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Best Cooling Mattress for Hot Sleepers in 2022

If you know the struggle of being a hot sleeper, check out these cooling beds that help regulate temperature for better sleep.

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Few things are more miserable than trying to get a good night's sleep when you get overly hot. Tossing and turning when you can't keep cool can feel torturous. Sure, you can always turn on your AC, but that can cause problems if other family members aren't hot sleepers. Instead, investing in a cooling mattress might be the best alternative to help you keep your cool and rest well. 

A cooling mattress can keep your body temperature neutral to protect you from night sweats. However, watch out for false marketing language. Unfortunately, false advertising is common when it comes to selling a "cooling bed". Some are just a cooling mattress topper or mattress pad with cooling gel and aren't enough for hot sleepers. It can be hard to know if a mattress is actually going to help you feel cooler.

There's also a big difference between a bed that won't retain heat and a bed that actively tries to provide cooling relief. If you're looking for maximum temperature regulation relief and overall cooler sleep, it's important to be wary of certain marketing language. However, there are unicorn mattresses that physically feel cold or have breathable designs (or both), making them ideal for hot sleepers who want the best cooling mattress they can find.

I've seen all the types of ways mattress brands try to incorporate cooling technology into their beds, and some work better than others. After testing more than 100 different mattresses, I know what's what when it comes to the best cooling mattress models and I know which beds have "cooling properties" that probably won't live up to the hype. Below I've listed the best cooling mattress options you can sleep on, from beds that are made of cooling material like gel-infused foam that is literally cold to the touch to ones that allow maximum airflow to minimize heat retention. 

All prices are for nonsale queen-size models, and will vary with sales.

Purple

Type: Hybrid mattress
Firmness: 7 or medium-firm 
Trial: 100 nights 
Warranty: 10-year warranty
Price (queen): $2,399    

Are you up for a mattress unlike anything you've slept on before? The people at Purple found a way to revolutionize the traditional mattress design into something much more durable, supportive and breathable. The Purple Hybrid 2 incorporates the brand's one-of-a-kind Hyper-Elastic Polymer and pocketed coils into a 12-inch mattress that naturally regulates temperature like no other mattress. It was a no-brainer pick for my best cooling mattress list.

The top layer is a squishy, soft, gridlike material that's unique to the Purple brand. The square spaces offer up a ton of airflow, while the pocketed coils also allow air to pass through for more breathability. The Purple cooling mattress won't feel cold to the touch like the GhostBed Luxe or TempurAdapt, but its temperature-regulating cooling technology abilities are almost unmatched. 

I think it feels medium-firm, or around a seven out of 10 on the firmness scale. This Purple mattress is best for back and stomach sleepers, but I think it would also work for side sleepers if they weigh over 230 pounds. If you want something a tad softer, you can also check out the Purple Hybrid Premier mattresses. 

Feel-wise, the Purple hybrid mattress is bouncy and springs back to its normal shape right when you release pressure. At the same time, it makes you feel weightless and takes pressure off common pain points like your hips and shoulders. The Purple Hybrid is perfect for all body types thanks to its supportive hybrid design. Read more in our full Purple Hybrid mattress review

Brooklyn Bedding

Type: Hybrid mattress
Firmness: 3 firmness levels | Soft: Medium-soft or 3 | Medium: Medium or 5 | Firm: Medium-firm or 7
Trial: 120 nights
Warranty: 10-year warranty
Price (queen): $1,874

If you're a hot sleeper who favors your side during the night, you need to find a bed that checks two boxes: It should be soft enough to relieve pressure points, and it should contain some kind of temperature-regulating abilities. That's why the Aurora bed made my list for the best cooling mattress. 

The Aurora is about 12.5 inches thick and is stacked with five different layers. The foundation is a hefty 8-inch system of pocketed coils, and the top comfort layer is made with Brooklyn Bedding's special CopperFlex foam. It's supposed to help absorb your body heat and draw it away from you. The real cooling power, I believe, comes from its cooling Euro-top cover. It's plush, fluffy and, like the one on GhostBed Luxe, it physically feels cold when you touch it. 

The company says it'll bring your body temperature down to 88 degrees. I'm not sure how true and consistent that is for every sleeper, but the mattress does effectively help you sleep cooler and more comfortably during the night. The Aurora mattress is available in three different firmness profiles, two of which are plush. Petite side sleepers who want an extra soft mattress should consider the soft option; lightweight to average-weighted side sleepers will be just fine on the medium model. 

This mattress feels pressure-relieving like memory foam, but much bouncier and more breathable. And keep in mind, the softer the mattress model, the more you'll sink into it. But you definitely don't get that deep hugging feel that the memory foam mattress type can give you.

GhostBed

Type: Memory foam mattress
Firmness: 5 or medium
Trial: 100 nights
Warranty: 25-year warranty
Price (queen): $2,395

When you sleep next to someone else, especially another hot sleeper or a big fluffy animal, you're more likely to warm up, due to the added body heat. GhostBed Luxe is a great cooling mattress for couples (or wookiee owners) because it offers a medium profile around a five on the firmness scale that accommodates all different sleeping positions. That means you and your significant other can sleep in different positions (combination and side, for example) and still be perfectly comfortable. 

I typically sleep on my stomach, while my partner sleeps on his side, and GhostBed Luxe offers an ideal harmony between pressure relief and support. It has an all-foam construction, but its extra-thick 13-inch construction makes it a more supportive foam mattress than many of the other options out there, like the Nectar mattress and Casper Original. 

One of the best parts about this bed is its cooling tech. The cover is infused with half an inch of cooling fiber, which makes the bed feel cold when you lie down. Seriously, right away you can tell GhostBed Luxe is designed to be cool. 

GhostBed also added a layer of "Ghost Ice" cooling technology on top of the memory foam layer. This comfort layer is supposed to absorb your body heat and disperse it evenly throughout the bed. Memory foam beds have been called out before for retaining heat, but the GhostBed Luxe absolutely isn't guilty of that. 

The brand says it's the coolest bed in the world. That's an assertion I'm not fully prepared to back, but I can say it's a seriously cooling mattress, and one of the coolest I've ever tested. 

Cocoon by Sealy

Type: Memory foam mattress
Firmness: Medium to medium-firm or 6
Trial: 100 nights
Warranty: 10-year warranty
Price (queen): $1,239

Some hot sleepers don't want to drop more than $1,500 on a new mattress. Luckily there are budget-friendly options that are effective at keeping your body temperature down while you sleep. Cocoon Chill comes in either a 12-inch hybrid or 10-inch all-foam model, but I recommend the hybrid, since it promotes more airflow than the foam Cocoon Chill. 

Regardless of the construction you go with, these memory foam beds will come fitted with a phase-change cooling cover. Right when you lay on the top of the bed you can feel its cooling relief against your backside. It's effective, considering how much you're paying for this mattress.

I'd rate it somewhere between medium and medium-firm, or around a six out of 10 on the firmness scale. I don't get a ton of pressure relief when I sleep on my side, but the memory foam does help bring a more contouring, hugging feel. That said, this bed is best for back and stomach sleepers, combination sleepers and some side sleepers. Most people will be happy with this bed, just as long as you don't want a plush mattress. 

TempurPedic

Type: Memory foam hybrid mattress
Firmness: 6 or medium to medium-firm
Trial: 90 nights 
Warranty: 10-year limited warranty
Price (queen): $2,399

We just went over the best budget cooling mattress, so it's only right I also give you a luxury-tier option. TempurPedic is a household name and one of the most popular bedding brands in the world. The TempurAdapt line includes three mattresses that are equipped with cooling covers. 

My favorite is the ProAdapt, because you can choose from three foam mattress firmness levels, meaning you can properly accommodate your sleeper type, and the mattress is amazingly cool. You can also choose whether you want a hybrid or foam construction, allowing you to choose how supportive you want your TempurPedic mattress to be. 

The cover feels icy and the memory foam inside doesn't retain heat like the old TempurPedic mattresses from back in the day did. The brand also offers Breeze model cooling beds, but they're super expensive. I think you can get cooling relief with this mattress while saving money by choosing this mattress type over TempurPedic's premium models. 

You can even go with the base TempurAdapt model to save the most money. It offers a cooling cover with the same dense memory-foam feel as the other beds, which hug your body as you sink into the layers, but it's more affordable. Read more about this bed in our TempurPedic mattress review. The ProAdapt is the company's most popular model. 

Avocado Green/Melissa Kruse

Type: Latex Hybrid
Firmness: 7 or medium-firm with the pillow top (9 or firm without)
Trial: 365 nights 
Warranty: 25-year limited warranty
Price (queen): $2,099 (with the pillow top) $1,599 without

Hybrid mattresses with a medium-firm profile are ideal for back pain because they provide ample support to keep your spine in alignment with your neck and keep your lower back from sagging into the mattress. At the same time, they aren't so firm so you don't get the pressure relief you may be looking for. The Avocado Green mattress checks a lot of boxes for back pain sufferers who want a breathable mattress, and it comes with a ton of eco-friendly benefits. 

It's made with recycled steel pocketed coils which provide a bulk of the bed's support, and the comfort materials are all certified organic cotton, wool and latex. This makes it great for environmentally concerned shoppers who want a safe and sustainable place to sleep. Latex foam is designed with small holes throughout the material, and as a result, it allows for great airflow throughout the bed. Not only that, but latex foam doesn't retain heat like memory or polyfoam might. As an added plus, organic latex is hypoallergenic and antimicrobial, so it will help prevent nasty household allergens from making a home out of your bed. 

With the built-in pillow top, the Avocado Green mattress comes out to be around a medium-firm, or a 7 on the firmness scale. This will help promote proper spinal alignment for back, stomach and combination sleepers who suffer from back pain. It's one of the handful of beds endorsed by the American Chiropractic Association. Read more in our full Avocado Green mattress review

Other mattresses we've tested

Our CNET Sleep editors have hundreds of mattress testing hours under their resume, enabling them to know the beds that shine and the beds that are a snooze. With so many to test and so few spots on our list, we aren't able to showcase every quality cooling mattress. However, we do want to give a few more beds the honorable mention they deserve. 

Purple Mattress: The original Purple mattress is very similar to the Purple Hybrid in that it uses the same Hyper-Elastic Gel Polymer grid in the comfort layer. This grid opens up a ton of air pockets, and it's one of the best materials for not retaining heat. It's just a bit more affordable than the Purple Hybrid because it's made with a foam foundation layer instead of pocketed coils. It's still very comfortable, though, and is rated around a medium or 5 out of 10 on the firmness scale. 

Loom & Leaf mattress: With two firmness levels that sit toward the firm end of the spectrum (medium-firm and firm) and a special cooling gel layer, Loom & Leaf is a great mattress to help with temperature regulation. You sit more on top of the mattress rather than inside, and the cooling gel is actually effective. It's also from the luxury online mattress brand Saatva, so you know you'll be getting a great, quality product. 

WinkBeds EcoCloud mattress: The WinkBeds EcoCloud is cooling like the Avocado mattress is cooling. There is no technology working to help cool you, but WinkBeds is made with a breathable, non heat-retaining latex foam material and pocketed coils. This allows for increased airflow, breathability and comfort. Not to mention, latex beds are hypoallergenic and antimicrobial. The WinkBeds EcoCloud is softer than the Avocado mattress, falling around a medium instead of medium-firm/firm. 

How we test

CNET editors pick the products and services we write about based on editorial merit. When you buy through our links, we may get a commission. Read more on how we test mattresses.

Cooling mattress FAQs

What mattress types sleep cool at night?

Latex foam and Purple's Hyper-Elastic Polymer are the most breathable mattress materials. However, some beds come with cooling covers that make a bed physically cool to the touch. Memory foam, on the other hand, is known for retaining heat, so avoid that if cool sleeping is what you're after. The exception would be if it has a special temperature regulating technology like copper or gel-infused foam, or phase-change material. 

Do cooling mattresses really work?

There are a handful of cooling mattresses on the market like GhostBed Luxe, Purple Hybrid, Brooklyn Bedding Aurora and others that actually sleep as cool as they claim to. However, many beds that are marketed as "cooling" might not live up to your expectations. Keep a lookout for phase-changing materials, cooling covers and special cooling tech that goes the extra mile to keep you cool. 

More mattress advice

The information contained in this article is for educational and informational purposes only and is not intended as health or medical advice. Always consult a physician or other qualified health provider regarding any questions you may have about a medical condition or health objectives.