So, what exactly is a cooling mattress and how do they differ from standard models sold by the best mattress online (opens in new tab) brands? The clue is in the name: the best cooling mattresses are designed to be far more breathable, relying upon innovative materials and technologies to wick away moisture and dissipate heat so that it doesn’t build up. Some cooling mattresses use natural materials like wool and copper to help with temperature regulation and odor control, while others use artificial materials such as layers of cooling gel or cooling beads. Not all cooling mattresses cost stacks more than standard models either, and all of the brands featured in our best cooling mattress guide offer decent trial periods. So you can take advantage of a ‘try before you fully commit’ scenario to ensure the cooling mattress is worth the money for you. If you’re upgrading other aspects of your sleep, take a look at our guides to the best pillows for sleeping (opens in new tab), plus the best bed toppers (opens in new tab) for hot sleepers and back pain relief.
1. The Purple Mattress: Best cooling mattress overall
Hot flashes (also known as flushes) are most commonly caused by hormonal changes such as peri-menopause, menopause and pregnancy. They come on suddenly and can be very disruptive to your sleep. If you’re dealing with these or general overheating in bed, The Purple Mattress is worth considering. Purple has built its brand on being temperature neutral, which means this mattress never gets too hot (or too cold). Purple also prides itself on offering the world’s first ’no pressure’ surface, aka, its scientifically-engineered Purple Grid technology. Purple Grid tech is good news for hot sleepers because it utilizes over 2,800 open-air channels to neutralize body heat. That’s why we think it’s the best cooling mattress for people experiencing hot flashes and even night sweats. Even better, you can often find this mattress on sale among the best Purple mattress deals (opens in new tab), and the brand also offers a hybrid version that’s more suited to heavier sleepers. Why? Because it has a thicker layer of hyper-elastic polymer, plus coils, both of which adds up to increased airflow and a firmer feeling mattress so that heavy sleepers won’t sink into the mattress. When you sink, heat gets trapped.
Read our Purple Mattress review (opens in new tab)
2. Saatva Classic: Best cooling mattress for hotel-level comfort
If you’re a hot sleeper and you’re dealing with back pain or aches and tension, you deserve the best cooling mattress made from luxury materials, putting comfort and support at the forefront. Step forward the Saatva Classic. This beautiful mattress is made of three individual layers, including two layers of coils that guide heat away from your body and produce excellent airflow, keeping you cool all night long. The first layer of coils also helps to create a good sense of motion isolation. If you’re sleeping with a wriggly partner, this will stop them from waking you up with their tossing and turning. The Saavta comes in three levels of firmness: plush soft, luxury firm, and firm. For hot sleepers, the luxury firm or firm options are best as, because they are deeper, there’s increased airflow. On top of the cooling performance, there’s an added bonus of exceptional edge support. That’s thanks to the Euro-style cushioned pillow top, which makes getting in and out of bed a lot easier. Check out our round-up of the best Saatva mattress discounts (opens in new tab) to get this mattress for less.
Read our Saatva Classic review (opens in new tab)
3. Cocoon by Sealy Chill: Best mattress online for hot sleepers
The Cocoon by Sealy Chill Mattress is every ounce as cozy as it sounds, with four layers of foam that each bring a different quality to the mattress. Beneath the super-cooling top cover is a layer of Perfect Fit memory foam designed to adapt to your body so that it feels fully supported as you drift off. Meanwhile, the layers below include responsive comfort foam to reduce motion transfer, plus an essential support layer that’s durable and resilient. Other reasons to consider the award-winning Cocoon by Sealy Chill Mattress is that it is designed and built in America, plus Sealy also delivers for free within the US. And with a ten-year warranty and 100-night trial period to ensure this is the best mattress for you, there’s nothing to lose here. Starting at $730 for a Twin size, the luxury Cocoon by Sealy Chill Mattress isn’t the cheapest option on our list, and certainly not the most expensive, but Sealy usually offers big discounts to make this more affordable.
4. Eight Sleep The Pod: A high-tech cooling mattress for couples
The Pod by Eight Sleep is unlike any other cooling mattress on the market because it’s controlled via an app. This high-tech mattress comes with a cooling cover that enables you to select your preferred temperature setting for each side of the bed. It’s beyond perfect if you’re experiencing hot flashes, or you generally sleep hot, while your partner is convinced that there’s an Arctic blast blowing through the bedroom. The Pod mattress is made up of CertiPUR-US certified foam and is medium firmness, so you’ll avoid sinking in to the mattress too much - that in itself causes overheating. The adjustable temperature controls work via a small water hub that will sit next to your bed. A small network of undetectable tubes runs through the lightweight mat built into the mattress cover, and these will heat up or cool down to your preferred sleep temperature. The Pod also comes with small sensors that enable you to track your heart rate, breathing patterns, and how much time you spend awake or asleep. Crucially, it’ll also help you figure out which in-bed temperature helps you sleep the best. This is hands-down the most expensive mattress on our guide to the best cooling mattresses, with a starting price of $2,795, rising to $3,495 for the Cal King, but it’s also the most advanced model. And thanks to its adjustable temperature, it’s guaranteed to keep you cool at night.
5. Helix: Best cooling mattress for custom firmness
There’s a reason why the Helix Mattress features in multiple mattress guides, and that’s because it’s completely customizable, so you’re sure to get a good night’s sleep with your chosen style. For all of the hot sleepers out there, Helix is on a mission to keep you cool at night by using materials that don’t trap heat within the mattress, and instead encourage air flow throughout the entire mattress. Each Helix mattress comes with a removable, ultra-cool cover too. This absorbs your body temperature and transfers excess heat to colder parts of your body, creating a more temperature neutral sleep. When you decide to purchase a Helix Mattress, you’ll need complete a questionnaire that gives you the option to let them know that you are a hot sleeper. This will then be heavily factored in when it comes to building your perfect Helix Mattress.
Read our Helix Mattress review (opens in new tab)
6. Tuft & Needle Original: Best affordable cooling mattress
Tuft and Needle has based its entire business around offering the best cooling mattresses at far more affordable prices. Although the Tuft and Needle Original is made up of proprietary foam, this isn’t your traditional memory foam mattress, so don’t run away thinking it will be too hot for you. Indeed, the Tuft and Needle Original uses specially adaptive foam to pull heat away from your body. It does this via a combination of cooling graphite and gel beads infused into the open-cell foam. Clever stuff, huh? Open-cell foam is what makes this mattress so breathable. Add to that the graphite beads that absorb heat, plus ceramic gel to wick away heat and moisture, and this also quickly becomes the ideal cooling mattress if you’re suffering from night sweats but have a much smaller budget. Torn between this one and Purple? Take a closer look at both in our Tuft and Needle vs Purple (opens in new tab) comparison.
Read our Tuft and Needle Original review (opens in new tab)
Best cooling mattress deals
What are cooling mattresses made from?
Some materials make mattresses more cooling and breathable, while others can trap heat, which is a nightmare for hot sleepers. If you’re wondering which components are the least and most cooling, here’s a crash course to help you pinpoint what to look for and what to avoid. Basic memory foam This is made from polyurethane, which hugs the body in response to heat. While this is lovely and cosy at first, heat builds up, so hot sleepers will feel pretty uncomfortable pretty quickly on a basic memory foam bed. Specialized memory foam This is wildly different to basic memory foam, and has been developed by scientists to be more breathable. That means it won’t retain heat as much, making for a much cooler mattress overall. You’ll often see these types perforated with tiny holes for better airflow, or they may contain gel layers or gel-infused beads designed to promote a cooling effect. Latex Talalay latex is a material often found in organic cooling mattresses, and is cooler than polyfoam and synthetic latex. The latter still retains heat to a certain extent, so we’d recommend Talalay latex, not Dunlop latex, for hot sleepers. Gel-infused foam Some sleep brands are experimenting with cooling gel-infused comfort layers. The most recent example of this is Casper’s new Snow Technology range, which adopts cooling gel to better circulate air throughout the mattress. Check out our roundup of the best Casper mattress deals (opens in new tab) for potential savings on this range. Polyfoam Also made from polyurethane, basic polyfoam is notorious for trapping heat. You usually come across this material in support and comfort layers, though it doesn’t hug your body like memory foam does. Sleep brands are now perfecting specialized polyfoam, also known as open cell polyfoam, made using micro air bubbles to create a more neutral temperature response. Coils and springs These are commonly found in hybrid cooling mattresses and are superb for encouraging better airflow, and therefore cooler sleep, as there’s more space between them. If you are dealing with chronic night sweats or hot flashes, we would definitely recommend looking at hybrid cooling mattresses.
What are the benefits of a cooling mattress?
If your sleep is frequently disrupted by you feeling too hot or experiencing hot flashes or night sweats, a cooling mattress could help take the edge off so that you can sleep cooler and better. Likewise, if it isn’t you but your partner feels like they’re a mini radiator and sleeps very close to you, the best cooling mattress could help you both out. Menopause, pregnancy and other hormone fluctuations cause hot flashes, night sweats and an elevated core body temperature, so a cooling mattress could play a part in lessening those symptoms. Heavy sleepers who weigh over 200lbs may also find that they benefit from a mattress with cooling materials. Why? Without the right mattress for their body weight, heavier sleepers can easily sink into a mattress. When that happens, their body heat gets trapped in the mattress, leading to overheating. Ultimately, only you will know if you need a mattress specifically designed to keep you cool as you snooze, or whether a more standard mattress will suffice. Waking up due to heat is never fun, and if it happens to you regularly, it could result in health conditions associated with consistently poor, broken sleep. If you don’t have the budget right now to buy one of the best cooling mattresses, read on for some further tips about how to stay cool when you sleep, and whether a cooling mattress pad could work for now.
Cooling mattress vs cooling mattress pad: Pros and cons
If you’re looking to cool down your sleep but aren’t ready to discard your mattress, you may find that a cooling mattress pad is your ideal solution. Cooling mattress pads are essentially mattress toppers made from materials such as latex or gel-infused foam. They work by absorbing the extra heat and helping to regulate your body temperature. You just need to position the pad on top of your mattress, make your bed as usual, and look forward to a cooler, more comfortable sleep. The only downside to these is the sizing. We have found that they tend to stop a little short of the edges of our mattress, which can make you feel as though you’ve lost an inch or two of bed space. A cooling mattress, on the other hand, is infused with materials that will stop your body heat from getting trapped and ultimately radiating back at you, causing you to overheat. As these mattresses have the cooling material within them, you won’t feel like you’re losing mattress space. However, they are naturally more expensive, so your budget will come into play here.
Top tips for staying cool as you sleep
It’s tempting to leave the window as you sleep, right? Well, this is fine if you live in an area that’s relatively free of pollution and noise disturbances, but if you live on a road that’s busy with traffic and people, it could make your sleep worse. Instead, consider investing in a smart thermostat to keep your bedroom at the optimal temperature for sleep - between 60-65°F. Or you may prefer to use a cooling fan or an air conditioner (opens in new tab) to create the perfect in-room temperature. Closing your curtains or blinds during the day will also stop heat from building up in the room and in your mattress. You could also take a cool shower before bed and use a mint-based soap or shower gel to double-down on the cooling effects. Elsewhere, in addition to avoiding caffeine after midday where possible, try to avoid any foods or drinks that raise your core body temperature before bed. Alcohol is a no-no, as it can cause night sweats and lead to you waking up feeling parched. For more sleep content, we’d recommend our feature asking why is sleep important (opens in new tab) and how can we get better shut-eye, plus our round-up of the best comforters (opens in new tab) for cozy sleep.
