If you’ve ever kicked the covers off at 2 a.m., flipped your pillow over, looking for the cool side, or laid there wide awake while your partner sleeps peacefully next to you, you already know how much a hot mattress can wreck a night’s sleep. It’s one of the most common complaints we hear on the sales floor, and it’s not just in your head, a lot of mattresses genuinely do trap heat. Here are some tips that really work to help you sleep cooler.
Why You're Waking Up Hot in the First Place
Your body naturally drops in core temperature as you fall asleep and move through the night. It’s part of how your body regulates deep sleep. The trouble starts when your mattress and bedding won’t let that heat go anywhere. Instead of dissipating, it gets trapped between your body and the surface you’re lying on, and your temperature creeps back up. That’s when you wake up sweaty, restless, or flipping your pillow every twenty minutes.
For a lot of women in perimenopause or menopause, this gets compounded by night sweats that have nothing to do with the mattress at all. We’re not going to pretend a new mattress cures hot flashes, it won’t, and we’d never tell a customer otherwise. But we can say that many sleepers find real relief when they stop fighting a mattress that’s working against them and switch to one built to move heat away from the body instead of holding onto it. That’s a meaningful difference even if it’s not a cure.
What Actually Makes a Mattress "Cooling" (And What's Just Marketing)
Walk into most mattress stores and you’ll see the word “cooling” slapped on nearly everything from cooling gel, cooling covers, cooling foam. Some of that helps a little. A lot of it is a thin layer of gel-infused foam on top of the same heat-trapping foam underneath, which cools things down for the first few minutes you lie on it and then works exactly like regular memory foam once your body warms it up.
The real difference comes down to airflow and material structure, not a marketing label. A mattress sleeps cool when heat has somewhere to go when air can actually move through the material instead of getting sealed in. That’s a construction question, not a sticker on the box.
Materials That Sleep Cool — and the Ones That Don't
Traditional memory foam is dense and closed-cell, which is exactly what makes it so good at contouring to your body and exactly why it holds heat so well. It’s not a flaw, it’s just physics: the same density that cradles pressure points also traps warmth against your skin. At Jordan Mattress & Home we use the most advanced memory foams we can find that stay more temperature neutral. Neither of our Serene Mattresses absorb heat like old fashioned memory foam. However, if sinking into a mattress makes you feel hotter, you may consider another type mattress.
Talalay latex behaves very differently. It has a naturally open-cell structure, almost like a sponge, so air actually moves through it instead of getting sealed against your body. It’s not magic, it’s just a material that breathes instead of insulates, thus staying temperature neutral.
Innerspring construction sleeps cool for a similar reason: there’s open space between the coils for air to circulate, rather than a solid block of material sitting on top of you all night. That’s part of why our two-sided innerspring mattresses tend to be a favorite with hot sleepers who also want that traditional, exceptional support with pressure point relief.
Hybrid mattresses try to get the best of both, a coil base for airflow with a comfort layer on top, which may be a good choice for people wanting the support of an innerspring along with the pressure relieving qualities of a memory foam.
Adjustable Bases Might Help
One thing people don’t expect: an adjustable base can actually help with temperature, not just back pain or reading position. Elevating your upper body or legs slightly changes how your body contacts the mattress surface, which affects how heat builds up against your skin over the night. It’s a smaller effect than swapping materials, but for someone who’s already invested in the right mattress, it’s worth considering as part of the whole sleep setup — especially paired with a breathable top layer like latex.
It's Not Just the Mattress
Sheets matter more than most people think. Cotton and linen breathe; a lot of budget polyester blends don’t, and they’ll undo a lot of the good work a breathable mattress is doing. We offer Hyperchill mattress protectors that help dissipate heat along with cool sheets made from Supima cotton or cool Eucalyptus. We also have several pillows that help you keep cool like the Ice Cloud Pillow and Gel Dough Pillow. Room temperature matters too — once your mattress is no longer trapping heat, a fan or a slightly lower thermostat setting can help more than you might think.
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How We Help You Find the Right Mattress
This is where a factory-direct shop offers more than just a lower price. Because we hand-build our own mattresses in 12 comfort levels—including innerspring, memory foam, Talalay latex, and hybrid options—you can compare them right in our showroom. You can also take our quick free mattress quiz to help you start your search. If you sleep hot, we can walk you through our temperature-neutral memory foam mattresses, breathable hybrids, and other options designed to help you rest cooler.
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Quick Answers
Frequently Asked Questions
Does a cooling mattress actually stop night sweats?
Not on its own — night sweats from menopause or other causes are a medical issue a mattress can’t cure. What a breathable mattress can do is stop making the problem worse, and many sleepers find that’s a real, noticeable improvement even if it’s not a complete fix.
Is memory foam always hot?
Memory foam runs warmer than latex or innerspring by nature of how dense and closed its structure is, but not every memory foam mattress sleeps equally hot. Thickness, density, and what’s underneath it all matter.
Is latex worth the extra cost if I sleep hot?
For a lot of our hot-sleeping customers, yes. It’s one of the most consistent upgrades we hear people are happy with. Come lie on one in the showroom and feel the difference for yourself before deciding.
Can I combine a cooling mattress with an adjustable base?
Yes, and a lot of our customers do exactly that for the best combination of temperature control and comfort.
