Many adults find themselves waking up uncomfortable and hot in the middle of the night. Your sleep surface and mattress plays a big role in deciding how comfortably you sleep — including temperature regulation. While your mattress rarely is the underlying cause of sleep-hot troubles, it should bear responsibility for giving you a comfortable sleep. The best mattress for hot sleepers should be capable of absorbing excess heat near the sleeper, and dissipate it well enough to avoid discomfort to hot sleepers. Here are our top picks for the coolest mattress to sleep on.
- Layla Sleep Memory Foam Mattress – Copper Infused Cooling System
- Purple Mattress
- Brooklyn Signature Hybrid Mattress
- Serta iComfort Blue Mattress
- Zenhaven All-Natural Latex Mattress
What Causes Sleeping Hot Problems?
Sleeping warm or hot is a common problem dependent on environmental or physiological issues like weight, climate, age, home/bedroom, sleeping preferences, and medical conditions. When we sleep, our body also gives off some heat, reducing the core temperature by one or two degrees. Most of these issues are beyond your direct control. However, your sleep surface or mattress is more easily handled and can be a make or break factor for hot sleepers.
Does Mattress Firmness Play A Part In Sleeping Hot?
Mattresses that sink beneath a sleeper can restrict air circulation and create a heat trap. While the deep conforming on such mattresses may be desirable, it may not be the best feature for hot sleepers. If you have troubles with sleeping hot, you should look at a firm mattress that does not conform as deeply. A medium-firm mattress should work for most people, however, conforming effect is also a product of bodyweight, so if you are a heavy sleeper, consider a firmer mattress.
How Do Mattress Components Affect Sleeping Hot Or Cool?
Memory Foam
Memory foam is a popular material for mattresses, thanks to its contouring and conforming ability. Unfortunately, it is also terrible at heat dissipation and can indeed collect heat, aggravating sleep hot problems. Memory foam’s contouring and conforming ability utilize temperature changes in the sleeper’s body. However, this can also create a heat trap detrimental to sleeping cool. If you are having sleep hot troubles, you can try some solutions to cooling down your tempurpedic mattress.
Given the material’s popularity, attempts have been made to make memory foam sleep cool. Some common solutions used by manufacturers are:
- Gel-Infused Memory Foam: Memory foam is infused with gel crystals, or even a layer of gel. The gel absorbs heat from the foam and the sleeper’s body and distributes it evenly – thus dissipating heat. A higher concentration of gel has a better effect on cooling. Many “gel-infused” foams contain only trace gel components and have little effect on cooling.
- Open-cell Memory Foam: Open-cell memory foam has a network of porous cells filled with air. The improved ventilation allows the mattress to sleep cooler.
- Specialty Memory Foams: These include memory foam infused with materials like bamboo, graphite, copper, or even diamonds. These materials can be fairly effective, and much like gel, their effectiveness depends on concentration.
Latex Foam
Latex foam is slightly less conforming than memory foam, but it has the advantage of not absorbing much body heat. Most latex layers in mattresses are also perforated, giving them better ventilation. Generally speaking, natural latex sleeps cooler than blended or synthetic latex.
Innersprings And Hybrids
Innerspring mattresses are generally considered the best material to avoid sleep hot issues. The coils/materials used generally do not absorb body heat, and the arrangement of springs ensures proper ventilation is available for the mattress to sleep cooler. Innerspring hybrid mattresses have thicker comfort layers, but they get similar ventilation advantages.
How Do Mattress Covers Affect Cooling?
Mattress covers play an important role, and are often used by manufacturers to aid in cooling and comfort of the mattress, and can play an important role in making the best mattresses for hot sleepers.
Quilted Covers
Conventional quilted covers are thicker and can hamper air circulation. Some quilted covers may also contain comfort layers like foam, making them retain heat. On the other hand, some cooling mattresses use fibers and cooling gels in quilted covers to wick away sweat or body heat, thus lowering temperature.
Non-Quilted Covers
Non-quilted covers are usually thinner and allow for greater air flow, making them sleep cool. Some covers also have materials like bamboo or cotton to increase cooling.
Specialty Cooling Fabrics
These include materials like Celliant, Lyocell, and Lycra. Each of these materials is used to create covers that work great at cooling and can provide a suitably cool surface.
Are Cooling Accessories Useful?
It may not be convenient to replace or get a new mattress. In such cases, you can augment your comfort by using cooling accessories. Getting your hands on the best mattress cooling pad or topper can work very well. Just remember to give the same consideration on cooling to the mattress pad, as you would to a new mattress. Similarly, using gadgets like the BedJet or relying on the good old cooling fan can be beneficial.
5 Best Mattresses For Hot Sleepers
1. Layla Sleep Memory Foam Mattress – Copper Infused Cooling System
If you like the comfort and conforming properties of memory foam, the Layla Sleep mattress is one of the best mattresses for hot sleepers. The copper-infused cooling system can be quite useful in keeping this mattress temperature neutral. Layla mattress is flippable, with one side rated medium-soft while the other is firm, this allows you the advantage of choosing the comfort that’s most suited for you.
The copper-infused cooling system involves tiny wires running through the memory foam layer, using the heat-conductive properties of copper to carry away and distribute the heat, allowing the mattress to sleep cooler. Addition of a thermogel-infused cover helps with better distribution of heat. As far as memory foam mattresses are concerned, Layla is one of the coolest mattress to sleep on.
Starting with the firm side, the thermogel-infused cover is followed by a 1-inch layer of copper-infused memory foam. This is followed by a 4.5-inch layer of base support foam, 2-inches of convoluted support foam, and finally a layer of 3-inch copper-infused memory foam.
| Free Trial | 120 Nights |
| Warranty | Lifetime Warranty |
| Pros | Cons |
| Flippable mattress allows easier access to firmness options | Availability of firmness options limited to flipping mattress |
| Stays temperature neutral, especially catering to hot sleepers | Some off-gassing problems |
| Excellent motion isolation | Poor edge support |
2. Purple Mattress
The Purple mattress has “free flow air channels” created by the use of the proprietary hyper-elastic polymer grid, which is also used as the top layer for this mattress. Purple calls this layer the “smart comfort grid”. Arranged in a lattice, this grid collapses or bends under the weight of the body, providing adequate pressure relief.
Even as the lattice bends or collapses under body weight, it retains the air flow or traps some air, allowing for easy ventilation and thus keeping the sleeper cool. The cover is a thin fabric, made from a blend of viscose, polyester, and polyester-lycra. It allows easy passage of air, thus keeping the mattress well-ventilated.
Polymer grid on the Purple mattress is followed by a 3.5-inch layer of polyurethane foam for transitional support, followed by 4-inches of denser polyurethane support foam. You can read our detailed Purple Mattress review for more information.
| Free Trial | 100 Nights |
| Warranty | 10 Years |
| Pros | Cons |
| Sleeps temperature neutral making it a great option for those who sleep hot | Poor edge support |
| Smart grid polymer is comfortable and provides pressure relief | Some off-gassing issues |
| Good range of sizes to choose from | The mattress can be quite heavy |
3. Brooklyn Signature Hybrid Mattress
As we noted earlier, hybrid mattresses are generally better at staying temperature neutral thanks to the ventilation provided by the layer of innersprings. Brooklyn Bedding is fairly well-known in the domain of innerspring mattresses, and have applied their skill to hybrid mattresses with the desire of creating the coolest mattress to sleep on.
Brooklyn Signature Hybrid mattress matches comfort with the ability to sleep cool, creating a product that could be the best mattress for hot sleepers. The Queen-sized Brooklyn Signature Hybrid starts with the innerspring layer comprised of 1024 individually encased coils. This innerspring layer is topped by 4-inches of TitanFlex memory foam forming the comfort layer and transition layer in a 2+2 inch setting. A quilted cover containing 1-inch of gel-infused memory foam forms the top layer.
The layer of gel-infused memory foam works with the top 2-inch TitaniumGel-infused TitanFlex foam comfort layer to absorb and whisk-away heat, thus creating a relatively cooler sleep surface for hot sleepers. Ventilation provided by the innerspring layer keeps the air flowing and helps the comfort layer with faster dissipation of heat.
| Free Trial | 120 Nights, dependent on retailer policy |
| Warranty | 10 Years |
| Pros | Cons |
| Works well at staying temperature neutral and dissipating heat | Deep memory foam comfort layer may be a problem for some sleepers, choosing the firm option over medium may be desirable |
| Excellent pressure relief | Archaic trial policy depends on retailer decision to honor it |
| Good response and bounce |
4. Serta iComfort Blue Mattress
The Serta cooling mattress range is almost synonymous to the Serta iComfort Blue mattress series. Serta iComfort series showcases the best in cooling technology the famous brand has and has proven fairly capable. As Serta’s candidate for the best mattress for hot sleepers, the iComfort series offers mattresses in several sizes, as well as firmness variations.
Serta iComfort Blue Mattress series practically caters to all mattress preferences with its options, and can be quite useful for hot sleepers. The mattress has four layers of memory foam and polyfoam, but the height of the layers (and height profile of the mattress) varies with the choice of firmness options.
Memory foam comfort layer on the mattress is infused with gel as well as “millions of active beads”. The combination of active beads and gel-memory foam, according to Serta, creates an excellent sleep surface that’s not only temperature neutral, but can also be cool to the touch. Depending on the cooling and comfort/firmness needs, Serta cooling mattress uses specifically built foams, like TempActiv Gel Memory Foam, EverCool Fuze Gel Memory Foam, EverCool Supreme Memory Foam, and others. We’d like to believe there’s more to these foams than names, but there are just too many names!
| Free Trial | Depends on retailer policy |
| Warranty | 10 Years |
| Pros | Cons |
| Excellent cooling technology helps mattress be useful for hot sleepers | Poor edge support |
| Good conforming and pressure relief | Little to no off-gassing |
5. Zenhaven All-Natural Latex Mattress
Zenhaven by Saatva is an all-natural latex mattress that excels at several parameters. It provides great comfort, pressure relief, and sleeps temperature neutral, thanks to the use of natural latex and better ventilation. The mattress is 10-inches high and is built using four layers of natural Talalay Latex. Zenhaven mattress has a one-inch quilted cover made of organic cotton, and filled with New Zealand wool.
All materials used in the Zenhaven mattress are sourced to be eco-responsible, and that alone makes a persuasive argument in favor of this mattress. The latex foam layers are arranged to be well-ventilated, thus keeping the sleep surface temperature neutral. It is useful that latex does not absorb much heat like memory foam, plus the addition of wool in the comfort layer helps wick away any sweat or moisture.
| Free Trial | 120 Nights |
| Warranty | 15 Years |
| Pros | Cons |
| Sleeps temperature neutral | The mattress can be heavy and difficult to move |
| Hypoallergenic and antimicrobial | Poor edge support |
| Free white-glove delivery with fully expanded mattress |
Best Mattress For Hot Sleepers — Conclusion
Sleeping hot can be caused by a number of problems often beyond the control of the sleeper. Finding the best mattress for hot sleepers can help alleviate these problems and allow a good, restful night’s sleep. Choosing a good mattress can provide significantly better results, making things easier for those troubled by sleep-hot problems. Although, the problem can be influenced by individual physical conditions, so it’s best to keep your individual considerations in mind when buying the coolest mattress to sleep on.