We have narrowed down some of our favorite mattresses that incorporate special techniques and materials that are specially designed to keep you cool at night. Every sleeper is different, so not every mattress will work for every person, but hopefully one of these beds will help keep you comfortable at night.
The Best Cooling Mattresses
| Tier | Mattress | Discount |
|---|---|---|
| Tier 1 (A) | Cocoon Chill by Sealy | Claim Discount |
| Tier 1 (B) | Purple | Claim Free Gift |
| Tier 2 (A) | Bear Mattress | Claim Discount |
| Tier 2 (B) | Layla Sleep | Claim Discount |
| Tier 2 (C) | YogaBed | Claim Discount |
We tried to select an eclectic list that covered several different categories, whether you prefer a cooling memory foam mattress or one that’s a little more temperature neutral. The fact of the matter is that not all hot sleepers are sweaty sleepers, so we tried to recommend beds that span the entire spectrum. Hopefully you find the guide helpful and start sleeping more soundly at night.
To begin let me just say that over the past 8-10 weeks, we’ve tested well over 20 of the most popular bed in a box mattresses out there. So with that said, we think we have a pretty good idea of which are the best at keeping you cool throughout the night. There’s a lot of people out there that are hot sleepers or maybe that live in hot climates so it’s important that your mattress is able to breathe well. Also, let me just add that none of the companies on this list paid us to make this video or write this post. We are 100% independent and not aligned with any one brand.
The Cocoon Chill is from Sealy, which is one of the biggest mattress companies in the world. However, the Cocoon series is actually their first bed in a box mattress. And what’s cool about Cocoon is that there are a few different options. They offer a Classic version and a Chill version, that’s the model we’ll be focusing on today. Then in addition to that, you can choose either a firm or soft option for each model.
In terms of construction, the Cocoon is comprised of several layers of foam. You’ve got a base layer of support foam. In the middle is another layer of foam designed for durability and then on top is what Sealy calls ‘Perfect Fit Memory Foam’. Now this is normally the part where I start talking about how memory foam mattresses tend to sleep hot. But that’s certainly not the case with the Cocoon Chill. The cover for the bed is infused with proprietary ‘Phase Change Material’ that’s supposed to absorb and dissipate heat. That’s a lot of fancy words – all I know is that this bed sleeps super cool. In fact, we almost thought something was wrong at first because the bed almost felt damp – it’s that cool.
In general though, it’s a very comfortable mattress. Sealy definitely knows what they are doing when it comes to mattresses. There’s a reason why Cocoon landed on our Top 5 Bed In A Box list. We tested out the firm option and it was still pretty soft and did a good job of cradling pressure points. We’d give the soft model a 5.5/10 on our firmness scale – so it’s on the firmer side of the spectrum. The bed supports you but it doesn’t feel too stiff, which is nice. It’s ideal for back and stomach sleepers but if you’re strictly a side sleeper, you may want to look at a mattress like Casper or GhostBed. However, if you’re a combo sleeper, you should be just fine.
In terms of pricing, the Cocoon Chill ranges from $549 for a twin to $1,149 for a king. So yes on the expensive side for a bed in a box mattress but we can help you out with a coupon code – use code RIZKNOWS for $100 Off any mattress.
Overall, in our opinion, the Cocoon Chill might just be the best option out there for hot sleepers. Big fan.
Next up is Purple, which has been on fire lately. I believe the company was actually just valued at over $1 billion, which is nuts.
Like most bed in a box mattresses, the bottom two layers are comprised of foam. But what makes Purple unique is their top layer. It’s comprised of hyper-elastic polymer, which is actually a material patented by the founders of the company, who by the way happen to be rocket scientists. This layer of hyper-elastic polymer material is 2″ thick and is laid out in a grid pattern. Here take a look:
It sort of feels like tiny gel squares but it’s not actually gel. It’s a pretty unique feeling. But in addition to the feeling, this top layer also has other benefits. Hyper-elastic polymer itself is naturally cooler than most memory foam and latex foam materials. In addition, as you can see above, Purple designed the top layer in a grid formation. This helps with airflow and prevents moisture from building up. The result is a tier 1 bed in terms of temperature regulation. It does a great job of keeping you cool as you sleep.
As far as the bed itself though, it’s also awesome. In fact, it took the number 1 spot on our Top 5 Best Bed In A Box list. We give it a 4.5 / 10 on our firmness scale so it’s on the softer side but it’s also quite supportive at the same time, which I know sounds kind of perplexing. But this is a very unique bed – Purple likes to say it’s “soft where you want it and firm where you need it”. It’s great for all kinds of sleepers. It provides plenty of support for back and stomach sleepers – you never feel as if you’re sinking into the mattress. Yet for side sleepers, the mattress cradles your pressure points very well. This mattress also performs quite well when it comes to limiting motion transfer – no worries if you or your partner happen to move around a lot in your sleep.
Now for pricing, Purple is positioned near the middle-to-higher end of the bed in a box industry. But honestly, considering the unique feel and quality of the materials in this mattress, I don’t think the price is that outrageous. It ranges from $699 for a twin XL to $1,299 for a king. And unfortunately, Purple doesn’t offer many coupon codes or sales but they sometimes offer a special where you can save $50-$100 or so on a mattress + platform base bundle.
Bottom line, yes, it’s an expensive mattress but we are huge fans of it. It took our number one spot for a reason. We really like the unique feel of that top layer.
Now we start moving into our tier 2 mattresses in terms of coolness. So what’s interesting about Bear is that they infuse their top layer with a graphite material that’s supposed to provide a cooling effect by dissipating heat and moisture. Then in addition to that, Bear uses a Celliant cover, which is supposed to help circulate blood flow and increase oxygen levels. And the FDA actually recognizes Celliant as a wellness product. Now I know that’s a lot of technical terms and in all honesty we don’t really understand it either. All we know is that the bed does a good job of keeping you cool. Jeff’s actually been sleeping on this mattress for over 15 months now so he has a pretty good idea. It can get quite hot here in Sacramento during the Summer and Jeff has never had an issue.
Bear, like the others on this list so far, also made our overall top 5 list. It’s a solid bed. We give it a 6 out of 10 on our firmness scale so it’s slightly firmer than the Cocoon Chill. Still, it’s very comfortable and has a slight memory foam feel to it, which is nice. It’s best for back and stomach sleepers but side sleepers should be just fine as well since the bed does soften up a little over time. Pricing is very affordable with all mattresses coming in below the $1,000 mark. Plus, you can use code RIZ125 for $125 off any mattress.
Overall, we like Bear Mattress a lot. Jeff loves his. It’s great for back and stomach sleepers and it sleeps pretty cool as well. You can learn more in our full Bear Mattress Review.
Next up is Layla, which is quite unique as well. Their mattress is actually flippable. But before we tackle that, let’s talk about coolness. Layla actually infuses their foam with copper, which has very high thermal conductivity. Then for the cover, Layla infused thermo-gel. The theory here is that when the bed compresses, the copper and gel particles come in contact with each other and help transfer heat away from your body. Again this is some nerd talk here that we really don’t understand but the bottom line is that it seems to work. The bed sleeps cool and we really like the cover.
Getting back to what makes this bed really unique though is how it’s constructed. The think support layer rather than being on the bottom is actually in the middle. Then on top of that is another 2″ layer of support foam. Then on one side is a 3″ layer of that copper infused memory foam that I touched on above – that’s the soft side. On the opposite side is a 1″ layer of copper infused memory foam – that’s the firm side. We give the soft side a 5/10 on our firmness scale. So just a really nice balance overall between being soft and supportive. For the firm side, we give it a 6.5 out of 10 so definitely on the firm side of the spectrum. This side is best for 100% back and stomach sleepers as well as people over 250 pounds.
Pricing for Layla is also very affordable. All of their mattresses are priced below $1,000. And we can make it even cheaper for you – right now, you can get $100 off the Layla mattress. Overall, we love the versatility of this mattress. Plus, it’s just a solid bed all the way around.
Last up in the tier 2 category is YogaBed. This is a bed we like a lot. It made the honorable mention section for our Top 5 Best Bed In A Box list. Like the other brands on this list, YogaBed has a bunch of fancy, technical terms for why their cover and top layer helps keep you cool. And as much as I generally dislike that kind of marketing rhetoric, I do kind of have to agree. This bed sleeps pretty darn cool. Both Jeff and I tested this mattress in the hot August summer nights of Northern California and we both agreed the mattress performed quite well.
In addition to being quite cool, this is also a very comfortable mattress. It’s one of those mattresses that you don’t want to get up from when your alarm goes off in the morning. It has a very nice memory foam feel to it. Still, you never get that stuck-in-the-mud feeling. Overall, we give it a 5.25/10 on our firmness scale. It’s great for back, stomach and side sleepers as well as combo sleepers. It also performs quite well when it comes to limiting motion transfer – no issues there.
How We Selected These Mattresses
We have a team of reviewers who have spent countless hours testing and comparing various mattresses and other bedding products. Having been fully immersed in the world of online mattress retailers, it is our goal to bring you reviews that are helpful and honest, so everything that we write about is something that we have actually seen and felt (and taken a work break or two upon.) Our office is packed full of dozens of mattresses from all over the board. We have firm beds and soft beds, cheap beds and expensive beds, warmer beds and beds for cool sleeping.
Moreover, we own every word that we write. We aren’t sponsored or affiliated with any mattress brand or big box retailer, we are a small company that is dedicated to integrity and providing unbiased information to normal people just like us.
Very frequently, we are reminded just how important it is to be comfortable on your mattress to ensure high-quality sleep. Temperature is a really pertinent factor in sleep quality, which is why we always aim to discuss temperature regulation when we write our mattress reviews. Nothing is quite as frustrating and detrimental to your sleep quality as waking up drenched in sweat. This could be caused by several things: your room may be too warm, you may be experiencing menopause related hot flashes, you might struggle with hyperhydrosis, or you might just be sleeping on a heat-trapping mattress. There are several factors that play into the temperature of a mattress, everything from the material and construction to the cover can determine whether or not a bed is going to make you sweaty.
Aside from finding out exactly what is on the inside of each mattress, we will often conduct tests of the mattress with a temperature gun to gauge how much the surface temperature fluctuates. We do this by measuring the temperature before anyone lays on it, then measuring the temperature again after we have had someone lie on the bed for twenty minutes. Then, we keep track of how long it takes for the temperature to return to baseline. Having an idea of how temperature is retained and dispersed by the mattress helps us rate each bed based on three temperature categories: warm, neutral, and cool.
For this list, we paid special attention to the beds that do an especially good job of dissipating heat. The materials and technologies used in these beds make a huge difference, and fortunately, a lot of companies competing in the bed in a box industry are starting to incorporate some solutions for cooler sleeping.
Why Does My Mattress Get Hot At Night?
Before we get into the materials, here is a quick high-school level physics lesson. If you get hot or sweaty at night and you suspect that your mattress might be at fault, you can blame thermal conduction. Through this process, your body heat is transferred to your mattress, which retains the heat and gradually warms up more and more throughout the night. Your body temperature dips a bit at night in order to conserve energy, but your body will still be around 90℉, which is much warmer than the baseline temperature of your mattress. This temperature disparity between your body and your bed means that heat will continually transfer and get trapped in the layers of your mattress.
A good way to think about conduction is by imaging leaving a metal spoon in a mug of hot tea. The spoon, which is cooler than the tea will heat up rapidly when it comes in contact with the warmer water. This is actually an example of energy flow: when two systems (in our example, the water and the spoon) are at different temperatures, energy flows back and forth between them in order to reach equilibrium.
This is similar to what happens with your body and your mattress. Because your body is in direct contact with your bed, the heat from your body transfers to the mattress as the two systems attempt to reach equilibrium. Unlike the tea, which will gradually cool down, your body has an internal system for temperature regulation, meaning it will retain a fairly consistent temperature as long as its surroundings are cooler. As your body’s temperature remains constant, your mattress will continue to leach and trap heat unless it has systems in place, like cooling memory foam or cooling gels, to dissipate the heat properly. The heat trapped in the mattress will then radiate back and work to warm you up beyond your internal body temperature, which is why you might wake up feeling overheated and sweaty. Fortunately, there are a few materials and sleep tips that you can keep in mind for cooler sleeping.
Why Should You Be Looking For A Cooling Mattress?
In general, it is always preferable to sleep cooler than it is to sleep warmer. In fact, doctors and sleep experts recommend that the best atmospheric temperature for sleep is between 60℉ and 65℉ as this helps trigger your circadian rhythm, which is highly dependant on light and heat. If you set your thermostat low but still find yourself waking up sweaty or suffer from menopause and hot flashes, a cooling mattress might be the thing for you.
Common Cooling Mattress Materials
There are a variety of features that make a mattress fit the classification of cooling, but in general, a cooling mattress should allow for plenty of airflow and/or contain technology that actively cools you down.
We generally talk about the construction of mattresses in two categories: all foam and hybrids. There are other kinds of mattresses (air beds, and waterbeds, and feather beds… oh my!) but these kinds of beds are a bit outdated so we very rarely (if ever) come across beds that don’t fit into one of our two categories.
All-foam mattresses, as the name suggests, are comprised of various layers of foam. Foams, though a comfortable addition to any bed, commonly tend to trap heat more than they dissipate it, so the addition of cooling gels, cooling memory foams, phase change technology, special metals and other materials are all great ways for foam mattresses to stay cool.
Hybrid beds contain some sort of innerspring or coil layer, which gives the bed a bit of bounce and also increases airflow and durability. In addition to this, hybrid beds will have some sort of comfort layer, usually of foam.
No matter which kind of bed you choose, there are dozens of materials and techniques that can seriously cool you down at night. Be warned though, some beds do such a good job of cooling sleepers that they can be downright freezing. If you share a bed with a partner, especially one who runs a bit colder, try to find a happy medium between a bed that won’t trap heat but also won’t force your partner to feel the need to wear three pairs of socks to bed.
Inner Springs And Pocketed Coils
Inner springs, which are a connected system of metal coils allow for a lot of airflow. They are really supportive as well and often act as a strong base for several layers of foam. With all of the airflow that a chassis system of springs can allow, having them buried under a lot of dense foam can mean that you won’t necessarily be able to reap all the benefits of the cooling airflow if the rest of the mattress traps heat.
A newer and increasingly popular model for hybrid beds, pocketed coils are each individually siloed in a fabric casing and stitched or adhered together to the rest of the coils. This still allows for lots of airflow and also makes the coil system a bit more durable and responsive. This also limits motion transfer a bit, which can be an issue for hybrid mattresses, as the coils are able to act a bit more independently.
Opting for a bed with coils is a good choice for a lot of sleepers. Heavier individuals, especially, need a bit more support from their mattress, which coils can provide. Coils, coupled with a soft comfort layer, can make for a supportive bed that provides good pressure relief, the perfect conditions for a cooling bed for side sleepers.
Latex Foam
Made from natural materials, latex foam is a bouncy and responsive foam that is becoming increasingly popular and makes for a great alternative to cooling gel or memory foam beds. The special manufacturing process for latex foam means that is created with a lot of air and actually has a sponge-like texture. Latex does not trap heat and it is really good at allowing for airflow. It is also a fully natural and organic bedding material, which is always a perk for environmentally conscious shoppers. Latex does not actively cool you down, the way some other materials do, but it does sleep at a true neutral, meaning the temperature of the bed, most likely, will never be too hot or too cold; it’ll be juuuuuust right.
If you are interested in natural latex foam beds, check out our best latex mattress list.
Memory Foams
Standard memory foam is a notoriously bad bedding material for hot sleepers. Because memory foam is so contouring, you sleep a bit more “in” your mattress than “on” it, which means more of your body’s surface area is in contact with the bed, thus leading to more heat transferring back and forth between your body and your bed. This is also an especially dense foam, meaning it traps heat and does not allow for much airflow, which only exacerbates the issue. If you love the cushioning comfort of memory foam beds but don’t want to wake up sweaty, do not fear: there are a few companies with tricks up their sleeves that make cooling memory foam mattresses.
Gel Memory Foams
One way that companies keep memory foam cool is by infusing the foam with gels. This means that the beds are still able to have the distinctive pressure relieving feel of memory foam that so many sleepers love while also actively preventing too much heat collection.
Cool gel memory foam works by making your mattress cool to the touch and also makes the bed more porous as gel is not as dense as foam, and allows for more airflow so that heat can be drawn away from the body. Gel memory foam still has the same tendency to heat up, but because of the cooling properties of the gel, the active cooling makes the bed both comfy and colder than it would otherwise be. The perfect fit for sweaty sleepers who still want a hug from their bed.
Gel-Like Materials
These are fairly difficult to define and not all that commonly used in mattresses, but some materials have a gel-like consistency but are not quite gels. One great example of this is the hyper elastic polymer used by Purple in their mattresses, which is similar to silicone in texture. Purple’s special material is great for cooling because it is arranged in a roomy grid-pattern, which allows for lots of air flow and, having limited surface area, does not collect heat as much. Still, this material is more temperature neutral than actively cooling.
Removable And Washable Cooling Covers
The cover of your mattress can actually make a huge difference in the feeling and temperature of your bed. Some covers can trap heat so that even if your mattress is made with cooling materials, you won’t reap the benefits of the bed. You should look for a bed that either has active cooling properties or is made with incredibly breathable materials.
Phase-Change Material
Becoming an increasingly popular mattress material, phase-change technology works to cool you down in a really impressive way. Even when it is hot outside, this material pulls heat away from your body and actively cools you down. It is actually cool to the touch! When added, as a cover, to a cooling memory foam mattress, or even infused into a foam, phase-change technology will keep you downright frosty.
Celliant Technology
Another popular new technology that is commonly incorporated into mattress covers, celliant technology is really popular among athletes. It is a combination of 13 different thermo-reactive minerals which are woven into a polyester fabric. These minerals work to absorb your body heat and transform it into infrared energy, which increases blood flow and circulation and leads to faster recovery and increased energy.
Breathability
If you aren’t sure that you want to buy into any fancy new technologies, there are some natural ways that mattress covers can help prevent you from heating up at night. The key is to look for a fabric that is breathable and will not trap heat. Organic cotton and wool are both really breathable and naturally moisture-wicking, meaning you won’t be surrounded by pools of sweat at night. The breathability also means that you will be able to feel the positive effects of the layers of your mattress through the cover.
Firmer Is (Usually) Better
No matter what is inside of your mattress, the feel of the bed is also important to make sure you don’t get too hot at night. Firmer mattresses prevent you from sinking into the bed too much, therefore preventing as much heat collection. Softer beds tend to trap heat more. Stomach sleepers and back sleepers need a firmer bed in order to keep their spine properly aligned, so this should not be an issue. Cooling mattresses for side sleepers are a bit more difficult to find though, as side sleepers need a little bit more pressure relief from their mattress. Cooling gel memory foam with a pocketed coil base might be a good option for this kind of sleeper, as these mattresses offer both softness and support and should be good for cool sleeping.