Cool + isolating = Impossible combo?

Hello everyone.

I just found this website a couple of weeks ago and I’ve been trying to drink from this firehose of mattress knowledge. My wife and I finally went out to a few local stores this past weekend and flopped around on a bunch of mattresses (we haven’t gotten past step 1 yet). I am worried that we won’t be able to find a mattress that fits our requirements.

A little background:
My wife is 110 lbs, I’m 240.
My wife wants the house at 90F, I want it at 65F. (This is relevant because I also sleep hot.) The house is at 75F.
My wife is a light sleeper and wakes up from the jarring movement when I turn over.
I turn over frequently.
When I turn over, it’s often because my arm on the mattress-side of my body is numb.
My wife is a back / side sleeper, and I’m a side / front sleeper.

My initial research here led me to Latex on Latex, which should give a cooler sleep while minimizing movement conductivity, with at least 3" of comfort layer which should help reduce the frequency of my numbness-induced movement. What we found in the stores we visited was that the Pure Latex Bliss did reduce her perception of my movement, but, soon after, when we tried the Memory Foam, my wife noticed zero of my movement…which made the latex seem terrible by comparison. My concern with the Memory Foam is that I will sweat all night on a Memory Foam comfort layer. They also felt like laying on a cushioned rock, but that’s best saved for steps 2 and 3.

Specific mattresses she loved: (I’m not entirely sure about their makeup, either)
Tempurpedic Tempur-Cloud Luxe Breeze
Tempurpedic Tempur-Cloud Supreme Breeze
Tempurpedic Rhapsody

I don’t know if the movement isolation is largely from the Memory Foam support layer or the comfort layer. I’m hoping that a Memory Foam Support / Latex Comfort mattress would give us exactly what we need, but I don’t know if that’s true. I also don’t know anywhere near Atlanta, GA that would have one of those on display…nor do I know if there are any custom local manufacturers who could make it. The man in Mattress Firm (who seemed knowledgeable) said that no one would make a mattress with memory foam support layer and latex comfort layer “because the foams would cancel each other out.” Really? As if they were some sort of mathematical fraction? I’ve learned enough from this website that I just nodded my head and dismissed his claim immediately.

Any ideas on how to achieve a cool mattress while completely isolating movement?

Sounds tough - and I’m sure Phoenix will be along with some really pertinent information - but meantime, since I also sleep hot, I thought I’d mention that the absolute last mattress I’d ever buy would be a Tempurapedic/memory foam mattress, just because I’ve known so many people with them who talk about hot it makes them. I don’t think I could stand it.

I recently bought an all-Dunlop latex bed. I don’t think it sleeps hot. I also help keep it from sleeping hot by using sheets made of Tencel (also known as Lyocell), which for me make any bed I put them on seem to sleep cool. They’re really great at helping with temperature, even better than bamboo, which I also like for that reason.

Other than things like that, I’ve no idea hot to make a potentially hot bed cool enough for you to be comfortable. Perhaps a different approach - convince your wife that if you’re comfortable in bed you wouldn’t be moving nearly as much, and therefore would disturb her much less, so you folks need to buy a bed that both of you like. :wink:

Hi Eulogy37,

I’m assuming you’ve read this already but just in case you haven’t … post #1 here is the “best” place to start and has all the basic information, steps, and guidelines that you will need to make the best possible choices … and avoid the worst ones. When you start testing mattresses or “flopping around” on them … it’s important to make sure that the people or businesses you are dealing with are able to tell you what is in the mattresses you are testing or your time will be mostly wasted and you won’t know what types of mattress materials or combinations you tend to prefer.

If the retailers or manufacturers you are dealing with can tell you about the specifics of what is in each mattress that seems to be suitable for you … then you will be able to make meaningful comparisons about the things you can’t feel when you test a mattress and you will know which type of materials are in the mattresses that work best for you that you can feel.

I would completely avoid choosing a mattress based on “comfort specs” which includes the thickness of the layers or the softness/firmness of the layers. While they can be useful to help you understand some of the basic concepts involved in mattress design … with careful and objective testing your body will tell you much more about which mattresses are more suitable for you in terms of PPP (Posture and alignment, pressure relief, and Personal preferences) than any3specs. The quality specs (foam density for polyfoam and memory foam and the type and blend of any latex) are the specs that are important so that you can identify any weak links in a mattress and make more meaningful comparisons in terms of quality/durability and value when you are comparing mattresses. You can’t “feel” the quality/durability of the materials so this is the part you need to know … for the rest careful and objective testing will give you the best odds of making the most suitable choice. You may be overthinking this :slight_smile:

These are all part of the tradeoffs that each person or couple needs to decide on. There are also many factors involved in the sleeping temperature of a mattress besides just the type of foam used in the comfort layers and there are also many versions of each material that sleep cooler or warmer even if they are in the same category. Post #2 here has more information about the many factors that can affect sleeping temperature and if you go in the direction of memory foam then the other factors involved in sleeping temperature would become more important to help “offset” the warmer nature of most memory foam compared to other types of foam. This would include the cover of the mattress, any quilting in the cover, your mattress protector, your sheets, and your bedding as well as the thickness and softness of the upper foam layers.

There are no memory foam support layers because memory foam is too soft to be used in the support layers. Memory foam is a comfort material used in the upper layers of a mattress not in the deeper support layers. You can read more about the pros and cons of memory foam in this article and the pros and cons of latex in this article. Memory foam absorbs energy so it is more motion isolating than other materials but if you have a thin layer of memory foam over an innerspring for example then you will still feel the larger movements that “reach” the innerspring even though the smaller movements will be absorbed by the memory foam.

There are many types of memory foam and some are more temperature sensitive and take longer to soften and others are less temperature sensitive and respond more quickly. There are also many memory foam designs and some of them are very soft and some are firmer. This is true of all types of mattresses.

Again … there is no such thing as a mattress that has a memory foam support layer … it’s just too soft a material to be used in the deeper layers of the mattress. Memory foam mattresses all have other materials underneath the memory foam.

He’s certainly right although I don’t know if I would describe it by saying they would “cancel each other out” but he was probably just trying to find a simple way to say that no reasonable manufacturer would make it … which is correct.

I would focus on all the parts of a mattress that contribute to sleeping temperature and if you are looking at memory foam then I would consider faster response, less temperature sensitive, and “cooler” memory foams or gel memory foam (which can have some benefit when you are first going to sleep but not generally over the course of the night when moisture wicking and ventilation is a more important part of temperature regulation over the course of the whole night.

Some of the better options and possibilities in the Atlanta area I’m aware of are listed in post #2 here.

Phoenix

All they refer to those TempurPedic beds as is “Memory Foam.” So what is it that’s under the Memory Foam? Polyfoam? Maybe I should be looking for a Latex comfort layer and a Polyfoam support layer?

You can still get the comfort of memory foam without sleeping too hot. If you like the feel of memory foam like the TempurPedic beds you can simply add a ChiliPad to the top of your mattress. They come in single and dual zones and can set your sleep surface preferred temperature between 46 degrees to 118 degrees F. They control the temperature of the water continuously circulating through medical-grade silicone tubing in the pad so you can achieve your perfect individual sleep environment.