Mattresses

Best mattresses for hot sleepers

These mattresses will help you keep your cool at night.
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Checked for accuracy by our qualified fact-checkers and verifiers. Find out more about fact-checking at CHOICE

Last updated: 3 Dec 2024
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Whether you live in the tropics or you’re just a sweaty sleeper, trying to get comfortable at bedtime can sometimes be a nightmare. 

We test many mattresses each year, assessing them for things like comfort, stability, sagging, comfort retention and firmness. We also test each mattress’s warmth: how warm or cool they are to sleep on. 

In previous tests, we’ve found that some supposedly ‘cool’ mattresses haven’t lived up to their names. Though we’ve found a few ‘cool’ mattresses that genuinely are cool, most mattresses tend to run medium-warm or warm, which can be an issue if you’re a hot sleeper.

The good news is that some of the mattresses coming through our labs are now actually living up to their claims, so your dreams of a cool night’s sleep could well be in reach. 

“If you run hot, or you live in a warmer climate, look for mattresses with ‘cool’ insulation in our test results. We know they can help you sleep cool because we measured them,” says CHOICE mattress expert Peter Zaluzny.

However, there are still plenty that don’t deliver on their promise. Make sure you check our reviews before buying so you don’t get hot under the collar once you realise your mattress is warmer than advertised. 

We’ll talk you through what makes for a cool mattress, and for CHOICE members, we’ll reveal the best mattresses to keep you cool at night. If you just want to see the best products, you can jump straight to the results now.

Read more:
Can these products help you get a better night’s sleep?

Why buy a cool mattress?

Just like being too cold at night, being too hot can also disturb your sleep. If you overheat, you’ll probably spend the night tossing and turning, and wake up feeling tired. 

While you can adjust your bedroom temperature and bed linen, sometimes that’s just not enough. Buying a mattress that helps keep your body temperature lower is another way you can tweak your sleeping environment to help you rest better. 

“Mattress manufacturers often make claims about the warming or cooling capabilities of their products, but our tests found that it can be just marketing speak,” says Peter. 

However, we’re now seeing mattresses that actually do deliver a cooler surface temperature. We don’t report on manufacturers’ marketing claims, just the actual data, so when we say a mattress is cool, you can be sure that it really is. 

What makes a mattress cool or warm?

Mattress manufacturers aren’t always forthcoming about how their mattresses deliver a cool night’s sleep, using vague terms like ‘cooling gel’ and references to air flow. So it can be hard for the average consumer to determine whether a ‘cool’ mattress will live up to the hype. 

Mattresses come in a range of different constructions and materials. Depending on who you speak to, you might think that a latex mattress is best, or that a spring mattress will breathe better. 

Latex, foam and spring mattresses alike can be measured as cool … So buying based on the mattress construction alone won’t guarantee you a cooler sleep

When we test the coolness of each mattress we find that cool mattresses come in a range of different configurations – latex, foam and spring mattresses alike can be measured as cool. So, unfortunately, buying based on the mattress construction alone won’t guarantee you a cooler sleep. 

But if you check our reviews before you buy you can make sure you’re buying a mattress that will actually help keep you cool. You can also sort by price, construction and tested firmness. 

Read more:
Best mattresses under $500

The coolest mattresses in our tests

We recommend mattresses with a CHOICE Expert Rating of 75% or more (although mattresses that score between 70% and 75% are still worth considering). 

Only CHOICE members can access our detailed mattress testing data. If you’re not yet a member, join CHOICE to get instant access to all of our expert, independent reviews across a range of products and services, from fridges and vacuum cleaners to car, home and health insurance.

Or log in to unlock this article to find out which mattresses will help keep you cool at night. 

Alice

I'm a content creator and marketer here at CHOICE – which basically just means that I write stuff. CHOICE's testing is so comprehensive that we publish vast amounts of data on all the products we test. We know that not everyone likes to wade through numbers to find the best product, so my job is to take the data and translate it into something more easily digestible for readers who are time-poor or just want to know the best products to buy – and which to avoid. I also get to dream up fun ways of taste-testing products, like the Tim Tam challenge and the Democracy Sausage taste test. I write about all kinds of things, from health insurance to heaters and BBQs to bargain-hunting, so each day is different and I'm lucky that I get to learn about all the different things CHOICE does to help consumers.

I'm a content creator and marketer here at CHOICE – which basically just means that I write stuff. CHOICE's testing is so comprehensive that we publish vast amounts of data on all the products we test. We know that not everyone likes to wade through numbers to find the best product, so my job is to take the data and translate it into something more easily digestible for readers who are time-poor or just want to know the best products to buy – and which to avoid. I also get to dream up fun ways of taste-testing products, like the Tim Tam challenge and the Democracy Sausage taste test. I write about all kinds of things, from health insurance to heaters and BBQs to bargain-hunting, so each day is different and I'm lucky that I get to learn about all the different things CHOICE does to help consumers.

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