All the Best Cooling Sleep Gear (That We’ve Written About on the Strategist)

If you prefer soft and silky sheets over crisp sheets, you’re better off with these sateen sheets from Silk & Snow. They’re made from 100 percent certified long-staple Egyptian cotton, which is known for its breathability, durability, and softness. The sheets felt a little more lightweight than other sateen sheets made from Egyptian cotton, according to Ro.

If you’re looking for something that promises breathability and moisture wicking, a set of Tencel is your best bet. Ben Trapskin, the founder of bedding-review site Yawnder, says the fabric is “better at absorbing moisture than most other fibers, making it great for sweaty sleepers,” and recommends this set because it’s made from a Tencel-cotton blend, which will give the sheets a more familiar feel for Tencel newbies. Plus, Tencel is naturally wrinkle-resistant and sustainable, so the sheets will look good and be good for the environment.

You should consider buying a memory-foam cooling pillow if you’re looking for a balance of support and comfort. This option from Tempur-Pedic “has large gel pads on both sides that span nearly the whole surface and genuinely feel cool to the touch,” Jerden writes. “And because there is a gel pad on each side, you can always flip the pillow over if you still start to feel too warm.” And since this pillow has a fairly high loft, it’s a great pick for side sleepers, according to Jerden.

Though Jerden named Tempur-Pedic’s Tempur-Cloud Breeze Dual Cooling Pillow the best cooling pillow overall, it’s expensive. For almost half the price, you can buy DreamCloud’s memory foam pillow, which has cooling gel distributed throughout the foam instead of layered on both sides like our top pick above. Jerden says the pillow’s cover, which is made from a polyester-polyethylene blend, is what made the pillow truly cooling because it has a cool-to-the-touch feel. Though she didn’t find it to be quite as cooling as Tempur-Pedic’s pillow, she says the DreamCloud “is a good cooling pillow for a much more affordable price.” Plus, she found it to be comfortable for both back and side sleeping.

[Editor’s note: The DreamCloud Best Rest pillow is currently out of stock. However, you can sign up for restock notifications on the product page.]

Jerden has been happily sleeping on this latex pillow for the entire year, but it’s particularly effective at keeping you cool during summer months because of its perforated-latex core and Purple’s signature gel grid. She named it our best pillow for back sleepers because she’s primarily a back sleeper. I’m a stomach sleeper, though, and sleep on it every night with pleasure. Past comfort, Jerden writes, “One of its greatest qualities is how cool it stays.” She adds, “I often get a nice initial blast of coolness when I lie down for the night, after the pillow has gone untouched all day, and even as that initial coolness dissipates, I do not overheat.”

If you’re losing sleep thinking about spending nearly $200 on one pillow, the Brooklyn Bedding Talalay Latex pillow is a perfectly good alternative for half the price. If maximum cooling is your top priority, Jerden still recommends considering the Purple pillow, but she says this one shines because it also “has a Tencel cover, a great material for temperature regulation, and ventilation holes in the latex core to allow for additional airflow.” She recommends the pillow’s low loft option for stomach and back sleepers and the pillow’s high loft option for back and side sleepers.

This pillow uses a pillow-within-a-pillow design to create a fluffy feel on the outside with sturdy support inside. While the inner pillow is filled with shredded latex, which Jerden reports is great for cooling, the outer pillow is filled with a super airy down alternative that further contributes to the pillow’s cooling capabilities. Jerden says the pillow is ideal for neck pain because “the outer pillow compressed beneath me and enveloped my head and neck, while the inner pillow kept my neck supported so it didn’t completely sink through the pillow.” And though she says the Saatva didn’t feel as cool to the touch as some other cooling pillows we’ve recommended, it still effectively regulates temperature thanks to its core of shredded-latex foam.

This mattress is like a regular Casper mattress, combined with multiple layers of cooling gel, and graphite (a common bedding material used to draw heat away from the body). Strategist writer Dominique Pariso sleeps extremely hot and put this mattress to the ultimate test by sleeping on it during the summer. “I was impressed with how well it regulated my temperature during the night,” she writes. “I didn’t wake up in sweaty sheets once, even during the hottest nights of the year.”

The makers of Jerden’s favorite pillow also offer a cooling gel mattress, which is our favorite of its kind. The Purple mattress is made in part from a proprietary polymer material that’s known for being moldable and has been used in medical beds, Dr. Scholl’s soles, and toy balls. It’s best for those who sleep hot and prefer a medium-firm mattress, which translates to “being cradled rather than smothered,” according to former Strategist deputy editor Jason Chen who tested out the mattress. The added support also prevented pockets from forming that could retain heat, a downside that Chen noticed with his previous mattress. “After a week, I was fully converted and found myself wanting to spend time in bed during the day: reading magazines, using my laptop, playing with the dog,” he says.

Though this cooling topper has a lower price tag than our top pick, the biggest sacrifice you’ll make if you choose this option is on trial period (30 nights instead of 90 days) and thickness (two inches instead of four inches). However, Bill Fish, president of Sleep Doctor, says this cushy topper is more responsive to pressure than other memory-foam toppers he has tried, and it’s made with phase-change material to help regulate your body temperature. A lesser thickness is also better if you just want a little more softness, rather than fully feeling cocooned by foam.

If you’re going for that classic, slow sinking memory foam feel, choose this mattress topper. It’s made with high-density, gel-infused foam that’ll draw heat away from the body while providing extra support. Jerden says the mattress topper itself didn’t feel cool to the touch, but she adds, “I didn’t feel it heating up around me excessively, which is sometimes all you can expect with memory foam.” One thing to note: Strategist writer Jeremy Rellosa noticed the topper is firmer in cold weather and softer when it’s hot. “Sometimes, it feels a little too plush when it’s warm,” Rellosa explains, despite the high-density foam.

This option from Saatva combines graphite and memory foam to create a topper that’s plush and cooling. “It contoured around my body with a nice balance of cushioning and support,” Jerden writes. As for its cooling capabilities, she says, “This one doesn’t feel cool to the touch, but it also didn’t feel noticeably hot. I like that on top of the graphite infusions, this topper has a breathable organic-cotton cover with straps to secure it in place on your mattress.”

We recommend the Layla topper if you find yourself preferring a firmer mattress. It’s on the thinner side compared to others on this list but has fairly dense foam, so Jerden says when she tested it, “I sank into the foam quite slowly — it molded around my body the longer I lay on it, ultimately providing excellent pressure relief.” Like the other infused toppers, this one will prevent you from overheating without actually feeling cool to the touch.

Latex mattress toppers come at a higher price, but Jerden says they’re all-natural and will last longer than their memory foam counterparts. Best of all, they allow for more effective air circulation, and this latex topper has ventilation holes that allow for even more air flow. This one is available in five firmness levels, ranging from soft to extra firm, so you can easily customize it to the feel of your bed. “Unfortunately, these toppers are not returnable, so you should be ready to commit if you’re going to go for it,” Jerden notes.

This cover isn’t exactly a mattress topper, but it goes on top of your mattress and allows you to completely control the temperature of your mattress, so I’ve included it here. You can control the device through an app, which directs water through internal tubing in the cover and allows you to cool or heat the bed to a temperature of your choosing between 55 and 110 degrees Fahrenheit. (You can even control each side of the bed independently if you share a bed with someone or just want more flexibility.) “In addition to cooling and heating, the Pod Cover can track sleep-health metrics like your heart rate and sleep stages. It also has vibration and thermal alarms, and you can enable automatic temperature adjustments to keep your body temperature stable throughout the night,” Jerden writes. Though you’ll have to pay $24 to access some of the features.

Though effective, the Eight Pod cover is definitely not a budget-friendly option. This affordable alternative has earned the stamp of approval from Pariso who has tried everything to combat her night sweats, and you can read more of her praise of the device here. Similar to the Eight Pod above, this system can be set to an exact temperature anywhere from 55 to 115 degrees by using the provided remote control. “The biggest difference between this system and the Eight Sleep definitely seems to lie in all the extra features Eight Sleep offers (sleep tracking, automatic adjustments, vibration alarms, app controls, and so on,” Jerden writes. So if you’re willing to sacrifice those extra features, you should go with this option. Plus, the Chilipad system comes in two versions: Me or We, with Me covering half the bed and We covering the whole bed.

If you’re not willing to spend that much on a weighted blanket, there’s also this option which is made of a polyester-jersey knitted fabric yarn — instead of Tencel lyocell. It’ll still be breathable like the option above as it features a similar thick, hand knit construction, but the polyester blend will make it extra absorbent for wicking away sweat.

Being a sweaty sleeper doesn’t mean you have to give up on the traditional weighted blanket filled with beads. “While it lacks the air-circulating features of an open weave, it’s the cover fabric that contributes to its feel,” Ro writes. “The material is smooth, lightweight, and known to have moisture-wicking and temperature-regulating properties and feels almost like silk.” Our sleep experts say it feels luxurious to sleep with and won’t make you overheat.

Weighted sleep masks offer the same stress-relieving benefits as their blanket counterpart and you can throw this one in the freezer to turn it into a cooling sleep mask that also blocks light. The nine-ounce Nodpod sleep mask gets its weight from little beads inside it that retain the cold temperature that will keep you cool on warm summer nights.

If you’ve never heard of a climate control sleep system before, it’s best described as a central-air unit for under your covers. The device is expensive, but Strategist contributor Claire Zulkey says it was worth every penny (before buying the gadget, she’d have to change her pajamas in the middle of the night and deal with a pile of sweat in the morning). You’ll have to get used to a whirring white noise similar to an AC unit and a gentle air-current feeling, but Zulkey says it was easy to set up and transformed her sleep quality and by proxy, her life: “I finally got my sleep back consistently (I can even warm the sheets before I get in bed on cold nights.) I do a lot less laundry. I wake up feeling like a person and not a slime monster,” she writes.