Hi Jenk,
It would be interesting to know the details (or the make and model) or your mattress to see if you can identify the possible reasons why it sleeps hot for you. Post #2 here has more information about the many factors that can be involved in sleeping temperatures and In many cases it can be other materials in the mattress (there are many mattresses that are sold as latex mattresses that have thick layers of polyfoam on top or that only have minimal layers of latex) and the qulting material, the mattress cover, the mattress protector, any mattress pads and toppers, and your bedding can all play a major role in the sleeping temperature of a mattress. Knowing why your current mattress sleeps hot can also provide some useful guidelines for your next mattress purchase.
As you can see in post #1 here and some of the links and guidelines it contains … I would also suggest that you avoid major brands. I would also avoid any mattress where you aren’t able to easily find out the type and quality of all the materials in the mattress. For the most part … gel memory foam (or any memory foam) is less breathable than latex. You can read a little more about gel memory foams here and as you can see the gel can have some cooling benefit for a short period of time when you are going to sleep until temperatures equalize at which point the memory foam will become an insulator that is less breathable than latex.
Most of what you hear about gel (or any other topic about mattresses including durability) is often more about marketing than it is about fact. The goal is always to ask “why” when you hear a specific claim (about cooling or durability or any other “benefit” of a certain mattress) and if the answers you receive don’t make sense or can’t be validated with specifics about the material that produces the “benefit” (in the case of durability for example with the density of the foam in the mattress) then it is more about what someone wants you to believe so they can sell a mattress than it is about educating you about the real differences between diffrent mattresses and materials.
Gel foams can help with cooling on a temporary basis (depending on the gel percentage) but they don’t control temperature over the course of the night. Gel is not as effective a “technology” as moisture wicking and ventilation for regulating temperature over the course of the night and the breathability of a foam is still the most important part of how it contributes (or doesn’t) to temperature regulation along with the other factors mentioned in the previous link that are just as important a part of how cool a mattress sleeps as the foam used in the mattress.
Phoenix