If you’ve ever tossed and turned as sweat trickled down your back and brow, you can likely stand in unity with the following: Heat is the worst. It ruins your REM and slow-wave sleep (those responsible for dreaming and helping you wake feeling rested). It wildly increases the amount of time it takes to go to sleep. And, it is responsible for plucking you from your slumber and thrusting you into the cold, hard consciousness of this world. An alternative: Thrust yourself into a cold, (fill-in-the-blank firmness) mattress with the addition of new bed-tech that cools your bed on demand and sends you into a deep, restorative slumber.
More and more research seems to validate that staying cool is a cornerstone of good sleep, and sleep is a cornerstone of, well, everything else. It’s how our bodies recover from intense fitness routines and how we keep our brains sharp. Enter the mattress cooling pad revolution, which keeps your bed between a cool 55°F and 115°F depending on the model that you acquire. We put them to the test to see if they were able to affect our slumber and impact our Z’s in a meaningful way.
The Best Cooling Mattress Covers
The Top-of-the-Line Cooling Mattress Cover: Eight Sleep Pod 4
When we tested the latest from Eight Sleep, we expected a lot. After all, the brand is hailed by athletes, Silicon Valley elites, and those in the know—you know? The experience delivered. The reconfigured cooling system disappears on your bed, yet somehow enables double cooling power to drop temperatures to 55°F. “Everything on the new system was well thought-out,” says Ali Finney, associate commerce director at GQ. “You can control the bed by tapping it—rather than via an app, like the previous version—it operates completely silently, and it has sensors integrated into the topper that help it go on autopilot and adjust coolness settings throughout the night to optimize your sleep.”
SleepMe’s Chilipad Dock Pro provides a near-equal experience to the Eight Sleep at a much cheaper price point. It uses a thermal-based, water-cooling grid technology, and fits nicely on top of your mattress and underneath your standard top sheet, dropping temps to 55°F and raising them to 115°F. “People seem to be cognizant about having too many apps for too many devices. The nice thing about the Dock Pro is that you don’t need your phone, or Wi-Fi, to operate any of it,” says GQ contributor Katarina Kovac. “On the actual device, there’s a screen, an up and down button to regulate temperatures, and a power button to turn it on and off.” That means that it doesn’t naturally adjust to your body’s unique needs and insights throughout the night, but if you can live without that (and just want a cool bed) this is a great alternative. “The gradual cooling feels luxurious, and I don’t need to crank my AC to lower temps to compensate for the heat this summer, which has been a nice change.”
The Best Budget Cooling Mattress Cover: Bed Jet
Mattress-cooling technologies are often fairly pricey, so it’s nice to have a cost-effective option that still does the job. We weren’t sure what to expect when testing an air-based system rather than water-based system, but this option delivered. The unit comes with a 100% cotton “cloud sheet” that connects to the air chamber, allowing air to diffuse gently on your body through the sheet rather than directly on you. Temperatures for this unit range from 66°F to 104°F, and increase or decrease quite quickly in comparison to other water-based units. “The unit itself is so easy to use and feels like a light breeze just above my sheets,” Kovac says. “Softer than a fan on full blast in the corner of my room, but more direct via the temperature controls, the ability to change the location of where the air came from was key. I moved mine to the bottom of my bed, which provided perfect airflow.”
If your sleep is compromised enough that you’re looking to change it this very minute (if not sooner), then rest assured, we’ve got you covered. With Amazon Prime shipping, the AquaPad can be at your doorstep overnight, and though it doesn’t have quite the oomph that some of the other options do, it’s still powerful enough to ensure that you stay cool throughout your slumber. Choose from three cooling capabilities depending on how hot you sleep, and easily adjust with a fairly manual remote. We didn’t get to test this one IRL, but reviewers like that it’s quiet and does the job of the AC without needing to crank down the AC at night.
FAQs
Why You Should Care About Temperature When You Sleep
Research notes that most people sleep best at temperatures between 68°F and 77°F. Our bodies should be cooler to help us get to sleep and then quickly drop into deep sleep, and as we get closer to the time our bodies naturally wake, our body temperature should gradually increase, signaling to our systems that it’s time to start the day. These temperature shifts support our body’s natural circadian rhythms that power the sleep system as a whole. When your room is hot and humid in the summer, it can be hard for your body to regulate temperature—and thus, sleep itself becomes a challenge. The beauty of a cooling mattress pad or air system is it helps directly shift the temperature of your body via controlled cooling and heating technology, promoting a more fluid sleep experience during hotter months.
As colder temperatures are directly related to our bodies going into sleep mode, there are a few ways to help aid this process rather than (or in addition to) purchasing a cooling mattress cover or air system. Blackout shades or curtains over windows in the bedroom can keep light and heat out during the summer, and are a relatively inexpensive option. Cooling sheets can also help do the job if you’re not ready to invest yet in pricy cooling bed tech, as could a trusty cooling fan or two, like this one from Dyson. The type of mattress you sleep on has an impact on overall temperature as well; some foams absorb heat away from your body and into the materials throughout the bed, while others have open-celled foam or latex layers that create better airflow.
At price points of $2,499 for the Eight Sleep, $1,049 for the Chilipad Dock Pro, $429 for the BedJet and $269 for the AquaPad Breeze, there’s an option for everyone. We think that cooling bed tech is a worthy investment if you sleep hot and want to better your Z’s. Sure, you could try starting off with sheets or a fan, but if you’re fairly sure that you’re hot-natured, then jumping straight to bed tech could pay off in the long run.
As for which to buy: If you have a bigger budget and want a cooling cover that’s water-based, utilizes high tech sleep tracking technology, and connects to an app on your phone for utmost utilization, get the Eight Sleep. If budget’s a concern, but you still want the technology of a water-based mattress cover and you prefer to be able to use it on airplane mode rather than have it connect to Wi-Fi 24/7, get the Chilipad Dock Pro. If you want to dip your toe into the world of cooling sleep technology, but don’t love the idea of sleeping on a pad with a grid pumping water through it, opt for the BedJet.
