Hoping Latex Will Sleep Cool

Talk To The Experts Latex Mattress Factory
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Dear Latex Mattress Factory,

I’m so glad to have found this site. I’m hoping a DIY latex mattress will work for me. A little about me, female, 40+, no back pain or health issues at all, BMI 25, side and stomach sleeper. Every night I fall asleep on my side and wake up on my stomach.

I invested in a BeautyRest mattress that felt wonderfully firm on the showroom floor. But then I guess it had a memory foam layer? Because it slept so hot I ended up throwing it in the garbage where it belongs.

In search of something that sleeps cool, I’ve slept on wool rugs, carpet remnants, the wooden floor, air mattresses, bags of buckwheat hulls, you name it. When I sleep on something hard though, I notice I have upper arm pain because I drive my arm into the surface when I sleep on my side.

I have been reading about your latex layers. I’m really hoping they breathe and won’t overheat me. As a typical stomach sleeper, I love a firm feel and ABSOLUTELY DO NOT WANT TO SINK INTO, OR BE “HUGGED” BY MY MATTRESS ABSOLUTELY NOT, PLEASE NO.

But as you know it needs a little give, so I don’t drive my upper arm into the thing and cut off my circulation.

So I need a Twin XL, I guess three layers of latex, for the DIY style? I’m just not sure whether to get dunlop or talalay because I read dunlop is firmer but talalay breathes better? Maybe I’m not understanding that correctly. Please advise.

Thanks in advance,
Lesley

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Hey lesley_hilton,

Welcome to our Mattress Forum :slight_smile: ! Thanks for your kind words about the site. I see you’ve reached out to TMU trusted member Latex Mattress Factory regarding a DIY latex mattress.

I have been reading about your latex layers. I’m really hoping they breathe and won’t overheat me. As a typical stomach sleeper, I love a firm feel and ABSOLUTELY DO NOT WANT TO SINK INTO, OR BE “HUGGED” BY MY MATTRESS ABSOLUTELY NOT, PLEASE NO.

Thanks too for your question to them, LMF is very responsive with our consumer members, someone will check in with you shortly. Keep us posted on your mattress shopping journey…

Thanks,
Sensei

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Hello lesley_hilton and thanks for your interest in LMF! Being a side and stomach sleeper can be a difficult combination for sure! As a side sleeper you need contour and cushion for your shoulders and hips and as a stomach sleeper you need a firmer sleeping surface. With our DIY mattresses you can customize each layer to create any feel you prefer. It sounds as though you like a firmer mattress so our recommendation would probably be a bit firmer than your BMI would suggest. Also keep in mind that if you do prefer that firmer feel and just want slight cushion you could also get a 2" comfort layer instead of a 3". For instance, you could start with a firm support base using two 3" layers of Firm and then a 2" layer of medium on top. But, most importantly, if you try that set up and find that it’s too firm or too soft, you can unzip the cover and rearrange the layers or request a layer exchange to adjust accordingly and get the mattress fine-tuned for your specific preferences & needs. Latex is an open-celled product that is naturally breathable and sleeps cool. Talalay does have more air forced into it whereas Dunlop has more rubber forced into it so if I had to choose, I would say Talalay is a bit cooler than Dunlop. Talalay is bouncier and springier and is generally better at contour and pressure relief on your hips and shoulders. Dunlop is denser and firmer and is generally better at support and maintaining proper spinal alignment, so our most common configuration is Talalay for the top layer and Dunlop for the bottom 2 layers, but you can use more layers of Talalay if you’d like. I hope this helps, but please feel free to call us with any questions or help with building your mattress!

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Thank you LMF for your reply!
Sounds good.
Lesley

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UPDATE:

I bought the 3" Talalay Firm from your store. It sleeps very hot.

Anyway what do I do now? I want to cut it down to 1" to see if that would be bearable, but I don’t know how to do that. Any suggestions?

Lesley

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Hi Lesley,

I don’t know if this is relevant to your situation, but are you using a mattress protector and, if so, what kind?

I have an all-talalay mattress and tend to sleep hot. I’ve noticed that when I use a mattress protector with a polyurethane layer (e.g., waterproof), the heat is retained more than if I use one that is water resistant (e.g., fabric/fiber alone, no polyurethane) or don’t use one at all.

Just a thought!

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Hi Lesley,
I was hoping to get to this thread before you bought anything. As you see from my name, I, like you, am a hot sleeper. I’ve always been hot natured (and grew up in the South) so I have a great deal of experience in the field. I am also in my 40s and primarily a side sleeper.
What I observe is that mattresses are increasingly jammed full of more coils and more materials, and they sleep hotter and hotter and hotter.
We recently changed our bed to a slat bed (which is a style that sleeps cooler). We have a futon in the same style with a traditional futon mattress that does not sleep hot.
We bought a Serta spring mattress in 2010 that was absolutely fine. We went back to the same retailer, Sleep Country, in November to get a new one. That’s when the problems started…
First they sold us the hilariously named Serta duoChill. Hilarious, because it turns hotter than the hinges of hell within two hours. Having spoken to a few hot sleeping folks (and by this I mean bona fide hot sleepers), I am pretty adamant on this point:
THERE IS NO MEMORY FOAM OF ANY KIND THAT WORKS FOR HOT SLEEPERS.
I changed to the same firepit you are now sleeping on, the most ironically named Simmons Beautyrest. It is going back to the store Wednesday, and not a moment too soon. I too tried to make the thing work with a Talalay latex topper from Sattva. Problem #2:
Latex is an insulator and will absolutely trap the heat of a hot sleeper in topper form.
Also, I have tried everything out there from bamboo toppers to bamboo sheets to the ICE and SNOW mattress protectors. If a mattress sleeps hot, aside from buying a Chillpad/Ooler (which I won’t do because I don’t have the troubleshooting patience that it requires nor the budget for a $1,000 topper), there is not much that can be done.
Because of the really lovely experience I had with the Sattva (they were beyond helpful and efficient when I had to return their latex topper) and many reports from both mattress sites and real people on how cool it sleeps, that will be our next mattress buy.
In the meantime, as I am locked in with Sleep Country, I pushed back hard and was granted a second exchange. I am getting a Kingsdown, made in the sultry, steamy town of Mebane, NC, where they understand hot sleeping better than, say, Simmons, an Illinois company.
I hear they’re not so durable, but that’s OK - I can recoup if it’ll hold up three years, and get a Sattva.
In the unlikely event the Sattva doesn’t work out, what we’ll probably do is invest in a traditional futon mattress.
The synthetic materials and lack of breathing room are the problems with the new world of mattresses. Chronic stress and sedentarism have left a whole lot of people in chronic pain, and thus the market has adapted to their needs.
One last thought - the thinner and the firmer the mattress, in my opinion, the cooler it sleeps.
Here’s hoping we both find the bed of our dreams before the hot flashes come on…
Best of luck and let us know how it goes!

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Thanks Turquoise!

I used the Talalay later with no mattress protector, just a sheet. I think the protector would help with my body kind of “sticking” to the latex as I turn, but as far as heat retention, I don’t think it would do anything. The latex is going to trap heat no matter what.

I don’t know why the mods on this forum be saying latex sleeps cool. It absolutely does not.

Thanks again for your reply!

Lesley

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Dear superhotsleeper,

Thanks for your thoughts and commiseration! You get me.

The last few nights I have been sleeping on the floor, on buckwheat hulls stuffed inside a sheet. I wish I was making this up, but I’m not. Buckwheat hulls breathe, that is, they let air circulate. Trouble is, they don’t like to stay in one place. They like to move around. So it’s like a feather pillow—you have to adjust it and fluff it periodically. So I woke up in the night, and shifted them around and it was comfortable. They do kinda hug your body, but not in the suffocating way of Memory Foam. I like the way they feel, their natural vibe, if you follow me.

I totally agree with you about memory foam. No foam of any kind works for a hot sleeper. It just doesn’t breathe.

And it has nothing to do with the sheets, the temperature of the room, or anything else. It has to do with the materials under your body trapping your body heat and creating an inferno.

I don’t know why the Latex Mattress Factory and the mods on this forum say that latex sleeps cool. That demonstrably false.

Thanks again for your thoughts.

Lesley

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I agree. I went by what the moderators were saying about latex sleeping cool. I have been sleeping on my latex mattresses for two weeks now and I am very disappointed. Unlike what was stated, latex does not sleep cool.

I do have a 3" talalay layer on top? Would it sleep cooler with a 3" dunlop layer instead?

Just spent a lot of money on 2 twin xl’s and I think we are going to have to just give them away to someone who can stand the heat.

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I really don’t think so, normally Talalay will sleep a little cooler than Dunlop. If you don’t mind me asking, what materials do you have between yourself and the latex? Bed sheets, waterproof protector, cotton & wool mattress cover, etc.

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I have the Cotton/wool cover purchased with mattresses and a 100" cotton fitted sheet. I specifically did not put on any additional protector because I thought it may cause the mattress to sleep hot. My husband who normally did not mention when our old mattress slept hot, but he was the first of the two of us to mention about the latex mattress.

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Wow. Well my advice is normally to remove one component at a time to see if it’s really the latex or something else. If you wanted to, you can try sleeping on the mattress without the sheets for a night to see if that makes a difference, and if it doesn’t (and if the mattress cover allows this) you can try taking off both the sheets AND the top panel of the wool cover, and if you do that and it sleeps fine, you know it’s the cover or the sheets. If you try sleeping directly on the latex and the problem remains, then you know the latex is the problem. Of course you don’t have to try these things, but we get so very few complaints about latex sleeping hot (maybe 2 or 3 times per year) that it may be worth a try.

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Thank you. I may try your suggestions.

I really thought the cotton/wool cover would sleep cool and normally 100% cotton sheets do also.