Type: Hybrid
Firmness level: Soft, medium, firm
Height: 14”
Sizes: 7
Sleep trial: 120 nights
Warranty: Lifetime
Price (MSRP): from $1,998 at Bear
Type: Hybrid
Firmness level: Medium firm
Height: 13.5”
Sleep trial: 100 nights
Warranty: 15 years
Price (MSRP): from $1,492 at Helix
The Bear Elite Hybrid and Helix Midnight Luxe are a pair of luxurious hybrid mattresses that we rank among the best, but how do they compare against each other? We've recently retested both of them using our revised mattress methodology, and that means we're in a good position to spell our their strengths and weaknesses.
Both the Bear Elite Hybrid and Helix Midnight Luxe put in strong performances in our retesting, cementing their places not only in our best mattress guide but also in our roundup of the best hybrid mattresses on the market. But both have their own particular selling points; the Helix is (literally) made for side sleeping, while the Bear Elite excels at cooling.
For a in-depth look at both beds, check our our Bear Elite Hybrid mattress review and our Helix Midnight Luxe mattress review. But with the Memorial Day mattress sales kicking into gear, here are the headlines to help you choose between the Bear Elite vs Helix Midnight Luxe mattress.
Helix Midnight Luxe vs Bear Elite Hybrid mattress: Price
- The Midnight Luxe is a premium buy with a queen typically around $1,900
- The Bear Elite is often around $1,500 for a queen
- Both come with a 120-night trial, lifetime warranty and optional upgrades
At full MSRP, a queen Helix Midnight Luxe Mattress is around $2,498 but you'll never pay that much in the Helix mattress sales. There's always 20% off and on special occasions, Helix bumps the deal to 25% off, reducing a queen to around $1,874 — still luxury but a more competitive price.
The Bear Elite Hybrid is the more affordable mattress, although at $1,485 for a queen in the regular 35% off sale (down from $2,284), it's a premium buy. If you want to save even more, stay alert for flash 40% off sales. They're rare but net you a notable discount.
Both the Midnight Luxe and Bear Elite mattresses come with a 120-night sleep trial and a limited lifetime warranty, which are better than average benefits (although not as impressive as rival Saatva's 365-night trial and free white glove delivery.)
There's something else both mattresses have in common: upgrades. Buy the Midnight Luxe and you can opt to add cooling technology and an additional support layer. Bear also offers an enhanced cooling layer for the Elite.
Bottom line, the Bear Elite Hybrid is the more affordable, even if you choose to upgrade it with an additional cooling layer. But while the Helix Midnight Luxe is the more expensive option by nearly $400 in a queen, we think its performance justifys the additional expense.
Bear Elite Hybrid vs Helix Midnight Luxe: Design & Materials
- Both are hybrid mattresses built using springs and foam
- The Helix Midnight Luxe has a luxury build aimed at side sleepers
- The Bear Elite comes in three different firmness levels
The Bear Elite and Helix Midnight Luxe are both among the best hybrid mattresses we've tested, so there are some similarities in the build.
The Helix Midnight Luxe has a spring base featuring reinforced coils at the hip area, followed by four layers of comfort foams and a quilted top. Each comfort layer has been crafted specifically for side sleepers, to create ideal cushioning at the shoulders and hips.
The Bear Elite Hybrid starts with a similarly zoned coil base, followed by four foam layers. This includes a layer of copper-infused memory foam, to aid with cooling.
Perhaps the biggest difference in design is that the Bear Elite Hybrid comes in three firmness levels; Soft, Medium and Firm. The Midnight Luxe is only available in one (although Helix does offer the Dusk Luxe for firmer comfort and the Sunset Luxe for softer support — and there's even more to the line-up.)
Bear Elite Hybrid vs Helix Midnight Luxe: Comfort & support
- The Midnight Luxe delivers optimal cushioning and support for side sleepers
- We tested the Bear Elite in a Medium feel, which is a god all-rounder
- Both have decent motion isolation but the Midnight Luxe just comes out ahead
A mattress with effective pressure relief will provide enough give under the parts of your body that come into contact with the surface, such as the shoulders, hips and knees if you're a side sleeper, so you don't wake up feeling sore.
In our lab tests we use a 25kg weight to measure pressure relief, placing it where a sleeper's shoulders would be and noting how deeply it sinks into the mattress surface after five minutes, and how quickly the surface returns to normal after the weight is removed. We also ask our testers to rate their levels of comfort after testing.
The Bear Elite Hybrid performed impressively in our objective weight test, with the 25kg weight sinking 4.5 inches into the surface and recovering in just under two seconds. In terms of pressure relief, that puts it just behind our highest-rated mattress, the Saatva Classic. It's an excellent blend of sink, support, and bounce back, so you stay comfortable as you move in your sleep.
It's worth noting that we tested the Bear Elite Hybrid in a medium feel; it also comes in soft and firm options We would expect the soft options to record a deeper sink and slower recovery, while the firm would deliver less sink and faster recovery. This means that while the mattress we reviewed is a good all-rounder, dedicated side sleepers might get on best with the soft option, while stomach sleepers could get better sleep on the firm model.
When we put the Helix Midnight Luxe to the test, it delivered more sink than the Bear Elite, with the 25kg weight settling 4.8 inches into the surface after five minutes. However it was a lot slower at recovering its shape, taking 10 seconds to return to normal. This gives it a 'hug' feel, taking the pressure off your shoulders and hips, but some might feel 'stuck' in the mattress.
The Midnight Luxe is the best mattress for side sleepers we've tested so it's not surprising that it performed so well in our pressure relief testing. Tester Ruth Jones found that for side sleeping she didn't feel like she was sinking, but that she felt cradled, and she also noted that the Midnight Luxe provide lots of support for back sleeping.
For stomach sleeping she wasn't quite as impressed, noting that, "I could feel my stomach and hips sinking down, my spine felt like it was straining to keep me upright. A lot of discomfort after 5 minutes, which I think would get worse as the night goes on."
Another key area of our mattress testing is motion isolation and anyone who shares a bed will value its importance. What this means is that the mattress absorbs a partner's (or a pet's, or a small child's) movements so that you're not disturbed in the night. Memory foam mattresses tend to be best at this, as the bouncy springs in a hybrid bed make the surface more responsive.
We test motion isolation by dropping a 5kg slam ball onto a mattress and recording any movement with an accelerometer, measuring the size of the initial impact and how long it takes for the surface of the mattress to deaden residual motion (aka the decay rate.)
Both mattresses put in a creditable performance in our motion isolation tests. The Bear Elite Hybrid was the less impressive, measuring an average initial impact absorption rate of 8.976 m/s2, which we class as very good, although that's at the lower end of the scale. (For comparison, our best-rated mattress for motion isolation, the all-foam Siena Signature, measured just 5.527 m/s2.)
The Bear Elite Hybrid wasn't so good at deadening motion, with an average decay rate of 3.504 seconds. We class that as good, but it's slow compared with the Siena Signature's rate of 1.14 seconds, and also in comparison to our top-rated hybrid for motion isolation, the Saatva Classic, which measured an average decay rate of 1.703 seconds.
The Helix Midnight Luxe did better In the slam ball test it measured an average initial impact absorption rate of 7.45 m/s2, which classes it as very good (a few tenths of a second away from excellent.) Its decay rate numbers were even more pleasing, with an average decay rate of 2.58 seconds — it deadens motion almost a full second faster than the Bear.
Numbers aside, our hands-on testers were enthusiastic over both beds. The Midnight Luxe and Bear Elite were good at absorbing the impact of another person getting into bed, but the movements of partner on the mattress were noticeable, although not significantly so.
What this all means is while neither mattress offers best-in-class motion isolation they still do a pretty good job of it. However if you're a particularly light sleeper you should favor the Helix Midnight Luxe over the Bear Elite Hybrid, as it performs slightly better at reducing nighttime disturbances.
Bear Elite Hybrid vs Helix Midnight Luxe: Temperature regulation
- The Bear Elite is the best cooling mattress for chronic hot sleepers
- But the Midnight Luxe maintains a neutral feel overnight
- Both mattresses come with optional cooling upgrades
Temperature regulation is a measure of how well a mattress can keep you at a comfortably neutral temperature during the night. Both the Bear Elite Hybrid and Helix Midnight Luxe are hybrid mattresses, which are generally better than all-foam beds at keeping things cool thanks to their spring layers that allow air to flow through the bed.
The Bear Elite Hybrid comes with some specific cooling features that can make a big difference when it comes to keeping temperatures down. There's a Celliant cover — previously an upgrade option but now comes as standard — which absorbs body heat and reflects it as infrared energy. Not only does this help temperature control, it aids muscle recovery.
Alongside that there's a comfort layer made with copper-infused foam, which wick away body heat. Our lead tester, Eve Davies, credits the Elite Hybrid's cooling features with helping her to sleep soundly as well as boosting her energy levels while training for a marathon.
In our lab tests the Bear Elite Hybrid scored a perfect 5 out of 5, absorbing the most heat on contact and shedding it at an impressive pace. And if you need even more cooling there's the option to add a CoolForce layer that promises up to four degrees cooler sleep.
The Helix Midnight Luxe doesn't have much in the way of targeted cooling other than a breathable and moisture-wicking Tencel cover; if you want extra cooling you can upgrade to a cool-to-touch GlacioTex cover and a CoolForce layer that draws heat away from the body.
However in our tests we found that the standard Midnight Luxe is no slouch when it comes to keeping things cool, absorbing less heat than the Bear Elite and dissipating it quickly. And these results are reflected in comments from our tester, Ruth Jones.
She says, "I was surprised at how cool the Helix felt from the get go, as it has a soft touch cover rather than a cool touch cover, but the materials didn’t warm much throughout the testing period."
She feels that the Midnight Luxe compares favorably with the Bear Elite, noting that, "There was some slight warming but I never felt stifled and any heat did seem to dissipate quickly after I moved," which tallies with what we found in our lab tests.
In short, then, both mattresses are really good at absorbing heat and getting rid of it fast. However as the Bear Elite can kick out higher levels of heat quicker, it's better for chronic hot sleepers, earning it the title of best cooling mattress. But for most, the Helix Midnight Luxe will keep you the right temperature for sleeping during the night.
Helix Midnight Luxe vs Bear Elite Hybrid mattress: Which should you buy?
Buy the Bear Elite Hybrid mattress if...
✅ You keep waking up with night sweats: Both mattresses regulate temperature well, but the Bear Elite Hybrid is the better choice for chronically hot sleepers.
✅ You want a softer or firmer mattress: With three firmness levels to choose from, the Bear Elite Hybrid has an option for most sleepers.
✅ You want to spend less: The Bear Elite Hybrid is the more affordable mattress, even if you upgrade it with an additional cooling layer.
Buy the Helix Midnight Luxe mattress if...
✅ You're a dedicated side sleeper: The Helix Midnight Luxe delivers better pressure relief for side sleeping but is also supportive enough for back sleepers.
✅ You like a supportive boost getting in and out of bed: You'll get better edge support with the Helix Midnight Luxe, particularly if you want to need to put your weight on the sides when you get in/out of bed.
✅ You share a bed: The Midnight Luxe just edged out in front in our motion isolation tests and combined with the strong edges (meaning more sleep surface), makes it a good choice for bed sharers.
