Cooling Mattresses

Cooling mattresses are designed with features that help regulate your body temperature while you sleep. This includes moisture-wicking fabrics, such as bamboo or wool, breathable materials, and layers designed to improve airflow and breathability. Some mattresses for hot sleepers even include cooling gel, a special type designed to pull heat away from the body, and that can be mixed into different types of foam.

A cooling mattress for hot sleepers can help those who struggle to keep cool at night regulate their body temperature. Whilst they aren't designed to give you an instant cooling sensation, they will work overnight to pull excess heat away from your body, making sleep easier. If you want to make sure you choose the right mattress, check out our guide to the best cooling mattresses for hot sleepers.

Many mattress types help people stay cool, and not all of them say 'cooling' in their titles. Cooling gels are designed specifically for hot sleepers, but latex foam is naturally breathable, and hybrid mattresses tend to have good airflow as well. Some types of memory foam mattresses also include cooling gel beads, giving you the support and comfort of memory foam with the benefits of cooling.

You'll find that a traditional memory foam mattress might not be the best option for warm sleepers, as memory foam uses body heat to soften and mould to your body. As this is a known issue, special cooling memory foam mattresses are available, which usually feature cooling gel built into the foam to help keep you cooler while you sleep. Find out more in our memory foam mattress guide.

Hybrid mattresses are generally cooler than foam mattresses, often because they combine foam and springs. The springs are a great way to improve ventilation in a mattress, making it more breathable and reducing the risk of heat buildup. Mattresses made solely of foam risk trapping that heat and leaving it nowhere to go. For more information about the various benefits of foam, check out our mattress foam guide.

Most cooling mattresses do not feel 'cool' to the touch; instead, they are designed to work throughout the night by dispersing heat evenly away from your body. This means that you get constant temperature regulation all night, even if your mattress might not actually 'feel' cool. Whether it actually works can also depend on the type of bedding you use, the material of your pyjamas and your room's temperature; a cooling mattress won't work too well if you wear fleece pyjamas!