Mattress Forum

I also have 1" mem-cool from Overstock.  It seems less hot than Sensus memory foam.  Again, not necessarily cool but less hot.

I have tried an Outlast mattress pad and wool mattress pad.  They seem no better or possibly worse than a regular poyester mattress pad.

Unfortunately, the most comfortable foams (memory foam and latex) seem to retain heat and eventually radiate it back to the sleeper.  Probably due to their material and density.  I am not sure a lot can be done about it.  The coolest surface I have found is a firm innerspring.  A waterbed would probably be the best, since you can regulate the temperature.  I am also wondering if a thicker mattress pad (which might help breathe and dissipate heat above the foam) might help as well.  I will probably try that soon.

What are your heat issues?  What kind of mattress?

thanks for the f.b. sandman, celsion does sound promising.  & for someone who cranks their a/c near max to sleep (not much left on the thermostat to further compensate for any warmer a bed), i would pay the extra ~15% to save every degree possible.  i only wish it were available in the ultra firm ild's like their regular latex toppers. no point in that for s.l.a.b. though since most will not want that firm of a top layer, & that's almost the only layer you'd be investing in the cooler foams for anyway. 

re: "outlast"- i was just laughing at the safety disclaimer of it in Sealy's "cool springs", their version of m.f. they claim sleeps cooler.  so not only does it not work, but tell me if this sounds scary: "Because Outlast technology is micro-encapsulated, it will never come in contact with you... it's completely safe. "   so the reason it's "safe" is because they prevent it from contacting us- that's actually implying that the substance itself is NOT safe (hope those micro-capsules don't rupture)!  & that was a direct quote from sealy's marketing jargon too. 

Last night I had 3" of memory foam over 6" of XF latex.  The max temperature inside the top of the m.f. hit 89.8 degrees (I cut a small hole in the m.f. to put in the thermometer sensor.  I had 2" of memory foam from Costco that I purchases several years ago on top of 1" of mem-cool (4 lb.) from overstock.  This was no hotter than my convoluted Talatech latex topper which gets up to about 91 degrees.  Last night was colder than most, so not sure how much affect that had. 

By the way, this configuration was fairly comfortable for me.  I like this as much, if not more than having all latex.  I find that memory foam reduces the pressure points a little better than latex.  Personally (and through measurement)  I didn't find it any hotter than all latex.  The slight downside is that m.f. forms to the body, making it a little harder to move. So, a semi-poor man's Tempurpedic might be to put 3" of decent memory foam over 5-6" of firm latex.   Latex is not cheap, but should last longer and feel better than most other foams underneath.

The Celsion has heated up to around 88-89, so I can't say it is significantly cooler.  It might taking a little longer to hear up as well, which is a plus.  Tonight I am going to fold the 1" Celsion in half to get 2" of Celsion on top. 

Cooler still would probably be too put 3-4" of foam over springs.  My guess is that the hollow nature of the springs will allow more heat to dissipate through the bottom.  With an all foam/latex  base, it is harder for the heat to dissipate from below. 

In terms of the mattress cover, I think the ones on innersprings probably dissipate the heat better.  I don't really have much evidence to back this up though.  I have found that when I put a wool filled mattress pad on top of the wool filled mattress cover it does seem warmer to me.  This could be wool being "warmer in winter".  Not sure how it knows what time of year it is though.  So, the cotton/wool filled mattress cover on the flobed might be slightly warmer (in winter at least) than whatever they use on most innersprings.  At some point I will take the mattress cover off again and use 2 poly filled mattress pads to see if that is any different.

Not totally what they put in the innerspring covers.  I think it has some polyester.   I would think polyester is warm, but  I have found that the poly filled mattress pads are no warmer than others.   A thick layer of cotton might be best, but I have not tried that.  An all cotton mattress pad (not that thick) does not seem to make much difference.

oh wow, you used a thermometer?!  that's great, now i feel more confident celsion will actually save those few degrees at least.  & no worries if it doesn't even do that much, because $50 isn't too bad vs. the price of the topper itself & entire mattress setup. mine would be on a new spring mattress, which is going to be cool anyway obviously. but not only that- mainly i want to save its factory topmost layers (marvelux x 4 & m.f.) from getting dented/ as long as possible.

thanks for sharing your data sandman.

I would say that the Celsion is cooler to the touch as well.  That is my perception at least.  It is probably worth it vs. regular Talatech, since the price difference isn't that much.  It does cost a lot more than memory foam, so I want to test a bit more to make sure it is worth it.

What kind of mattress do you have?

At this point, I can't really reject the hypothesis that the talatech latex, the Celsion and the memory foam that I have are all the same heat wise.  Certainly the differences are quite small. The Celsion did record the lowest temperature by an insignificant amount.  My perception is that it is slightly better, maybe because it takes a little longer to heat up.  I can't really record a timeline, to be sure.  Folding it in half may also affect its ability to dissipate the heat out of one side.

It is also possible that measuring the temperature the way I am, does not capture the total aspect of heat build up.  Probably more temperature readings for different (more spread out) locations and different depths would be necessary to get a more accurate picture.  Alas, that is beyond my capabilities right now.  However, the aspect that does seem to bother me is the feeling of having a heat pad right below the midsection of my body.  I do think I am capturing that aspect pretty well, because that is the location where I am measuring.  I have demonstrated that the top layers of foam heat up from about 68-70 degrees to 90 degrees after a few hours.

I think I will put the Talatech layer on top again tonight to see how that compares with similiar room temperature.

I may try to measure dispersion by moving the temperature sensor to a different location.  It might be interesting to put it one layer lower as well to see how much that is heating up.

My conclusion seem to be that is probably much more important what is under the comort layer (air filled springs will probably disperse heat better than "solid" latex or foam).  Possibly what covers the comfort level is important as well (cotton vs. wool vs. polyester vs. whatever else). 

However, it seems like there has not been a lot of research on this, so I am just guessing.  One study I have seen says that innersprings disperse the heat better.  Based on my experience that seems to be the case.  However, it may have to be a firm innerspring, and it may be just the fact you are sinking in less.  

Right now the heat is not a huge issue for me (at least in the cooler weather), but I definitely would prefer less of it.  It mainly seems to bother me when I wake up after being in bed 2-3 hours.  It is possible I will wake up like that on any surface, so hard to say how much it is affecting me.  Worried what summer might bring though.

Anyway, I have to decide soon if I want to go back to try an innerspring.  It seem like that is the only potentially cooler solution (beside a water bed which is not in the cards for me).  I am leaning in that direction, but I am getting tired of having to keep dealing with this.  Hardest purchase of anything I have made in my life.