The biggest complaint when it comes to memory foam mattresses is that they can sleep warm. While it’s true that memory foam mattresses sleep hotter then other mattresses it’s not always the mattresses fault.
I personally sleep hot and have researched this topic quite deep and have come up with many things to try. I hope you find these suggestions useful and solve your problem with sleeping warm on memory foam mattresses.
1.Your Bed Frame Is A Problem
The biggest issue I’ve seen is that it’s your bed frame. If you’re using the same old bed frame that you’ve used for years or a bed frame that needs a box spring then that is a problem.
Your memory foam mattress needs to breathe, and an old and worn out bed frame is not going to help with that. This goes double if you have a box spring under your memory foam mattress as that blocks the airflow too.
You need to place the memory foam mattress on a slatted platform bed frame. Avoid plywood bottoms; you want the air to flow.
Not only do you need a platform bed frame but you want a metal one. Metal conducts heat away better than wood. That is why heat sinks on computers use metal to dissipate heat. Your memory foam mattress gets its heat from you, and your memory foam mattress is touching the bed frame. With metal, it will dissipate heat away better from you.
2.De-Clutter Under The Bed
Your mattress needs air flow, but this can be impossible if under your mattress is nothing but clutter. Yes, you need to clean under your bed and avoid keeping stuff under it.
If you don’t have airflow under your bed, you just create this stagnant hot air. If you have clothes or other fabrics under the bed, they’re just acting like insulators making things worse for you.
3.Now Get The Air Moving
When you have a new bed frame and removed all the clutter under your bed things should be better now.
Some might still have issues. This could be because you have poor air circulation in that room. Place a box fan at the bottom of the bed frame with the output going away from the mattress. This helps to suck the hot air going into the memory foam mattress down and out from the bottom of the bed frame.
I would also recommend placing a fan at the door to create circulation to the room. Our bodies cooldown when there is circulation of air to carry our sweat away. Lack of circulation makes the air stagnant with water and harder for it to evaporate away.
4.Try A Dehumidifier
If you live somewhere that has high humidity, it could be warm or discomforting to you because of the humidity.
If you can’t sweat, even a little bit, because the water moisture in the air is fully saturated, it can feel warm to you. You’ll start to sweat too much, and since it can’t evaporate, you’ll wake up in a pool of your sweat and think it’s the memory foam mattresses fault.
Get the air moving and try a dehumidifier if you live in a humid climate.
5.New Sheets
I like to sleep on Bamboo sheets as they keep me cooler. Try to get sheets that sleep cool and are not thick.
My partner likes to make the bed and puts so way too many sheets on the bed. Too many layers can block airflow and make you sleep hot. When it comes to sleeping on the memory foam mattress, I like to have as few sheets between me and the bed as possible.
6.Wool Mattress Pads And Toppers
Wool can seem like something that it would make you sleep warm but it sleeps cooler then you expect.
Wool is a super fabric; it sleeps cool when it’s hot and warm when it’s cold. I have a great post on Wool Toppers and how great they are to keep you cool here.
You can also get Cooling Mattress Toppers that work well to help keep you cool while you sleep.
7.Medical Condition?
We can’t rule out that maybe it’s a medical condition or even your medication making you sleep warm. The memory foam mattress was just the thing that brought it to life more.
Contact your doctor about your sleep issues. Maybe visit a friend and sleep in there spare bed to see if the problem is really your memory foam mattress.
8.New Bigger Mattress – Less Thicker
I love my partner, but she is like a heater when in bed. If you share a bed with someone and you both share a small bed like a double or even a queen, this could be your problem.
If you want to get warm, you get close to share your body heat, but if you want to stay cool, you’ll need to spread out.
There is this weird idea that bigger mattresses destroy relationships, but I think that is crazy. So crazy that I wrote about it here.
If you’re going to get a new mattress make sure to get ones that sleep cool. Consider a thinner memory foam mattress, stay at or under 10 inches. These 12 or even 18-inch memory foam mattresses are pointless and can make things hotter for you as it has more foam and less air flow because of it.
I’m personally a fan of the Zinus 10 Inch Gel-Infused Green Tea Memory Foam Mattress* but no matter what you get make sure to read the reviews to see what others are saying. Yes, you can buy mattresses online and don’t have to deal with salespeople! Check out Latex Mattresses too, they’re a little more than memory foam but sleep cooler.
9.Avoid Big Meals Before Bed
This one might not be so obvious, but don’t eat big meals before bed.
When you eat something, you get your stomach going to work to “burn” the food you put in. Yes, your body is going to heat up to digest the food and create energy which some of it gets turned into heat.
This one was hard for me to do because of the odd hours I worked but I do sleep better because of it.
10.Air Purifier
This one is out there, but a good friend says it worked for them. Get yourself an air purifier for the bedroom.
The air can have a lot of dust or other allergens in it making it harder to breathe. Hard to breathe air is frustrating and that can make you uncomfortable and this discomfort can come off as heat.
If the allergens are coming from your mattress because of the dust mites then you need a mattress encasement.
This might work for some, like my friend, but I think the reason why it works at all is that it creates air flow. An air purifier is just a fan with a filter on it. Plus, why not do it this way if you suffer from allergies anyway. I would make sure to clear out the underside of your bed and vacuum under it regularly to help cut down on the allergens that collect under it.
11.New Pillow
If you just got a new memory foam mattress and kept the old pillow this could be an issue. If you’re sleeping on the old pillow that you always slept on, it could be soaked with years of sludge.
This sludge could be killing the air flow to your head.
Look into a new pillow; maybe something like a cooling style pillow.
12.Lower The Temp
We can do as many tricks as we want, but if you keep your home warm all the time, then there is only so much we can do. While the tips will help it can only go so far in an always warm room.
If you don’t want to spend the money to cool the entire home then why not get a window AC unit? If you live somewhere that can’t have window units shown you can still buy portable AC units that hide well and you can’t tell that much.