The Sleep Guy’s Waffle Free Summary
Heavier people who sleep on their front or back should try the Emma Hybrid Premium Mattress (££) as it is the firmest Emma mattress. It was previously called the Emma Next Gen Premium Mattress. Lighter people people who sleep on their side should try the Emma Hybrid Original (£) as it is softer than the rest. It was previously called the Emma Original Hybrid.
People who are average size or weight can take their pick from the two medium firmness Emma mattresses. If you tend to get hot in bed and are feeling flushed, go for the Emma Hybrid Airgrid Mattress (££££). It was previously called the Emma Elite. If overheating is less of a problem for you or if you want to spend a bit less, go for the Emma Hybrid Thermosync Mattress (£££). It was previously called the Emma NextGen Cooling Mattress.
The other factor is that mattresses are often reduced, so you could pick based on whichever is on offer (see the latest Emma reductions here).
Note: (The £ sign indicates how they compare to other mattresses in the Emma range).
A more detailed look at the Emma range of mattresses
Emma is one of the trendy new mattress brands which has appeared on the market in the last few years. It’s won more awards than I’ve had hot dinners (well, nearly) and has thousands of reviews.
There are four mattresses sold direct by Emma, at the time of writing (we will discuss later the other mattresses they sell via John Lewis). The Emma range has a subtle evolution in its designs, rather than each one being radically different. None of them are bad choices.
Whichever Emma mattress you buy, you get the same trial period and warranty. The difference is in how they are designed.
In this guide, we will give a run down of the different Emma mattresses. We will also explain how the new mattresses compare to the original Emma mattress and compare it to rivals on price, specification and other flourishes (Ed: does a mattress need flourishes?)
1. Emma Hybrid Premium Mattress (££ – medium-firm). Previously called the Emma NextGen Premium Mattress.
Let’s start with the second cheapest Emma mattress in the range – the Emma Hybrid Premium Mattress. During Black Friday and Boxing Day sales you might find posher models are cheaper but it’s generally one of the cheaper ones.
It was previously called the Emma NextGen Premium Mattress before all the Emma mattresses were renamed in 2025. At the same time, they also discontinued some mattresses including the Emma Luxe Cooling, Emma NextGen Premium Plus and the Emma Original.
Anyway, let’s get back to the Emma Hybrid Premium Mattress, which has a layer of pocket springs, with three layers of foam on top.
The spring layer on the Emma Hybrid Premium Mattress
The idea of the pocket springs is that they give you support that doesn’t wobble around like jelly. Back in the day, your grandma probably had an open coil mattress in her spare bedroom. Pocket springs give a much more pleasant experience, with the only notable downside being that they are a bit of an effort to recycle as each bit of metal is encased in fabric.
There’s a clever thing you can do with pocket springs, which is called zoning. This basically means that some springs are firmer than others so that they compress to work around your beautifully curved body (Ed: not sure my body is beautifully curved). The support you get on your head is different to that which you get on your thighs, lower back etc.
The foam layers on the Emma Hybrid Premium Mattress
The layers of foam then work together to try and keep you comfy and a decent temperature throughout the night and throughout the seasons. Manufacturers who use foam face a perpetual challenge to make sure that you don’t get too hot or cold in bed.
The top layer of foam is memory foam, which first came about as a means of keeping astronauts comfortable. As you’ll be aware, it bounces back slowly so you get a bit of a hugging feeling. The other two layers are different types of foam – one softer, one firmer. It’s worth mentioning that the original Emma mattress buried the memory foam in a sandwich of other foams. This means that the Emma NextGen Premium Mattress has a slight different feel to an Emma Mattress that you may have bought a few years ago (it was also known as the Emma Original and can sometimes be found online still).
Before we move on…a few words on memory foam
Memory foam has a lot going for it and it’s performed well in a number of studies under laboratory conditions and in real world tests. For example, Gunningberg, Lindholm et al compared visco-elastic foam (another name for memory foam) with ‘standard hospital mattresses’ to see if they would help with pressure sores for patients recovering from hip operations. The result was that ‘patients on standard mattresses tended to develop more severe pressure ulcers’ suggesting that the memory foam did a better job of spreading out pressure across the body (see more details of the study from 2013).
The downsides of a memory foam mattress
Of course, there are negatives attached to memory foam mattresses as well. For example, some academics have studied the environmental impact of incinerating memory foam mattresses once they are finished with. Garrido, Font and Conesa studied this in 2017 and recorded ‘relatively high emissions’ of Nitric Oxide, Ammonia and Hydrogen Cyanide. They concluded that ‘their reduction must be considered’.
It’s worth mentioning at this point that Emma previously sold something called the Emma NextGen Premium Plus Mattress. This was basically the same as the Emma Hybrid Premium but the outer cover was swapped for a ‘cooler cover’ with a ‘unique cooling treatment’. This upgrade was discontinued in 2025. If you are worried about feeling too hot in bed, I would go for Emma Hybrid Airgrid Mattress (££££) or Emma Hybrid Thermosync Mattress (£££).
**Mattress Online Sale: Up to 55% off RRP – Ends 2nd February 2025**
2. Emma Hybrid Original (£ – medium-soft). Previously called the Emma Original Hybrid.
The cheapest Emma mattress is currently the Emma Hybrid Original. It had a slightly confusing name change in 2025 from the Emma Original Hybrid.
For your money you get a simpler design than the Hybrid Airgrid (££££), the Hybrid Thermosync (£££) and the Hybrid Premium (££), with fewer layers and less fancy sounding technology.
That doesn’t mean it’s a bad mattress, but it’s just made in a simpler way.
You get a layer of foam on top that is designed to be breathable, with a firmer and less breathable layer underneath. As with the other mattresses, it uses pocket springs that are ‘zoned’ so that the firmness matches a standard body shape.
Why is the Emma Hybrid Original cheaper than the other Emma mattresses?
According to Emma, the Hybrid Original is less breathable than the Hybrid Airgrid, Hybrid Thermosync and Hybrid Premium. It is also less good at keeping your body at a consistent temperature and offers less ‘pressure relief’.
These are certainly factors to consider, but I would also consider whether this is the right mattress for your based on your body shape, sleeping position and weight.
The Emma Hybrid Original is considered slightly softer than the Hybrid Airgrid and Hybrid Thermosync and significantly softer than the Hybrid Premium.
A few firm words before we move on
Firmness is a funny thing in the mattress market because there isn’t a consistent way of measuring it that every manufacturer uses. I’ve seen some clever technical ratings, but unless everyone uses the same scale, it isn’t much use because one company’s idea of a ‘firm’ mattress will be different to another’s. Emma say that the Hybrid Original is 7 out of 10, with 10 being soft. However, there’s nothing to say that a mattress described as a ‘seven’ by Eve Sleep, Simba Sleep or Silentnight will have the same level of firmness.
It’s a bit like M&S and Next both selling ‘medium’ t-shirts. They’ll probably be about the same size, but there’s no guarantee.
You will also find differing opinions from reviewers on how firm a mattress is. The best you can do is look at lots of different opinions and then try out the mattress.
The importance of getting the right mattress firmness level
In case you aren’t yet bored of my waffle, I’ll explain a little bit about the importance of choosing a mattress with the right firmness for you.
The general idea is that a mattress should give you the right level of support based on your weight and build so that your spine is correctly aligned whilst you sleep. A very heavy person will sink into a very soft mattress too much and end up with a wonky spine. Equally, a four foot tall jockey won’t sink into a very firm mattress enough.
What position do you sleep in?
Another spanner to throw into the works is that the way you sleep also affects the firmness of the mattress that you need. Side sleepers put a bit more pressure on their shoulders and hips, so they usually lean towards a softer mattress than someone who sleeps on their back or front.
So, you need to find a mattress which gives you the right level of support. If you’ve heard people say things like “a firm mattress is good for your back” then you are best to ignore it. Proper experts like the Sleep Council say that you need to find a mattress which is supportive for you (‘Your mattress should be firm enough to support your spine in the correct alignment while conforming to your body’s contours’).
Incidentally, if you are dealing with a bad back then I feel obliged to suggest that you seek out personal and professional advice – I’m just sharing the gist of general advice from experts online.
A few manufacturers give suggestions of what weight their mattresses are ideal for, but not many. For what it’s worth, John Lewis & Partners say that you need a soft mattress if you weigh up to 8 stone, medium for 8 to 16 stone or firm for 16 stone+. However, we can’t apply this rigidly to every mattress company so you are best to either try out a few mattresses in a store, or buy one online which comes with a free trial (more on that later…)
3. Emma Hybrid Thermosync Mattress (£££ – medium firmness). Previously called the Emma NextGen Cooling Mattress.
Hopefully you are still with me as move onto part three of the Emma range. This is a four part series, much like the Mad Max films but without as much fighting.
An upgrade from the Emma Hybrid Original and the Emma Premium Mattress is the Emma Hybrid Thermosync. It was called the Emma NextGen Premium Mattress when we tested it, but it was rebranded in 2025.
This one has a lot in common with the design of the Emma Hybrid Premium. The main difference is that they’ve jiggled around the order of the layers and added in a ‘temperature regulating’ layer, containing graphite (the greyish blue layer on the picture below). The white layer of memory foam has been relegated to third place. If it were in the Championship then it would be in the play-off places now rather than achieving automatic promotion (Ed: I think the football analogies might just cause more confusion…)
As mentioned earlier, this is a worthwhile upgrade if you tend to get too hot in bed. However, I wouldn’t see it as an upgrade if you like a cosy bed and enjoy the hugging sensation of memory foam.
What about the springs?
The ‘zoning’ on the springs on the Emma Hybrid Thermosync Mattress is described as being ‘upgraded’. As a reminder, ‘zones’ on a mattress are where you have different amounts of pressure for different parts of your body. It has the same number of ‘zones’ as the cheaper models, so I’m not entirely clear what the upgrade is but will update if I figure that out.
4. Emma Hybrid Airgrid (££££ – medium firmness). Previously called the Emma Elite Mattress.
And so, we arrive at the Rolls Royce of the Emma range – the Emma Hybrid Airgrid. It was previously called the Emma Elite Mattress. Or perhaps I should update the reference a little and call it the Tesla of the range, as its description has a generous smattering of terms like ‘innovative’ and ‘technology’.
It shares a lot in common with the Emma Hybrid Thermosync Mattress (££) but there is one notable change.
It has an additional layer called the ‘AirGrid’. This sits on top of memory foam and two other foam layers. AirGrid is essentially another foam layer, but it has lots of gaps in it to help air circulate better.
What about the Emma mattresses sold at John Lewis?
Just when you thought you understood the Emma range of mattresses…you discover that they sell completely different mattresses at John Lewis.
All of the Emma mattresses sold at John Lewis are medium firmness.
Here’s my brief summary, from cheapest to most expensive:
- Emma Select Smart Hybrid Mattress (££) uses a mix of springs and foam (which is why it’s called a hybrid). The design is simpler than the mattresses you buy direct from Emma. It doesn’t use any memory foam but it’s got a layer of foam mixed with gel, which is another strategy to keep you cool. There is then another layer of ‘comfort foam’ which sits on top of a layer of springs. You get a trial period and a 10 year warranty with this one.
- Emma Helix Hybrid Mattress (£££) is similar to the Emma Select Smart Hybrid Mattress (££). They have basically added a couple of centimetres to the depth to make the foam layers deeper. They’ve also changed the type of foam under the springs.
- The Emma Diamond Spring Free Mattress (££££) is radically different in design. My jaw hit the floor when I saw this one (Ed: really?). With this model, Emma has returned to its foamy roots and scrapped the springs altogether. This appears to be the more modern version of the Emma Original.
- Finally, we have the Emma Diamond Hybrid Mattress (££££). You get springs but you also get a layer of foam with graphite to help keep you cool. There’s also a base layer of foam to put the springs into a lovely comfy sandwich.
So, which Emma mattress sold at John Lewis should I buy?
This is a little trickier, as all the Emma mattresses sold at John Lewis are the same firmness level so we can’t use that as a means of narrowing down the options.
They all make some attempt at keeping you cool and none of them use memory foam as the top layer of foam.
The Emma Diamond Spring Free Mattress (££££) and the Emma Diamond Hybrid Mattress (££££) are obviously the premium models. The hybrid version will give you a more familiar bouncy feel that you will be used to if you have previously owned pocket sprung mattresses. The 100% foam ‘Spring Free’ version will feel more like the Emma Original.
Pros and cons of buying an Emma mattress
Pros:
- Huge number of reviews and very big seller
- Longer and more flexible trial period than most rivals (200 nights) – option to send it back for a refund if you don’t find it comfortable
- Generous 10 year warranty
- Lots of awards including prizes from Good Housekeeping and Ideal Homes
- Handles included to make moving it easier (that isn’t the case with all mattresses)
- Choice of firmness levels depending on which model you choose
Cons:
- Some customers comment on an initial chemical smell, although that fades
- A couple of brands offer longer trial periods and warranties (e.g. Nectar Sleep)
- Single sided, like most foam mattresses
- Lower TrustPilot score than some mattress brands
What reviews do customers give The Emma Mattress?
The Emma brand scores 3.1/5 on TrustPilot, at the time of writing.
- Panda London – 4.8/5 (bamboo mattresses)
- Ergoflex – 4.7/5 (memory foam mattress)
- Sealy – 4.5/5 (famous name with mostly sprung mattresses)
- Simba Sleep – 4.5/5 (range of memory foam and hybrid mattresses)
- Happy Beds – 4.4/5 (cheap sprung mattresses)
- OTTY – 4.3/5 (memory foam and hybrid mattresses)
- Sleepeezee – 4.3/5 (sprung mattresses, long established)
- REM Fit – 4.2/5 (memory foam and hybrid mattresses)
- Nectar Sleep – 4.1/5 (memory foam and hybrid mattresses)
- DreamCloud – 4.1/5 (hybrid mattress)
- Dormeo – 4.1/5 (memory foam mattresses)
- Hypnos Beds – 4.1/5 (luxury pocket sprung mattresses)
- Silentnight 4.1/5 (huge brand with big range)
- Vispring – 4.1/5 (luxury pocket sprung mattresses)
- Eve Sleep – 4/5 (memory foam and hybrid mattresses)
- Harrison Spinks (makers of John Lewis & Partners Natural Collection) – 3.9/5
- Tempur – 3.9/5 (luxury memory foam)
- Emma Mattress – 3.1/5 (hybrid mattresses)
- Brook + Wilde Sleep – 3/5 (hybrid mattresses)
- Mammoth – 2.9/5 (foam mattresses)
- Dunlopillo – 2.6/5 (latex mattresses) – although the Danish version has more reviews and scores 4.6/5
In case you are curious, we looked at the TrustPilot ‘TrustScore’ for every major mattress brand we could find which sells in the UK. These are brand scores. A company like Emma has dozens of products, including bedding, mattresses and pillow. It also isn’t an exhaustive list.
To give you a flavour of the reviews on TrustPilot, we’ve picked out one positive review and one negative reviews. We like to focus on reviews which are about the mattress rather than the buying process or whether the delivery driver had a nice smile. We also look for reviews from people who have had several months to try it out rather than a couple of nights.
Image from TrustPilot of one of many positive reviews of the Emma Mattress
The remarkable rise of the Emma Mattress brand
This is a good moment to mention the way in which the Emma Mattress and some of its rivals have offered a ‘disruptive’ alternative to the traditional way of buying a mattress in the last decade.
The graph below is remarkable and will hopefully be of interest, even if you don’t love graphs as much as me.
The blue line shows us how many people have searched for the term ‘silentnight mattress’ between 2004 and today. I’ve picked out Silentnight as it is considered the UK’s biggest mattress brand. The red line shows relative interest in the search term ’emma mattress’. As you’ll see, people started searching for the ’emma mattress’ in 2017 and the numbers have kept rising since. Silentnight has stayed relatively steady.
Emma isn’t alone in this – it is a similar story for Simba Sleep and some other ‘bed in a box’ brands. Several arrived around the same time, offering an alternative to the familiar mid-priced pocket spring brands. These new brands offered longer warranties, home trial periods, big marketing campaigns, less choice and more foam than traditional mattresses.
What guarantee and home trial period do Emma Mattresses offer?
The Emma Mattress is one of several ‘bed in a box’ mattresses which comes with a trial period, although Emma’s is better than most as it now has a 200 night ‘risk free trial’. There’s some variation in the way these things work, but the Emma Mattress one is a simple one.
You pay upfront for the mattress and then can contact them to get your money back if you don’t like it. They pay the returns postage cost. Some other similar mattresses will only swap your mattress for another one they sell, which does limit you a bit.
As well as the 200 night trial, Emma also say that ‘you can try the Emma Mattress for a couple of days and if you feel like it is too soft or too hard, we can send you a free of charge comfort layer, either soft or firm, to adjust the mattress to your preferences’.
The Emma Mattress warranty
Meanwhile, the Emma Mattress comes with a 10 year guarantee. At the time of writing, the warranty covers ‘cracks, dents or other damages to the foam that have occurred despite proper use and handling of the mattress.’
Please do take a few minutes to check over the terms of the guarantee and the risk free trial. To be fair, there isn’t a lot of smallprint with the Emma Mattress, but these things do get updated occasionally.
For the purposes of comparison, we looked at the warranty length of every double size pocket spring mattress for sale at Mattress Online which cost between £600 and £700 (roughly the price of The Emma Mattress). As the chart below shows, of the 21 mattresses only three offered a 10 warranty which matches the length of the Emma Mattress. The majority offered a warranty which is half the length. This should be seen as a positive endorsement for the Emma Mattress – although as we’ll explore later in this guide, it is less outstanding when we compare The Emma Mattress to rival foam mattresses.
Where can I buy The Emma Mattress?
Like most ‘bed in a box’ mattresses, the Emma Mattress is mostly sold direct from the manufacturer but you can also get the Emma Mattress from a couple of other big outlets. Prices do vary a bit, so I would check them all to see which is the best deal.
John Lewis & Partners also sells The Emma Mattress. As mentioned earlier, most models come the 200 night trial period (but not all of them).
Where can I get a discount code for The Emma Mattress?
The first place to look for discount codes on The Emma Mattress is on the Emma website itself.
Any others we get hold will appear at the top of this page.
Honestly, you’ll be first to know.
Will they take away my old mattress if I buy The Emma Mattress?
Yes, they will take away your old mattress if you buy an Emma Mattress. Curiously, not every mattress company offers this so you are sometimes left to fend for yourself.
There are a couple of things you need to be aware of though. Firstly, you pay extra for a mattress collection (£35 at the time of writing). Secondly, you might want to bear in mind that if you send back The Emma Mattress under the 200 night trial offer then you’ll be left without a mattress. I’m sure you’d thought of that already, but I just didn’t want you to end up sleeping on the floor. You’re welcome.
What are the alternatives to The Emma Mattress?
Some other award-winning foam mattresses which are alternatives to The Emma Mattress include:
The Nectar Sleep Mattress
- The Nectar Sleep (£600) beats the range of Emma mattresses on a couple of key features. Firstly, the trial period lasts for a whole year meaning that you can it out in all weathers – although Emma’s 200 night trial is not exactly small. Secondly, the Nectar Sleep shines through with its ‘forever’ warranty. You may feel that the 10 years offered by Emma is adequate and it’s certainly better than you get with many similarly priced pocket sprung mattresses. It’s classed as a medium/firm mattress. In our side by side comparison, the Nectar Sleep brand scores higher on TrustPilot than Emma with a score of 4.1/5.
Eve Sleep Original
Eve Sleep Original (£499) – the Eve Sleep Original comes with a 200 night trial, which matches Emma’s 200 night trial period. They have the same warranty length and Eve Sleep is similar to Emma in that it has expanded from mattress to a wider choice (read our guide to Eve Sleep’s range).
Facts and figures – how does the Emma Mattress compare to its rivals?
There are thousands of mattresses on the UK market but it’s relatively easy to pick out the rivals to the Emma Mattress. These mattresses all have some key attributes in common – they arrive compacted in a box, they offer a home trial period and a long warranty and they are somewhere around £500 – £1000. Most of them also offer decent discounts from time to time, so you may be able to save yourself a considerable amount off the price listed below.
A limited range of mattress sizes
The choice of sizes with the Emma NextGen Premium Mattress doesn’t match up to The Simba Hybrid, the REM-Fit 400 or the OTTY Hybrid Mattress but the vast majority of British mattress shoppers are looking for one of the standard sizes.
The Emma Mattress also outperforms several of its rivals with its 200 night trial period. Only Nectar Sleep and The Simba Hybrid Original come with equal or better. However, the warranty length is comfortably beaten by Nectar Sleep and REM-Fit 400.
The Emma Mattress comes in a firmness level which will suit many people, but it won’t be right for everyone
Our mattress comparison chart
| What’s it called? | How much is it? (Double) | Warranty and trial | How firm is it? | Brand score (TrustPilot) | Sizes available |
| Emma Hybrid Premium Mattress | £659 | 10 years, 200 night trial | Medium/firm | 3/5 | Single, Small Double, Double, King, Super King |
| Simba Hybrid Original Mattress | £869 | 10 years, 200 night trial | Medium/firm | 4.5/5 | EU Single, Single, Small Double, EU Double, Double, EU Queen, King, Super King |
| Nectar Sleep Memory Foam Mattress | £600 | ‘Forever’, 365 night trial | Medium/firm | 4.1/5 | Single, Double, King, Super King |
| Just Snug by Silentnight | £500 | 10 years, 365 night comfort trial | Medium | 4.1/5 | Single, Double, King Size |
| Ergoflex 5G | £966 | 10 years, 30 night trial | Medium/firm | 4.7/5 | Single, Double, Euro Double, King, Euro King, Super King |
| Eve Original | £499 | 10 years, 200 night trial | Medium/firm | 3.9/5 | Single, Small Double, Double, King, Super King |
| OTTY Hybrid Mattress | £699 | 10 years, 100 night trial | Medium/firm | 4.5/5 | Single, EU Single, Small Double, EU Double, Double, EU King, King, Super King, Emperor |
| REM-Fit 400 | £999 | 15 years, 100 night trial | Medium/firm | 4.1/5 | Small Single, Long Single, Single, EU Single, Small Double, Double, EU Double, King, EU King, Super King |
Review scores and prices are correct at the time of writing.
Warranty length – how does Emma compare to Simba, Eve, Nectar and others?
It’s a solid mid-table position for Emma in our chart showing the comparative warranty lengths of popular bed in a box mattress brands.
There are some caveats to this. Nectar Sleep’s ‘forever’ warranty wouldn’t fit on our graph, so we recorded it at 25 years.
Several mattress brands have released budget versions of their ‘original’ or ‘standard’ mattresses in recent years. These are usually thinner and have a less generous warranty period, but we’ve rated them based on their standard models.
Also, make sure you read the smallprint as some warranties have multiple clauses whilst others are relatively straightforward. Figures are correct at the time of writing.
