Best Mattress for Hot Sleepers

If you tend to wake up soaked in sweat and feeling sticky then you might be a hot sleeper. This can affect the quality of your sleep and your life in general.

Good sleep is crucial to productivity and optimum health and sleeping hot can, unfortunately, ruin sleeping patterns and cause you to wake up frequently during the night.

Sleeping hot can be the result of the weather, room temperature, body temperature, number of people sharing the bed, type of materials used in the construction of the mattress, hormonal changes, health conditions, medications, and other reasons.

This is why you need to make the mattress you choose doesn’t contribute to sleeping hot. Last updated Mar 10, 2022 @ 5:54 pm

 

 

Sleeping Hot – Why It Happens

While sleeping warm can be good especially for cold nights, sleeping too hot though is not so pleasant.

There is a scientific explanation on why we sleep hot at times. Some people are naturally hot sleepers while some could just be affected by some external or environmental factors .

1. Internal Factors

Your Wake and Sleep cycle

It is interesting to note that the body’s circadian rhythm dictates our wake and sleep cycle with the use of body temperature. The body temperature typically rises and falls throughout the day.

It will rise to signal the wake cycle or when the mind and body are fully alert and active. When the body temperature drops at night, it signals that it’s time to go to sleep.

When you are in Rapid Eye Movement (REM) phase of sleep, your brain switches off and stops regulating your body’s temperature. That’s when the room temperature dictates how cool or hot you feel.

Lowering skin and body temperature helps start a good night’s sleep. The cooling effect of a shower or cooling pajamas can can also help you lower body temperature and set the stage for sleep.

Personal Preferences

How hot (or cool) your body naturally feels depends a lot on personal preference. Some sleepers prefer to have a warm bed at night, while others may naturally feel hot at night and like to sleep in a cooler room or bed.

2. External Factors

Weather Conditions

Heat waves or extreme heat due to weather conditions can also affect your body temperature when sleeping. When the temperature is high, you tend to be restless while sleeping and this shortens the hours that your body is supposed to be at rest and regenerating itself.

Proper air conditioning in the bedroom in such case is crucial for better and longer sleep. While it is advisable to sleep cool, extreme cold can also interfere with your sleep.

Mattress and Bedding

The mattress and bedding can sleep hot due to their structure and materials used in their construction. That’s why it is important to choose a mattress and bedding that are breathable and that don’t retain heat.

The level of firmness of your mattress can also have an impact on how cool you will sleep at night. Softer mattresses allow sleepers to sink into them quite a bit which can make them feel stuck and hot.

This is especially the case with the lower quality memory foam mattresses. Firmer mattresses, on the other hand, will lift your body weight and distribute it evenly across the bed so you won’t feel enveloped by the mattress and you won’t feel hot.

What to Do When You Sleep Hot?

There are certain ways that can help you sleep cooler at night such as:

1. Wearing Light and Breathable Sleeping Clothes

Pay attention to what you are wearing when going to bed. To avoid sleeping hot, you should pick light and breathable clothes that won’t stick to your skin and make you sweat and feel uncomfortable.

The best fabrics for sleeping cool would be:

• Cotton – Natural, soft, lightweight, and breathable.
• Silk – The best fabric when it comes to regulating your body temperature so you won’t get too hot or too cold.
• Flannel – Breathable and warm without making you feel overheated, but not advisable in summer.
• Bamboo – Great natural moisture-wicking material. It’s soft, silky, and a 100% biodegradable.

The design of your sleepwear is also important. It shouldn’t be too loose or too tight or have buttons, snaps, and tags which can irritate your skin during sleep.

2. Breathable Sheets

Like mentioned before, breathability of your mattress and bedding is very important. Breathable sheets will draw the heat away from your body and keep the sleeping surface cool and comfortable.

The best sheets are ones that do not trap heat or moisture. The ideal material for your sheets would be 100% cotton or bamboo.

3. Lightweight Covers

Covers that are lightweight and natural like wool or bamboo are highly recommended as they’re more breathable.

4. Material / Type of a Mattress

• Memory foam has the ability to conform to your curves, but can often trap heat around your body. Plant-based memory foam and gel-infused memory foam sleep cooler than the traditional one, as do other infused types of foams including copper and graphite infused foams.
• Latex also conforms to your body curves but it is bouncy and responsive which prevents you from sinking too much into the bed and feel enveloped and hot. Natural latex sleeps much cooler as compared to its synthetic counterparts due to its naturally cooling properties.
• Innerspring (coil) mattresses have open structure and are very breathable. They allow air to circulate around the coils so they generally sleep cool.

Our Top 3 Choices for Mattresses that Sleep Cool

Here are our top picks for the best mattresses for hot sleepers:

1. Layla Sleep

($849 for a Queen size, click here and save $150 on a Layla! )

Layla is a unique mattress that takes cooling to the next level with copper-infused foam. Unlike other mattresses, which might put cooling gel or copper infused foam in the bed itself, Layla comes with the copper-infused cover.

This innovative use of copper provides a few different benefits. The first and most obvious is that it makes the mattress sleep cooler. Copper is an excellent conductor, so it will carry away your body heat and allow it to dissipate faster.

The second benefit, according to the mattress company, is that copper can help reduce joint pain in those suffering from arthritis and other similar ailments.

In addition, copper may help promote blood circulation, which not only helps oxygen move throughout the body, but it can also serve to relieve pain.

Another benefit of the copper that people seem to appreciate is how cool it feels. Together with the cooling gel, the copper-infused comfort layer keeps people from sweating. Even those who tend to sleep hot naturally report that they are no longer waking up over-heated in the middle of the night.

The Layla is a double-sided mattress. People love that they essentially have two sleeping surfaces for the price of one, and many people find the mattress to be a great value in general.

It is indeed much less expensive than traditional memory foam beds, and it offers much more. Rather than having to deal with only one level of firmness, you have the option of “soft” (a 5-6 out of 10, 10 being the firmest) or “firm” (an 8) by simply flipping the mattress over.

All in all, the Layla is a great mattress for ensuring a cool night’s sleep and one of our top picks overall.

Get the full Layla mattress review.

2. Loom & Leaf

($1299 for a Queen.Click here for the best price on a Loom & Leaf.)

The Loom and Leaf is a premium memory 12″ memory foam model that is made up of multiple layers of high quality foam with medical grade cooling gel. Despite being all-foam, it does not sleep hot at all due to the top cover layer being gel-infused.

The Loom and Leaf is popular because it helps promote deep and rejuvenating sleep. It offers features found in much more expensive mattresses, at a fraction of the price.

The Loom and Leaf has two firmness options, a Relaxed Firm and Firm model, and is super plush and comfortable to sleep on. It does a really good job at providing support while hugging your body’s curves nicely, as expected from an all-foam model, without sleeping hot.

The Loom and Leaf is one of our top rated models, and an excellent choice for a memory foam model that sleeps cool as well.

Get the full Loom and Leaf review.

3. Avocado Green

($1399 for a Queen mattress. Click here to get $175 off the Avocado Mattress, use code: AVOMFT!)

Going green is the better choice when it comes to shopping for your next cooling mattress. Avocado offers a hybrid that uses only eco-friendly and green ingredients. 

All natural latex together with a pocketed coil system is one of the best combos a mattress can have when it comes to sleeping cool. The Avocado Green mattress offers a blend of eco-conscious, natural, and organic ingredients to make a one of a kind hybrid mattress.

For those that are sensitive to off-gassing or suffer from airborne allergies, having an all-natural mattress is a must. Avocado has that covered by using wool, organic cotton, and all-natural latex. Additionally, the mattress now comes with pillow top that is permanently attached with 2 more inches of plush organic latex for added pressure relief and luxury. 

Avocado’s mattress is rated medium-firm, which is a 6 out of 10 in terms of firmness, 10 being the firmest. This level of firmness is supposed to provide a good amount of back pain relief and it exactly does that. It is perfect for back sleepers and most side sleepers should find it comfortable as well.

This bed sleeps cool due to the latex and coil construction which inherently prevents heat buildup. If you are looking for an eco-friendly latex-hybrid, this is a great option at a competitive price point for the materials used.

Get the full Avocado mattress review.