The best cooling mattress toppers to combat overheating at night

The best cooling mattress toppers could stop you from overheating at night, whether your disrupted sleep is caused by a not-so-breathable mattress, menopausal night sweats or soaring summer temperatures.

Alongside synthetic bedding, one of the biggest culprits for night-time sweats is a synthetic mattress. Our bodies naturally give off heat and moisture during the night, and with a synthetic mattress, this heat and humidity can be reflected back toward the sleeper rather than dissipating away. 

That’s where the best cooling mattress toppers come into their own, either by increasing airflow or employing thermoregulating natural materials to wick heat away from the body and cool things down. Great news if you don’t have the budget to invest in one of the best mattresses for hot sleepers right now.

Here, we’ve rounded up the best cooling mattress toppers on the market to help you find the right fit for you. We’ve taken into account performance, price, our testers’ sleep experiences, as well as reviews from happy  – and not-so-happy – owners to find the cooling mattress toppers that really work.

The quick list

Short on time? This quick list is an overview of the very best cooling mattress toppers. You'll find more information on each topper and why our testers recommend it if you keep on scrolling.

Best cooling mattress toppers 2024

Most cushioning cooling mattress topper

After testing out the Emma Premium mattress and finding herself prone to overheating on its memory foam surface, our reviewer added the Emma Premium Mattress Topper and found its extra breathability a welcome relief. 

The topper is generous 9cm deep, so adds plenty of pressure-relieving comfort, with a graphite coating that the brand says delivers 'optimal temperature regulation'. Our tester certainly found she and her partner slept cooler, with no waking in the middle of the night due to overheating once this topper was on the bed. 

It's an investment, but Emma's 100-night sleep trial offers the opportunity to test out if its temperature regulation works for you before you commit. Plus, if you use Emma mattress discount codes you should be able to get it at a better price.

It's also washable and flippable to help prolong its lifespan, which equals better value for money.

Best natural cooling mattress topper

The 4-5cm deep Woolroom Deluxe Wool Mattress Topper offers a natural and eco-friendly way to achieve a cooler night's sleep. 

This topper harnesses the thermo-regulating powers of wool to create a breathable sleep surface that wicks moisture and heat away from the body during sleep. This enables night-time temperatures to remain stable delivering a deeper undisturbed sleep. 

After finding the synthetic materials in her memory foam mattress were reflecting body heat back towards her and causing her to overheat in the night, our hot-sleeping reviewer tested out this wool layer between her and the mattress, and found it delivered a far more breathable sleep surface that instantly reduced discomfort and night sweats.

A wide range of size options also mean you're much more likely to find the right fit for your mattress.

Best budget buy

Many fans of the 5cm deep Silentnight Airmax Mattress Topper (and there are over 12,000 of them on Amazon) have found it a great companion to a too-warm memory foam mattress, adding heat-relief for a fraction of the cost of other toppers on the market. 

Filled with dual-layered hollowfibre with mesh walls to help breathability and air circulation, this topper doesn't add the comfort of a memory foam or wool topper, but does add a 'breaker' of breathability between your body and a solid foam sleep surface. 

Our reviewer tried this topper for several warm nights over a particularly body-hugging memory foam mattress and found sweat levels were significantly reduced and sleep came more easily.

Plus, it's a great price, coming in as the most affordable cooling mattress topper in our round up.

Best cooling mattress topper for sofa beds

The 5cm deep Panda Topper is primarily designed to add an extra layer of comfort to a too-firm mattress, with the memory foam layer providing cushioning support to pressure points like hips and shoulders. 

However, the 'open-cell' memory foam is formulated to build in a little extra space between the synthetic fibres to allow for airflow as well as comfort. Our reviewer tested this product in late June and although they didn't find it like sleeping in a fridge – you'll definitely need one of the best portable air conditioners for that – nor did they wake up due to overheating or feeling uncomfortably sweaty in the mornings. Not once. A rare feat on any night of the year, but especially impressive in summer.

Because of the wide range of sizes on offer – from single all the way through to emperor, along with a whole host of EU sizes – that also makes this topper our top pick for adding breathable comfort to a sofa bed. That's articularly useful because most sofa beds don't have the same sized sleeping areas as a standard mattress. 

Best 'new mattress' alternative

Simba's Hybrid Mattress Topper is an investment, but if you're looking to prolong the life of an old mattress, or to radically upgrade a sofa bed whilst adding breathability, then this topper is the closest you can get to a new mattress, for less.

It differs from most other mattress toppers on the market because it's constructed with a layer of coil springs as well as a memory foam layer. 

That means it's essentially a thinner 7cm deep four-layer version of the brand's bestselling Simba Hybrid mattress, which results in one of the most robust and supportive toppers we've tested and makes this topper the most capable of overhauling your sleep set-up without a full mattress replacement.

The jury is split on the topper's breathability, with one tester finding they slept cooler, but other self-described 'hot sleepers' saying they didn't notice much relief. However, the antislip base and straps are well worth a mention. Most mattress toppers are attached by straps, but in our experience, they're prone to pinging off. The Simba Hybrid Topper straps stayed firm in our testing, but even if they hadn't, the topper was going nowhere thanks to its anti-slip base.

Affordable alternative

One of the most affordable cooling mattress toppers we've come across, the Aidapt Memory Foam Cool Mattress Topper gets rave reviews from customers who rate its comfort, cooling powers, and affordable price tag. 

It's 5cm deep, and a rather unusual shade of blue, but its reversible design offers an 'egg-crate texture' on one side to allow cooling airflow between your body and the mattress whilst also adding an extra layer of cushioning to a firm mattress. 

Gel-infused beads also claim to regulate temperature and help you get a good night's sleep during those hot uncomfortable summer nights, a promise that seems to be delivered according to its 5-star reviews.

The downside is the lack of size options, with only a single and double option available. There's also a lack of cushioning compared to some of the more luxe options in our round up, but then, that's to be expected from the price point.

How to choose

The key to finding a good cooling mattress topper is to look for breathability. No mattress topper is going to be able to actively cool down the bed, but a cooling mattress topper can help to increase airflow between our bodies and the mattress surface. This in turn combats overheating and stop us from waking up in a hot sticky mess in the night!

A cooling mattress topper could be of particular use if you have an older memory foam mattress. Memory foam is comfortable to lie on because it's designed to become more malleable when exposed to warmth, like body heat. That means that after you've laid on it for a little while, the memory foam starts to mould around your body. This can feel very cushioning and supportive, particularly if you're a side sleeper as it allows shoulders and hips to sink deeper into the mattress to create good spinal alignment. 

However, memory foam – particularly older forms – is made from very dense polyurethane. That density means very little air can circulate through the mattress, so the natural heat that all of our bodies release at night gets trapped between us and the mattress, often leading to overheating. Memory foam is also very non-absorbent, meaning the humidity our bodies release has nowhere to go and is reflected straight back towards us, often resulting in disturbed sleep where we wake feeling hot and sticky in the night and have to throw off the covers.

To combat that, a cooling mattress topper can add a 'break' layer in between your body and the mattress. If the topper is breathable then that means air can circulate and wick away moisture and heat. 

However, not all mattress toppers will do this, most toppers are designed to add a layer of comfort and cushioning to a mattress rather than aiding breathability, and many of them use memory foam to do this. So how can you spot a cooling mattress topper? 

Firstly, you can look out for natural materials, in particular wool. Wool is naturally thermoregulating, which means it has temperature regulating properties that can help you to stay cool when it’s hot and warm when it’s cold. Wool is also naturally absorbent, wicking moisture away from the body and releasing it into the air, therefore creating a 'breathable' sleep surface that's ideal for hot sleepers.

However, some synthetic mattress toppers can also aid breathability. For instance, many manufacturers infuse graphite or gel into their synthetic mattress toppers, both of which certainly seemed to do the trick and deliver a cooler night's sleep compared to a too-hot mattress in our testing process. And, memory foam has come a long way in more recent years. If you look for a memory foam mattress topper that utilises 'open cell memory foam' in its construction then this tends to deliver a cooler sleep as there's more space for air to flow between the fibres.

FAQs

Do cooling mattress toppers really work?

Even the very best cooling mattress toppers aren't going to actively cool down your sleep surface and make it feel like climbing into a fridge – and who hasn't considered that solution on a far-too-hot night mid-heatwave?! (NB. This definitely isn't recommended). 

What the best cooling mattress toppers will do is increase airflow and breathability between the body and the mattress, therefore helping to prevent body heat from being reflected back towards the sleeper, and allowing moisture to dissipate which helps to prevent the sleeper from overheating and waking up hot and sticky in the night. 

A cooling mattress topper can be especially useful to add to a memory foam mattress during the summer. By design memory foam is reactive to heat, moulding around the body as it warms up to offer cushioning support. However, in a heatwave, that cocooning 'hug' can get all too hot, and one of the best cooling mattress toppers will add a welcome barrier or 'breaker' to allow air in and cool things down.

How can I make my bed colder?

You'll find plenty of top tips for reducing sleep temperatures in our guide to how to keep a bedroom cool, but these four factors can play a big part in making a bed feel cooler.

1. Add a cooling mattress topper. Adding one of the best cooling mattress toppers to your mattress can definitely help if you have a synthetic mattress and feel like the heat is being reflected towards you from your mattress' surface. 

2. Upgrade your mattress to one filled with natural materials. Avoiding synthetics, like memory foam, and opting for a mattress filled with wool or cotton can help to add breathability to your sleep set-up if you're a hot sleeper, prone to night sweats, or live in a hot and humid climate.

3. Switch your bedding to natural materials. Check out our guides to the best duvets and best pillows to find options with natural fillings, like wool or cotton, or synthetic options with innovative cooling tricks up their sleeve. These will increase breathability to prevent your body heat from being refected back towards you whilst you sleep.

4. Cool down the room. If opening the windows and letting a through-breeze cool down your bedroom isn't working, then investing in one of the best fans for the bedroom – such as the super-quiet Duux Whisper Flex Ultimate Fan – can really help to make sleep easier during a heatwave. And, if temperatures really soar, you might want to up the ante and invest in one of the best portable air conditioners to actively cool down the bedroom fast.

How we test

You'll find full details of the Ideal Home review process on our how we test page.

Where possible our team of reviewers has tested out the best cooling mattress toppers on the market to find out if they live up to their claims, sleeping on the breathable surfaces during muggy nights and through soaring heatwaves to see which products regulated their night-time temperatures best. 

Where we haven't yet been able to test products in person, we've done thorough research on their technical specifications and read multiple happy – and not-so-happy – customer reviews to narrow down our suggestions to the best-in-class.