Every summer the high temperatures and heat waves cause us to use water, fans, showers, swimming pools, and various habits to cool off.
Although there is a moment throughout the day that is precisely difficult, bedtime, when our bedroom is an oven, and we cannot fall asleep easily.
That’s why today, I’ll talk about the best hot mattress solutions for every situation and budget!
Maybe with some of them, you will finally get a good rest on the hottest nights.
Contents
The Best 10 Hot Mattress Solutions
1. Buy the right type of mattress
The best mattress types to keep you cool are:
- Latex. Drive out heat and moisture.
- Innerspring. It has a lot of space for air to flow through the coils.
- Hybrid. Allows airflow through the bed and tends to be very comfortable.
- Bamboo. A very breathable and soft type of mattress.
Avoid memory foam mattresses as they tend to trap your body heat.
2. Cool down your mattress by changing your sheet material
As with thick curtains, wool rugs, and the like, summer is the time to forget about flannel or synthetic sheets.
You can cool down your mattress by using cooling sheets made of one of the next materials:
- Cotton. Absorbs sweat well and cools the skin.
- Bamboo. Soft, breathable, and cooler to the touch.
- Tencel. Good at absorbing moisture
3. Use a cooling pad
From my own experience, I can tell you that cooling mattress toppers work only for about 20 minutes.
After 20 minutes the cooling topper is getting heated by your body temperature.
For me, it’s fine because the cool gel of the mattress makes it possible for me to fall asleep in less than 20 minutes.
The average person falls asleep within 15 minutes. Therefore, for most people, using cooling toppers is an effective solution.
4. Ditch your blanket.
One thing that I’m guilty of, myself, is having a special blanket that I take on whenever I sleep, whether it’s cold or warm.
Well, if you do that too, and you’re facing the issue of a hot mattress, I believe it’s time to let go.
Sleeping with a blanket in the summer can make the mattress feel warmer than they are.
As a result, you feel restless and can’t fall asleep.
However, some people might need a blanket to sleep in the first place.
If you don’t feel safe without a blanket, you can use a comforter made of less thick fabric material, such as a blanket made of thin layers of cotton or bamboo.
Avoid using blankets made of polyester as it traps your body heat.
5. Use a bed-cooling system
BedJet 3
BedJet 3 cools the bed by using cool air.
It comes with special sheets that get filled with the cold air coming from the system.
The cold air is spread evenly over your body.
It’s very easy to install (less than 1 minute), and it works with any bed size.
It can both heat and cool – you can set the temperature from 66 (19 degrees Celsius) degrees Fahrenheit to 109 degrees Fahrenheit (43 degrees Celsius).
The cooling program can work up to 12 hours before automatically shutting off.
You can set it to cool only one side of the bed or both sides of the bed. Which in my opinion, it is the biggest advantage over air conditioning.
You can create custom programs.
For example, set it to start at a cool air program so you will be able to fall asleep, and during the night to automatically switch to dry air (in case cold during the night makes your muscles tight).
Take into account that on a high-speed program it might noise a little bit.
Also, it’s not that effective in areas where the temperature is 77 degrees fahrenheit (35 degrees Celsius) or above.
The reason is that it takes cold air from underneath your bed and uses it to cool down the sheets.
If the temperature is above 77 degrees fahrenheit, there is not much cold air to use.
Price: $399 for a single bed, $929 for a queen-size bed.
Chilisleep
It’s a mattress pad using temperature-adjusted water to cool or warm you during the night.
You put the mattress pad under your sheets and connect the pad to a series of small tubes which connect from the other end to the system.
Then, you put water in the water tank and set the degree you want (anywhere from 55 to 115 degrees Fahrenheit).
It’s recommended to turn it on 30 minutes before going to bed, so when it’s bedtime, your bed is already cold.
The circulation of the water and the fan of the system creates a little bit of a white noise, which some people (like me) love to sleep with, and some others not so much.
You can set a different temperature for each side of the bed.
They claim that their product reduces night sweats by 25% and reduces the risk to wake up in the middle of the night due to discomfort or pain by 36%.
Since this cooling machine doesn’t have a timer to turn it off automatically, Katie Type A recommends buying a cheap timer from Amazon, like this one.
Make sure that the volt of the timer is good in your country before purchasing.
Price: $550
6. Use a bed frame that allows air circulation
A bed frame with slats at the base, allows air to come in contact with the mattress.
If your bed frame is flat solid plywood at the base or if you put the mattress right on the floor, there is no air circulation.
Therefore, the heat is trapped inside the mattress.
Allowing your mattress to sit at a relatively high level while at the same time receiving cool air from below is one of the simplest yet most effective hot mattress solutions.
7. Freeze the sheets
This trick, combined with other, more permanent hot mattress solutions, can do wonders!
Place the sheets in the freezer inside a bag shortly before going to bed.
Then place them on the bed, and you will see how relieved you feel when you lie down on them.
It won’t last all night, but they will help you fall asleep.
However, you should never go to bed with wet pajamas, nor should the sheets be too wet, as this will cause the clothes to transmit cold and moisture to the body, which can cause illnesses such as severe colds.
In addition, the mattress can get wet and accumulate moisture.
8. Apply the Egyptian method
Have you ever heard of the Egyptian method?
The Egyptian method consists of wetting a large towel or sheet and covering yourself with it as if it were a blanket.
Although in the case of both frozen and wet sheets, it is best to place a thick towel over the mattress to avoid getting it wet.
9. Control humidity
When it comes to overlooked hot mattress solutions, this one is surely among the first.
However, humidity plays a huge role in how we perceive temperature.
If the room is very humid, the heat will be unbearable, so it may be time to buy or connect a dehumidifier.
Such a device will help you keep your house dry and the atmosphere less humid in winter and help you feel less hot in summer.
10. Take advantage of cross ventilation
Placing the fan in front of an open window will create refreshing cross-ventilation, as the wind from outside and the air from the fan will combine to result in a cool breeze that floods your room and your bed.
If you have any extra fans, direct them toward the bed.
What Else Can You Do if Your Mattress is Too Hot?
The tricks listed below might not have the same impact as the hot mattress solutions listed above, but every bit counts when it comes to having a good night’s sleep. Try these:
- A trick to refresh the mattress is to put the sheets to cool during the day in the coolest room and make the bed just before sleeping. It also helps to remove clothes, such as mattress protectors or if you do not want to remove them, you can put lighter fabric ones.
- Not quite like the hot mattress solutions listed above, but just as important: You should also know when buying a mattress that it should be aired from time to time. You can leave it on the balcony or terrace for a few hours, in the shade, and always when it is not sunny so that it does not accumulate heat. Then shake it a little so that it eliminates the mites that accumulate.
- Keep windows and blinds closed during the day to prevent the room from heating up. Although it may seem overwhelming, it is the way to keep the heat out and invade everything. In the evening you can open the windows a little and raise the blinds to let the cool air in.
Is Memory Foam Hot to Sleep On?
Memory foam mattresses trap body heat instead of wicking it away.
They are dense, therefore it’s hard for air to circulate.
Also, many memory foam mattresses are soft, which makes you sink, so the mattress “hugs” you, which makes you feel warmer.
The new technology of foam mattresses allows better air circulation than the old memory foam mattresses.
Therefore, if you go for a memory foam mattress, go for a mattress with open-cell technology and gel infusion.
Does a Mattress Cover Make the Bed Hotter?
Mattress protectors need to protect the mattress from sweat and stains.
Therefore, they have to be waterproof.
This is why some mattress protectors contain plastic materials.
The plastic barrier blocks the air circulation between you and your bed.
Therefore your body heat is trapped instead of being wicked away, which makes you feel hot.
You can go for protectors made of cotton or bamboo to improve the air circulation between you and the bed.
Is there a cooling mattress pad?
A mattress pad is an extra thin layer that sits on top of the sheets and adds extra protection for the mattress, and can change for good and bad the feeling of lying on the mattress.
Some of those pads can make you feel hotter or cooler.
To use the mattress pad to cool yourself, use one made of cotton, wool, eucalyptus, or bamboo.
Some of the mattress pad contains a cooling gel which cools you when you lay down to sleep, but I wouldn’t count on it to keep you cool during the whole night by itself.
What is the Best Type of Mattress for Hot Sleepers?
Cooling mattresses are not magic pillows.
They can’t change a physiological process in your body that makes you hot at night, and they can’t change the environment temperature, etc.
Cooling mattresses can make the night heat more tolerable, especially at the first 20 minutes you lay on them, by drawing away heat from your body.
Different cooling mattresses using different cooling technology. For example:
- Cooling gel
- Breathing materials
- Cold air
Many advertisers tag their beds as cooling beds while they are not.
Make sure the mattress you buy has a trial period of at least 30 days, so you won’t be stuck with a mattress that doesn’t solve your issue.
As mentioned, soft mattresses tend to feel warmer as they “hug” you while sinking into them, trapping your body heat.
The best mattress types to keep you cool are latex, innerspring, bamboo, and hybrid.
Conclusion
Whether it’s the arrival of summer, and with it comes the dreaded and suffocating heat; or the heat trapped in your body, we all have that one night (or many) when we can’t sleep because it’s too hot.
One of the worst moments of the day is when it ends, that is, at night, when we try to sleep and rest, and the heat prevents us from doing so.
But we must not despair!
Do you have your own hot mattress solutions? Have you tried any of the solutions listed above? Let us know!
Thank you for reading!
