since they sink further into their mattress. Average-weight folks (130–230 lbs) can find a good match across the firmness range as long as it works for their primary sleeping positions.

The WinkBed Softer version is our choice for side sleepers, plush mattress fans, and people who weigh less than 130 lbs. The WinkBed Luxury Firm and Bear mattresses have a universal medium-firm feel that work for the average-sleeper, although the Bear is a bit firmer. Finally, the WinkBed Firmer and Plus options are our picks for stomach sleepers and heavyweight individuals.

Related: Best Mattresses for Stomach Sleepers

Motion Isolation

Motion isolation is a term that describes how much movement travels across a mattress’s surface, and it’s one of the main factors we consider when deciding on our list of the best mattresses for couples.

Unfortunately, the Bear and WinkBed mattresses don’t do a superb job of dampening motion transfer, so we can’t recommend either to couples who are easily disrupted by movements across the mattress.

Edge Support

A sturdy and reliable mattress perimeter creates a stable surface for getting in and out of bed. It also adds a few extra inches of comfortable sleeping surface for people who like to sleep along the sides of their bed. 

The WinkBed’s edges are more stable and comfortable than the Bear’s. With ultra-durable coils along the perimeter, there’s an impressive amount of stability. Keep in mind that the Bear has decent edge support for an all-foam mattress.

Pressure Relief 

Adequate pressure relief minimizes pain and strain at heavier areas while supporting healthy body alignment. Side sleepers typically require greater pressure relief than back and stomach sleepers since their shoulders and hips press harder into the mattress surface. 

We were impressed with the pressure relief scores for both of these mattresses. Specifically, we recommend the WinkBed over the Bear for lightweight and average-weight people who need ample cushion for comfort, such as side sleepers. The Bear’s memory foam top layer provides excellent pressure relief for back and stomach sleepers under 230 lbs. 

Related: Best Mattresses for Side Sleepers

Spine Alignment 

Spinal alignment is another way of saying that you have good posture. While sleeping, your curves should sink deep enough into your mattress for comfort, but not so deep that your spine is arched out of its natural “S” shape. Misalignment can cause back pain, especially when your lumbar region (lower back) is strained.

For side sleepers under 230 lbs, spinal alignment is best achieved on the Softer WinkBed. Back sleepers can choose from any of the mattress options in this comparison, but we think the Bear and Luxury Firm WinkBed are best for those under 230 lbs. If you weigh more than 230 lbs or prefer stomach sleeping, we recommend the Firmer or Plus WinkBed, although the Bear works for stomach sleepers under 230 lbs.

Durability 

The Bear and WinkBed are both durable mattresses that we expect to last at least seven years. Of the two beds, the WinkBed outperforms the Bear in this category thanks to its hybrid design and Lifetime warranty (compared with the Bear 10-year warranty).

Temperature 

Both the WinkBed and the Bear are designed to keep hot sleepers cool. With breathable foams and cooling covers, we expect both to support healthy temperature regulation for most sleepers. 

If you sleep extra hot, the WinkBed is slightly cooler than the Bear because of its airy layer of coils. The Bear mattress sleeps much cooler than your traditional memory foam mattress, but foam simply retains more heat than coils.

Related: Best Cooling Mattresses

Bear Mattress Construction

The Bear is a three-layer memory foam mattress with a depth of 10”. Its top layer is firm, cooling gel memory foam that supports the spine with just a touch of cushioning. The second layer is responsive transition foam that makes it easy to move around, and the final layer is high-density polyfoam that provides stability and support. The cover’s Celliant yarns are engineered to speed healing so athletes can feel better faster.

To compare Bear Original’s construction to other Bear beds, see our Bear mattress comparison.

WinkBed Mattress Construction

The WinkBed has a foam and coils construction, and comes in four firmness options. The Softer, Luxury Firm, and Firmer versions are hybrid mattresses, and the Plus could be considered a latex hybrid thanks to the addition of a durable latex comfort layer. Each model has a cooling TENCEL cover, luxurious Euro pillow top, zoned support, and responsive coils with sturdy edge support.

Sizing & Price Comparisons

Mattress Size	Bear Price	WinkBed Price	WinkBed Plus Price
Twin	$695	$1,149	$1,349
Twin XL	$695	$1,249	$1,449
Full	$895	$1,499	$1,699
Queen	$995	$1,799	$1,999
King	$1,095	$1,999	$2,199
Cal King	$1,095	$2,049	$2,199

To slash these prices and make your wallet happy, see our Bear mattress coupons and WinkBeds mattress coupons.

Shipping and Returns

Bear

Bear’s shipping, return, and warranty policies are comparable with the bed-in–a-box industry standards. Customers in the continental U.S. qualify for free shipping and choose between no signature required or signature required FedEx options. Most beds ship in two to seven business days. Bear delivers to Alaska and Hawaii for a fee. 

Once you receive your new mattress, you have 100 nights to decide if you want to keep it. You cannot return the mattress until you’ve had it for at least 30 days to ensure that your body has had time to get used to the new feel. After day 30 of the sleep trial, you may return the Bear mattress for a full refund. 

If you decide to keep your mattress, it’s covered by a 10-year warranty that entitles you to a replacement mattress if yours is proven to have defects in craftsmanship or materials.

Related: Bear Mattress Warranty

WinkBeds

WinkBeds mattresses are made-to-order, so they take a little longer to arrive than other bed-in–a-box options. You can expect your new mattress within two weeks from the date you place your order. WinkBeds ships to customers in the contiguous U.S. for free, and Alaska or Hawaii for a flat rate of $199. 

WinkBeds gives mattress customers a 120-night in-home sleep trial. You must keep your new bed for at least 30 days to let it break in, but can return it after that for a full refund. Your household address is only eligible for one sleep trial, although exchanged mattresses get an additional 60-night sleep trial. Exchanges cost $49. 

Additionally, if you aren’t happy with your WinkBed after the sleep trial has ended, WinkBeds’ return policy states you can purchase another WinkBed model of the same size for 50 percent of the price, final sale.

WinkBeds’ Lifetime warranty period is more generous than most other mattress brands, but the covered defects aren’t as extensive. Mainly, they cover indentations over 1.5” while most other brands replace the mattress once it has a 1” indentation.

More WinkBeds Mattresses

WinkBeds GravityLux

See our full WinkBeds GravityLux mattress review to learn more. 

WinkBeds EcoCloud

See our full WinkBeds EcoCloud mattress review to learn more.

More Bear Mattresses

Bear Pro 

 See our full Bear Pro mattress review to learn more. 

Bear Hybrid

See our full Bear Hybrid mattress review to learn more.

Haven’t made a decision yet? Check out these other comparisons:

• Bear vs. Brooklyn Bedding
• Bear vs. Casper
• Bear vs. Helix
• Bear vs. Layla
• Bear vs. Leesa
• Bear vs. Nectar
• Bear vs. Nolah
• Bear vs. Purple
• Bear vs. Tuft & Needle
• WinkBed vs. Avocado
• WinkBed vs. Casper
• WinkBed vs. DreamCloud
• WinkBed vs. Helix
• WinkBed vs. Nectar
• WinkBed vs. Puffy
• WinkBed vs. Purple
• WinkBed vs. Saatva

Our Final Take

The Bear mattress is an affordable option for back sleepers and stomach sleepers who weigh less than 230 lbs. It’s also a good choice for foam lovers with back pain. 

With four firmness options, the WinkBed is a good fit for every body size and sleep position. The Softer version is best for side sleepers, the Luxury Firm is a good fit for average-weight back sleepers, and the Firmer and Plus versions are ideal for stomach sleepers and those over 230 lbs.

Also, hot sleepers will likely stay cooler on the WinkBed, and budget shoppers will save on the Bear.