Best cooling mattress and cooling pads 2024: say goodbye to heat in the night

The best cooling mattress overall

+ Precise, dual-zone temperature control

+ Cool or heat from 55°-110°F

+ Automatically adjusts temperature in the night

- Expensive option

- Requires water reservoir next to bed

The Eight Sleep Pod Pro Cover is the best mattress cooling pad around, and is for those who are serious about keeping their chill at night. The cover slots over your mattress but this one contains a network of water-filled plumbing that can be cooled or heated to your exact preferences. Don't agree with your partner on the ideal bed temperature? It's dual-zone, so you don't need to. As well as being able to adjust your own side of the bed to any temperature from 55°F to 110°F (13-43°C), the cover will also automatically adjust its temperature throughout the night, based on your sleep zones. 

That's not all though! The Pod Pro Cover also has an integrated sleep tracker that'll give you data about the quality of snoozing you're doing, and there's 'GentleRise' function that can wake you up silently by gently vibrating and cooling/heating your side of the bed. Any downsides? Well, as you might suspect, all that tech doesn't come cheap (but there are sometimes Eight Sleep deals to take the price down) and you'll need to make room for a water reservoir next to your bed.

Read our full Eight Pod Pro Cover review.

The best mattress cooling pad overall

+ Can refrigerate before use

+ Low price

+ Can be used in a pillow or as a seat pad

- Relatively small

- Only three hours of cooling

The JML Chillmax pillow is the best cheap and cheerful cooling pad. The design is simple: it's a pouch filled with gel that absorbs excess heat from the body. Its compact dimensions add versatility – JML suggests it can also be used as a seat cushion or even under a laptop – as well as being a great option to slot into your pillowcase or under your sheet to keep you cool as you slumber.

This is an entirely analogue affair, so there's no charging to speak of, you don't even need to refill it, and it's wipe-clean if it does get sweaty. You can whack it in the fridge before use to amp up the cooling properties. JML says it'll work for up to three hours, so this isn't necessarily an all-night solution, but it should do its job long enough to help you drop off comfortably.

The best memory foam cooling topper

+ Doesn't trap heat

+ Comfortable and supportive

+ Isolates movement well

- Will be too firm for some

The Eve mattress topper isn't specifically sold as a cooling pad, but it's a mattress topper with temperature regulation built in. Eve claims this is 30 times more breathable than 'the old kind of foam', which is suspiciously vague, but in our Eve mattress topper review, our tester was suitably reassured that it didn't trap body heat overnight.

The Eve topper is made from two layers of foam – a 2cm open cell comfort layer, and a 3cm supportive base foam layer – which together deliver a comfortable yet supportive sleep surface that isolates movement from wriggly sleepers well. Check out our Eve vs Panda mattress topper face-off to see how it compares to a softer, cheaper memory foam mattress topper.

The best non-foam cooling topper

+ Foam-free (recycled polyester stuffing)

+ Machine washable

+ Breathable cotton cover

- Stops overheating rather than actively cooling

Those who want a cooling topper that's not made from foam – it's not for everyone, after all – should pick up this Comfortably Cool Mattress Copper from Marks & Spencer. Instead of foam or gel, this one's stuffed with recycled polyester. The cover is cotton – which is known for being breathable – and M&S has doubled down on the temperature regulation front by adding its own climate control technologies that draws moisture away from the body to keep you cool (despite that, we'd still probably put this in the 'stops you from overheating rather than actively cooling you down' camp).

It's received some consistently great reviews and has the added bonus of being machine washable to help keep things fresh (assuming you can get it into your washing machine), as well as providing an extra-comfortable top layer for your bed.

The best system that actively cools your bed

+ Dual-zone cooling and heating

+ Set from 115ºF (46ºC) down to 55ºF (13ºC)

+ Machine washable cover

- Not that comfy to sleep on

Previously known as the Dock Pro Sleep System, the OOLER Sleep System with Chilipad Cool Mesh from sleepme and chilisleep is a similar idea to the Eight Sleep cover (in at #2). It comprises a control unit and a mattress cover, through which warm or cool water is piped to your exact temperature preferences, and again, you can pick a different temperature for each side of the bed.

The cooling pad is controlled via a companion app, which allows you to set times for the Dock Pro to turn on and off, and at what temperature, as well as the ability to specify temperature adjustments through the night. We tried out a sample for our sleepme Dock Pro review, and our tester was suitably impressed with this system's cooling and heating features, although found the pad itself a little uncomfortable to lie on. Its sleep tracking and sleep zone features are also not as advanced. 

The best breathable fibre topper with a cool-touch cover

+ Breathable fibre filling

+ Cooling cover

+ Affordable

- Polyester cover – some may prefer cotton

Another cooling mattress pad with a fibre filling rather than gel and foam, this 4.5cm topper from Slumberdown is designed to reduce heat build-up in the night and also gives your mattress an extra level of firm support and pressure relief. Its breathable fires are designed to allow air to flow freely and keep things cool and dry, it has elasticated straps enabling you fit it easily on top of mattresses up to 35cm deep, and its soft knit Coolmax cover is cool to the touch and should help wick away moisture.