There are several ways to sleep cooler at night — one of which is finding a cooling mattress. These are beds that use mattress materials specifically designed to help you feel cool throughout the night.
But there’s a lot of variety out there. Some mattress brands use cooling covers while others use ventilated foam or gel-infused memory foam. Some brands use phase change materials (PCMs) which react by cooling you down when they feel your body heat. Some mattress companies will use a little bit of everything.
At Slumberland, we help customers who want a cooler — and more comfortable and supportive — night’s sleep every day. We’ve learned what methods work (and don’t work) for keeping your mattress cool.
In this post, we share our vote for the best cooling mattresses. Then we discuss common technologies leading mattress brands will use to try and create a cooling mattress.
Looking for the perfect cooling mattress? We made it easy to find just that at Slumberland. In our Sleep Solutions department, we created a universal rating system that lets you shop across different mattress brands and types. This includes labeling which mattresses have moderate cooling features and advanced cooling features. To learn more about our new rating system, you can read our post on how we made mattress shopping easier or visit the Slumberland location nearest you.
The Best Cooling Mattress: The Tempur-Pedic Breeze
Tempur-Pedic has an entire line dedicated to actively keeping you cooler at night — their Breeze line.
There are two different models within the Breeze line, the ProBreeze and the LuxeBreeze.
The ProBreeze can help you feel up to 3 degrees cooler, while on the LuxeBreeze, you can feel up to 8 degrees cooler.
Here’s how.
The PRObreeze - Feels up to 3 Degrees Cooler
Like all Tempur-Pedic beds, the Tempur-Pedic ProBreeze models have a cool-to-the-touch cover. This cover is made with high-density yarn which stops heat from getting trapped in its fibers. Think of a marble countertop and how it’s always cool to the touch — but don’t worry, sleeping on a Tempur-Pedic isn’t like sleeping on a countertop. These high-density yarns simply stop your body from storing heat in the cover of your mattress.
This is a perfect start to a cooling mattress because it means right at the surface — where your body touches the mattress — the ProBreeze is working to keep you cool.
Beneath the cool cover, Tempur-Pedic uses PureCool+™ Phase Change Material. Phase change materials — or PCMs — are temperature sensitive fibers. When they come into contact with heat, they absorb it — drawing it away from your body and keeping you cooler. This amazing technology actually works both ways — if your body cools down too much, the PCMs can release heat back to you.
Finally, beneath the PCMs, the Tempur-Pedic ProBreeze has a layer of climate management foam, called TEMPUR-CM+™. This is a very breathable foam layer which helps promote airflow.
By using a mixture of advanced cooling technologies — from the high-density yarn to PCMs — the Tempur-Pedic ProBreeze line can make you feel up to 3 degrees cooler throughout the night.
The ProBreeze is available in a medium firmness and as a medium hybrid. A hybrid mattress is when the core support layer is replaced with a layer of coils that helps give the mattress a more familiar “bounce.”
The LuxeBreeze — Feels up to 8 Degrees Cooler
The LuxeBreeze does everything the ProBreeze does but has one major difference which helps it become one of the coolest mattresses on the market.
With the LuxeBreeze models, Tempur-Pedic uses a layer of Ventilated TEMPUR-APR® material. APR stands for Advanced Pressure Relief. So it gives you the comfort and support you expect from a Tempur-Pedic. But it’s also ventilated, which means Tempur-Pedic added holes into the material to further promote a cool sleeping environment — that’s why the Tempur-Pedic LuxeBreeze can feel up to 8 degrees cooler throughout the night.
The LuxeBreeze is available as a firm or soft. There is no difference in support between the two firmnesses. Generally speaking, a side sleeper may find more comfort in the soft and a back or stomach sleeper may find more comfort in the firm model.
Runner Up: Sealy Posturepedic Hybrid Chill
We think that Tempur-Pedic mattresses are the absolute best for sleeping cool. But if we have to pick a runner up, it’s the Sealy Posturepedic Hybrid Chill mattresses.
The Sealy Posturepedic Chill mattresses use an advanced cool-to-touch Chill™ cooling technology right at the surface of the bed. Plus, Sealy uses gel memory foam to provide comfort and cooling. The memory foam provides comfort, while gel beads make sure heat doesn’t get trapped in large sections.
You can get the Sealy Posturepedic Chill Hybrids in two firmness levels: a plush (soft) or firm.
If you’re not interested in memory foam beds, then there are other options (such as a traditional coil mattress) that are naturally very breathable and won’t sleep hot. But just remember that as you add more layers to your mattress, you increase the risk of a bed getting warmer.
So a pillow top mattress, which is thicker than a tight top mattress, comes with a slightly higher risk. This doesn’t mean you can’t get a pillow top mattress (or memory foam mattress) that sleeps cool — it just means you want to choose a mattress that actively works to keep you cool.
Shopping for a cool mattress can sometimes be confusing, especially because there are so many different ways mattress companies market their beds. The good news is that when you lie on a cooling mattress — like the Tempur-Pedic Breeze — you can literally feel the difference. To try our picks for the best cooling mattresses in person, visit one of our Slumberland locations.
How Mattress Companies Try to Keep You Cool — an In-Depth Guide
There’s a difference between a temperature-neutral bed and a bed designed to help hot sleepers sleep cooler. A temperature-neutral mattress isn’t going to warm you up or cool you down. Most innerspring mattresses are temperature-neutral by design.
But because memory foam beds do come with a higher risk of overheating, they need to use cooling features and cooling materials that actively fight against your body heat.
Phase Change Materials
Phase change materials are fibers that react based on your body temperature. For example, let’s say you lie down to go to sleep. As the night goes on, you're getting warmer on the parts of your body that are touching the mattress. That heat then actually makes the PCMs in your mattress melt from a solid form into a liquid. This liquid form is actually absorbing the heat that caused its reaction.
But the heat is stored at the PCMs’ core, not on the outside of the PCM. In short, it pulls heat away from the surface of your mattress.
Similarly, if you or your mattress gets too cold, the PCMs can turn back into a solid to release heat back into your mattress. By reacting to your body heat and the environment, mattresses that use PCMs are great at providing consistent temperature regulation.
Strategic Layering
Sometimes mattress companies try to strategically layer their foam layers to keep the most dense layer (generally the memory foam layer) away from your body.
For example, if a mattress has 4 layers, then the company will put the memory foam layer as the 2nd or 3rd layer in the bed. And then for the top layers the mattress will have basic non-memory foam (called poly-foam).
Poly-foam is lighter and more breathable than memory foam — but it’s also not as supportive because it isn’t contouring like memory foam.
If you’re looking for a memory foam mattress — and want to reap the benefits of memory foam — then we recommend you find one that puts the memory foam layer within the first two layers, while using advanced technologies to make sure the bed doesn’t become a heat trap.
Copper and Graphite
It seems new mattress companies are always trying new ways to help you sleep cooler. You may have heard of mattresses using copper and graphite to help keep your bed cool.
But do these materials work? And if so, how?
Copper has what’s called high thermal conductivity. This means heat can pass through copper quickly — so by putting copper in your mattress cover, the idea is heat won’t get stored at the surface. Plus, copper also has natural antimicrobial properties, which means it could technically help keep your mattress cleaner. But as Healthline reports, there are no studies showing the effectiveness of copper keeping you cool.
Then there’s graphite. Graphite is naturally resistant to heat and has been used by companies to pull heat away from expensive components in computers and phones. The secret to graphite's success is its small spherical "pores," which allow it to absorb heat better than other elements often used for cooling.
When it comes to mattresses, graphite is usually mixed into the foam layers or applied as a thin layer at the top of the mattress (directly below the cover or woven into the cooling cover).
Mattress companies use materials like this because they don’t store heat. Whether they work or not is difficult to assess — there aren’t a lot of scientific studies that are specifically testing mattress brands like Layla or Tuft and Needle (Layla uses Copper and Tuft and Needle uses graphite).
Comfort Layers made with Latex
Natural latex is a breathable and durable material that often makes a supportive (if not a little firm) mattress.
So latex mattresses are a great option for people who want a firmer feel and also want a cooler mattress. Just make sure you’re sleeping on natural latex: Synthetic latex foam varies greatly in quality, and some synthetic latex may sleep hotter than others.
Gel Infused Memory Foam
Memory foam can become a heat trap because it's a dense layer of foam that heat can get into but often can’t escape from.
So some companies use gel memory foam to keep the heat from collecting in one spot.
By infusing memory foam with gel swirls or gel beads, mattress companies are breaking up memory foam so your heat can’t get trapped in large sections.
Finding the Best Cooling Mattress for You
Sleeping hot is almost exclusively a problem for memory foam beds. But the good news is that the major mattress brands — like the ones we carry at Slumberland — have worked out ways to make sure your memory foam mattress is cool and breathable.
In our opinion, the best cooling memory foam mattress can be found in the Tempur-Pedic Breeze line.
There is the ProBreeze (which can feel up to 3 degrees cooler) and the LuxeBreeze (which can feel up to 8 degrees cooler) than other Tempur-Pedic models.
But don’t worry, if Tempur-Pedic isn’t the right mattress for you, we have other options that will help you sleep cool throughout the night.
At Slumberland we made mattress shopping easier in two ways. First, we created a universal rating system that lets you compare key features (like cooling, back support, and pressure relief) across all mattress brands and types. Second, our Sleep Solutions department is staffed with sleep and mattress experts who can help answer any questions you may have. If you’re ready to start trying out the best cooling mattress in person, visit a Slumberland location today.
FAQs
Is a Soft Mattress Hotter than a Firm Mattress?
Sometimes customers ask if a firm mattress is naturally cooler than a soft mattress. There is some logic to this question.
You sink deeper into a softer mattress, which means you’re more likely to create a pocket of heat. Whereas with a firm mattress, you’re lying more “on” the mattress. Your body isn’t sinking in.
But it gets complicated when it comes to comparing a firm mattress without cooling properties with a soft mattress that has cooling properties.
Overall, you do not want to pick a firm mattress to sleep on because you think it’ll be cooler. You want to pick a firm mattress if you prefer a hard bed and if your sleeping position works well with a firmer mattress. (Firmer beds are recommended for back sleepers and stomach sleepers).
Do Beds that Come in a Box Sleep Hot?
Generally beds that come in a box mattresses are either all foam mattresses or hybrids. This means they come with an increased chance of sleeping hot.
But these mattresses also tend to have lower-density layers of foam. This means they may not sleep hot, but they also may not provide the best pressure-relieving benefits of sleeping on foam.
Is Open Cell Memory Foam Cooler than Traditional Memory Foam?
There's a misconception that only some mattress brands use open-cell memory foam.
But during the creation process, mattress manufacturers change the structure of the cells that make up the foam, creating a more flexible, comfortable, adaptable — and most importantly for those who struggle with sleeping hot— breathable, open-cell material. So, technically speaking all memory foam is open-cell memory foam. It’s just that like anything, there is a lot of variety in quality between mattress brands.
When you make high-quality foam — foam that is made in a secure factory and doesn’t let in pollutants or other external particles into the construction — your foam can be more supportive without having to be extremely dense, which means it’ll help you sleep without making you feel hot at night.
Which Mattress Materials Trap the Most Heat?
Different types of mattresses come with different pros and cons. For example, a latex mattress scores high for durability and bounce, but may be too firm for some sleepers who need more cushioning support for their back pain.
When you buy a memory foam bed, one of your biggest risks is increased heat retention. That means it might sleep hot.
The good news is that all the major brands (like Tempur-Pedic) have created breathable materials and cooling features to help you sleep cool at night.
But if you get a cheap memory foam bed, there’s a real risk that it’ll turn into a heat trap. You can spot a cheaply made memory foam bed because it’s often incredibly inexpensive (a few hundred dollars or less for queen size mattresses or king size), comes from overseas (where regulations are lax), and has a limited mattress warranty (a quality mattress should have at least a 10 year warranty).
To learn more about how different mattresses help you sleep cool, read our article on finding the best cooling mattress.
Do I Need Cooling Sheets and Pillows?
While a cooling mattress will do the bulk of the work keeping you cool at night, it’s highly unlikely that you’re sleeping directly on your mattress. Everything on your bed can contribute to you feeling warm while you sleep, which is why you can find all sorts of pillows, sheets, and even mattress protectors that can help you sleep even cooler.
Are My Nights Sweats Because of My Bed?
A poorly made mattress can definitely contribute to you sleeping hot throughout the night. But if you’re experiencing night sweats, several other factors could be the main issue. These range from medical reasons (such as your body is fighting off an infection or going through hormonal changes) to environmental (are you sleeping in a room with bad airflow or no air conditioning?).
Sleeping hot, no matter the reason, is uncomfortable. If you’re a hot sleeper, then check out our article on how to sleep cool at night.
We wrote this article with the help of our Slumberland sleep and mattress experts. If you’re ready to start trying out the best cooling mattress in person, visit a Slumberland showroom today.
