Innerspring

An innerspring carries your weight on a layer of steel coils with a comparatively thin comfort layer quilted over the top. No construction still sold in volume is older, and this is the bed people mean when they say traditional.

How the coils are joined decides most of the behavior. Open coil, often called Bonnell, ties the springs together with connecting wire. Pressing one moves its neighbors and a partner's movement travels across the bed. Pocketed coils wrap each spring in its own fabric sleeve so they compress independently, which cuts motion transfer sharply and follows the body more closely. Counts in a queen run from about 600 to over 1,000. Gauge, meaning the thickness of the wire, matters as much, since thicker wire gives a firmer, longer-lasting spring.

Air is why people still choose it. A coil layer is mostly empty space, so body heat escapes instead of being held against you, and innersprings sleep cooler than any all-foam bed. A firmer border wire reinforces the edges, so you can sit on the side without rolling toward the floor, and the bounce makes moving around effortless.

Longevity is the weakness, and it is the top that fails rather than the springs. Thin quilted padding compresses into a body-shaped dip within a few years while the coils below are still sound, and a sagging comfort layer cannot be replaced. Budget innersprings often reach that point at 5 or 6 years.