Best Cooling Mattress Toppers
Lots of mattress pads promise to help you beat the heat, but some do a better job than others. Here's what works and what doesn't.
If you have trouble getting a good night’s sleep because it’s too hot, you might consider a cooling mattress topper. Not to be confused with mattress toppers touting "cooling" gels or "cool to the touch" covers, the heat-relief products here contain hardware that push cool air or water through your bed. They’re a cross between bedding and bed equipment.
As with conventional mattress toppers, the cooling sort typically slips under your fitted sheet. Some chill water before sending it through tubes in the pad to maintain a programmable temperature; others use a fan to blow air under your covers. Fortunately, they don’t seem to interfere with comfort. “Most models had sufficient padding and were quite comfortable to sleep on,” says Bernie Deitrick, the CR engineer who tested the toppers. A few companies offer the option of a dual-zone design, so sleep partners can adjust their own side to their preference, whether cooler than the ambient room temperature or warmer.
Do Cooling Mattress Toppers Work?
If by "work," you mean actually cool the bed, then yes, active-cooling mattress toppers will nudge the temperature of your bed down to some degree—but some are better at it than others.
The best toppers we tested lower the water temperature in a reservoir, then pump that water through a series of tubes in a sleeping pad. Think of it as running the water through a fridge before it comes to your bed.
The other models are less effective—relying on the existing conditions within your room, and cool you less as the temperature starts to rise. One such option is the BedJet, which cools with a fan. "It didn’t really cut it," says a staffer who tried it. "There just wasn’t enough cooling."
Do cooling mattress toppers work in terms of helping you sleep better? That’s a trickier question and it depends on whom you ask. A staffer who tried the Cube Sleep System (at the time it was called the Chilipad) and the Ooler Sleep System says she had a better time going to bed without either of them. "I felt like I was sleeping on a science experiment," she says.
But for those who tend to wake up in a sweat, a cooling mattress topper may be worth it. Another staffer who says he typically sleeps hot describes the Cube and Ooler as "amazing.’’ He’s not certain that he fell asleep faster, but he says he certainly slept better. "There was less waking up and tossing and turning."
To see all of CR’s sleep coverage, go to our Guide to Better Sleep.
How We Test Cooling Mattress Toppers
To assess how well these mattress pads cool, we designed a metal device to mimic the human body—complete with lightbulbs placed in each of its three parts (a torso and two legs) to maintain a temperature of 98° F. After strapping it to a mattress pad for maximum cooling, we measured the amount of energy needed to maintain the temperature of the metal device at its set point. The more energy required to do that, the better the mattress topper was at cooling. (We used a similar technique to test the toppers for heating.)
Beyond performance, we noted whether each mattress topper has a preheating and precooling function. We looked for built-in padding and assessed whether we could feel any water tubes or other mechanisms in the topper when we used them. We also sent the toppers home with staffers so they could sleep on them at home.
In all, we tested four popular cooling mattress toppers (the Chilisleep company’s Cube and Ooler, the Mattress Cooler, and the Perfect Sleep Pad), as well as the BedJet, a cooling device that attaches to your bed. CR members with digital access can read on for ratings and more detailed reviews. For additional information on making your bed comfortable, check our ratings and buying guides for mattresses, pillows, and sheets.