Help me find the coldest mattress topper out there

April 7, 2023 1:42 PM

I guess I have super high metabolism at night as I sleep with a sheet on me, even winter and fan in summer and still always hot. (in my 60s and slim, even). Over the years, I have tried foam mattresses and innerspring and hybrid and nothing helps keep me cool at night. I prefer foam for the motion control as I am a super light sleeper and any motion from the wife wakes me up.

Anyway, I don’t want to buy a new mattress, but I need a topper or something to keep me cooler at night- something soft as I am strictly a side sleeper.

I’ve tried various memory foam toppers but they’re all too hot. Manufacturers keep fiddling with memory foam by adding copper, or graphite or gel or whatever, claiming they sleep cool but to me, they are all about the same and all are hella-hot.

I read that wool toppers are cool (which makes no sense to me) and latex is cool and their proprietary foam is cool and her special breathable foam is the best and his egg carton thing-a-majig is the coolest. I don’t know what to believe anymore. Everything I have tried is hot—which is to say the various memory foams and “plain” foams. I would think a cotton topper would be the coolest as cotton breathes, but no one makes a 2” 100% cotton topper so I guess my thinking is wrong. Not interested in the feather toppers.

Any suggestions for a 2” (or 3”) topper that actually will help me stay cool at night and dissipate the heat is appreciated.

posted by luvmywife to Health & Fitness (12 answers total)

How much is cost an issue? After about five years of always being too hot at night, I gave up and got a chilisleep.

I got the cube system with a pad for just my half of our queen bed. Easy to install. It does make a noise, but the noise is not very loud and is bland enough that I sleep through it. I’ve had it for about ten months now and am very happy with not overheating anymore.

In fact sometimes now I am *too cold* and actually wake up from that; an amazing novelty from my perspective. The only downside is the cost.
posted by nat at 1:56 PM on April 7, 2023 [10 favorites]

i have a "Purple" brand seat cushion which is very cool to sit on, almost too cold in winter. The material is made of a grid of squishy material and is very soft but supportive. Purple makes mattresses.
posted by a humble nudibranch at 2:07 PM on April 7, 2023 [1 favorite]

Off topic slightly - have you tried different sheets? So far cotton flannel sheets of all things have helped my spouse and I stay cool and less sweaty. Maybe it’s the level of air cushion that happens between our bodies and the mattress? Some people also like cotton jersey. Prior we used both standard woven high quality cotton or polyester and flannel has felt entirely different. In like a sort of astonishing way. It’s cheaper to try compared to a topper. Check your local Ross or TJ Maxx or whatever and they may have some.
posted by Crystalinne at 2:22 PM on April 7, 2023 [1 favorite]

Wool is generally cooler than most synthetic materials because it transfers moisture away from the skin. Though as a hot sleeper who has a latex and wool mattress, I find that 100% cotton is the best surface in the summer. If you can find a truly cotton fill mattress pad (like this one from the Company Store) it might work for you.
posted by oneirodynia at 2:37 PM on April 7, 2023

I have this topper which makes me feel noticeably cooler on our hybrid mattress. A decent layer of anything not foam between you and the memory foam should help. I don't think different sheets would help tbh because they are too thin to provide any real space between you and the foam. The filling feels like a synthetic duvet.
posted by oneear at 2:52 PM on April 7, 2023

If you have one try putting a wool blanket under your bottom sheet.
posted by mareli at 3:23 PM on April 7, 2023 [2 favorites]

Seconding the chilisleep/chilipad. Perimenopausal, have always slept hot anyway, this thing actually lets me sleep.
posted by humbug at 3:24 PM on April 7, 2023

I was listening to an Andrew Huberman podcast where he was talking about how the hands, feet and face are special radiant zones on your body. The skin on these surfaces allows heat or cold to transmit into and out of your body much more easily than other areas.

For example, I always sleep with my feet exposed at the end of the bed. I do this because the covers cause cramps on my arches, but it also has the effect of cooling my body temperature. If you can get a chilling effect on your feet, it's going to drop your core temperature, same as if you took a cold shower.

Having your core body temperature drop a degree or two is a trigger for the sleep process, so finding a way to do that is key to solid sleep. YMMV.
posted by diode at 5:22 PM on April 7, 2023

I think a purple might really work for you. They don't transmit motion really at all, and they are really cool because of the huge air pockets. They are shockingly expensive, though. We love ours.
posted by fritley at 7:25 PM on April 7, 2023 [1 favorite]

Geo matt they are sliced foam, used for orthopedic patients. This with a cotton mattress cover. They breathe well, and definitely deaden motion. They are not very expensive. Here.
posted by Oyéah at 8:33 PM on April 7, 2023

My experience is that latex sleeps somewhat cooler than memory foam, but not by a lot. I ended up getting a newer mattress that just sleeps cooler overall, and set the AC colder during the evenings during the summer to manage it currently, which is good enough(TM) at the moment. I was looking at the chilisleep but never pulled the trigger now that I have a mattress that doesn't need a topper for me to sleep reasonably well.
posted by Aleyn at 10:27 PM on April 7, 2023

I got a bedjet and I’m very happy with it.
posted by emkelley at 12:09 AM on April 10, 2023