Very hot sleeper - need help

Mattress Talk Needs & Personal Preferences
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Hello mattress underground. I’m in desperate need of help… I recently found out i’m an excessively hot sleeper around 2019 when i switched out my old mattress for a hand-me-down from my aunt. Ever since then, not a single bed has been adequate. For reference, i’m a 30 year old male, i’m about 6" 1’ and I weigh 380lbs and I’ve been this weight for most of my life.

My bed history, so far.

Bed 1 i slept on since 2001 and then gave it up in 2019.
Imgur: The magic of the Internet This is the only picture i have of it. I do not remember what brand it was, but heat was never an issue with it. The only time i ever needed a fan or similar with it, was the hottest days of summer. All i know is, it was some kind of innerspring, possibly Bonnell Coil, and it had a thin layer of padding on top. You could feel the springs if you pressed your hand hard enough, which never bothered me. It was both supportive but let you sink in enough to give you this sorta “sleeping on a cloud” like feeling. it was a name brand, i wanna say… Sealy or Serta, but i don’t remember. It was so good at regulating my temperature that in the winter I’d put flannel sheets on and an extra thick duvet to be extra warm and cozy.

Bed 2 was a hand-me-down from my aunt. It slept super hot, which wouldn’t have been a problem… if it didn’t cause me to stay up all night. That’s my main issue with the heat, i will not fall asleep if i’m too hot, period. This can last up to three days if I’m unable to find a remedy. And that really makes life insufferable. I do not recall the brand or the materials, but it was a super thick mattress.

Bed 3 was my grandma’s old bed, and it too slept pretty hot. It was a “Simmons Beautyrest Do not Disturb” my grandma got around 2005. It was a double-sided, pocketed coil mattress with two inches of regular polyurethane foam padding. Here’s the weird thing… I’ve slept on this bed before I switched it out with my aunt’s. That was my motivation in fact. And in all that time, i never had an issue with it. Not until i slept on my aunt’s bed. It was too hot. A fan worked… until it didn’t. I managed to make it through a pretty hot summer on it in 2019 using a fan or two, but come spring 2020 that just didn’t work anymore… and I don’t know why…

Bed 4 – my current mattress – is a Joybed LX https://joybeds.com/lx-natural-mattress.html (link for more info). I was excited when i first discovered it. From my research it appeared that foam was the culprit in my hot sleepless nights. So I jumped at the chance to get a Joybed when I had the money for it. And at only $1,190 I thought it’d be the perfect deal. No foam, cotton and wool and pocketed coils. It should be perfect. Unfortunately that didn’t prove to be the case… While it wasn’t as hot as Bed 2 or my Bed 3… it was still too hot to make a difference. I still required a fan on to sleep, even on cooler nights. The upside was… if it was cool enough outside I could sleep without a fan on if I left my door open or a window. But anything above 44f required a fan. However as spring 2021 ramps up… I’m starting to see a pattern. The fan doesn’t work for some reason, again… Last night was 50f outside, i had a window and a door open with the fan running and i didn’t get any sleep, and I’m afraid that things will get worse as the weather gets warmer.

I really don’t get what’s going on here, why does my fan work through summer but then stop when the weather turns to spring? Why do i have such a huge issue with heat? My family is always cold, my parents slept in a memory foam mattress without a single complaint for years, what the hell makes me different? Why did my third bed work for years when my grandma own it, but the moment i own it it’s like sleeping on a hot grill?

Other things i’ve tried.

Gel-infused memory foam topper - i got one for Bed 3 and it worked for about two weeks and then just slept hot like usual. Could it have just been cheep? I got it for about $100 on Amazon. Would a higher quality topper like this last longer?

Bedjet - doesn’t seem to work that well for me. And it’s a bit noisy. However i may have been using it wrong so it might require further experimentation.

Beautyred Black Hybrid - got a chance to test this out for a few days at a friend’s house. Didn’t work, the “cooling” technology inside was not as promised, was one of the hottest beds i’ve slept in.

Things i’m considering:

Purple - (everyone knows what this is, i don’t think i need a link) Has a good reputation for sleeping cool, but mixed reviews in comfort and durability. Also very expensive, the purple 4 is suppose to be better for someone of my weight, but it’s their most expensive mattress.

Latex hybrid - I’m somewhat skeptical of a latex mattress, even a hybrid, because the current mattress i’m on is foam free and it’s still pretty hot. I don’t know if Latex is suppose to be better than a cotton/wool mattress. But they are a little bit cheaper than a purple.

Parachute Mattress - Eco Mattress | Parachute suggested by someone on Reddit. Looks promising, might be more breathable than the Joybed, but still kind of skeptical. Also expensive, and as a guy without a job right now, that makes most things out of my budget.

Air Mattress - a good temporary fix, but like i said, i don’t know how good it’ll be for me or how long it’ll last, and i don’t know how long i’m going to be unemployed for.

Winkbed - Skeptical on winkbed, some have said it’s pretty temperature neutral and it’s good for overweight people. But it’s got foam in it…

DIY Bed - A potential for an inexpensive bed that’ll last and might give me what i want. I just don’t know where to begin…

Chilipad - seems promising and less expensive than a new mattress, but i’m worried about leaking and noise. I already find fans to be annoying enough, but i don’t know how loud a Chilipad is.

Phase Change Material - skeptical, heard mixed reviews on effectiveness. Some have stated that it will keep you cool for a moment then reflect heat back at you like memory foam does.

Has anyone else had similar experiences to me? Do any of you have better recommendations? Does my sleeping hot issues seem particularly weird to anyone? I’m not the only person of my weight that i know of and none of them complain about sleeping hot. Could it be medical? Why did bed 2 work when my grandma owned it, but not when i owned it? I’m using the same sheets i’ve used for years, the ones that worked just fine on Bed 1, so i don’t think it could be that. How could Bed 4, an all cotton and wool mattress… sleep hot? Why would a fan work perfectly fine during the summer, but then not work when the weather warms up again? I’m really confused, i’m really desperate and i could really use some answers.

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I am a hot sleeper too and what has worked best for me are foam free mattresses. I have a Vispring which I love. It is not the cheapest brand but most mattresses on the market use foam.

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Well like i mentioned, i’m on a foam free mattress now (Joybed) and it still sleeps hot.

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Ah, my mistake. Maybe it is the fire retardant plant layer at the top of the mattress that is hot? Bamboo sheets sleep hot.

You could also consider something like the Intellibed. They do use some foam (not memory foam) but the foam layers are perforated and minimal as it is a gel matrix and coil springs that do most of the work.

You have been at your current weight most of your life but that doesn’t mean your hormones are staying the same. It is possible that you will need to lose weight to sleep cool again.

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I have also considered intellibed, but their price and use of foam was off putting to me.

The general consensus is generally my weight, and i am attempting to lose it. (though this has been difficult with the mediocre sleep). I’m hoping it will help, since it’d be nice it would mean more beds would be available for consideration.

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Microcoils/ nano coils sleep very cool for me. Out of your choices I would try parachute or purple 1st. You can always return either if they dont work for you. Have you considered the naturepedic eos w/ microcoils?

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looks promising, but again… expensive. I still don’t have a job yet, so anything in the thousands range is out of my reach.

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Hey Cuboos,

Welcome to TMU :slight_smile: ! Good to meet you and thanks for your question.

Thanks for the excellently crafted details of your previous bed history, Cuboos, they are most helpful. To be clear: did you first realize that you have become an excessively hot sleeper sometime during the year 2019? I can only imagine how frustrating these past years have been while dealing with that issue. “Sleeping hot” is one of the more common sleep disruptions and one of the deeper riddles to solve as every aspect of personal comfort is individual and subjective for each person. What is your preferred sleep position(s)? What size bed are you looking for and what is your budget for purchase? Do you have COVID-safe showrooms nearby for mattress testing and comparison? For brevity, I’ll be working with the summary below for more conversation.

I have no medical expertise and cannot offer any professional opinions on your situation. However, you may consider visiting your physician for a checkup and rule out any potential health concerns that have developed since your initial awareness of developing excessively hot sleeping patterns. High blood pressure, thyroid issues, and any number of hormonal imbalances can trigger night sweats and heat sensitivity, as well as contribute to other physical problems. 30 years old is a good age for a benchmark checkup to ensure that a newly-developed underlying condition isn’t the root cause for your sudden temperature sensitivity. Hopefully, you won’t have any health problems and can then start crossing off other potential heat retention sources such as sheets, pillows, encasements, bed clothes, etc.

Cuboos, I wish I could offer an explanation for your questions, but the only one that comes to mind is pretty nebulous: “It’s hard to say why.” Especially with the fan thing, I totally don’t get the seasonality of its periodic usefulness. Thanks to all of the TMU consumers who offered counsel and hope you find the temperature relief that you seek soon. Do you have any updates on your research?

Thanks,
Sensei

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Hi Cuboos,
I empathize completely as I have the same problem. There is alot more to this than sleeping hot - I have been forced into researching this extensively in the past few years.
I will reply at length later, if you can be a little patient as it will take some time.
Just for your information - for now - it is far more than simply getting hot at night but a very serious health risk.
More later…

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Cuboos:

There’s quite a bit of misinformation out there regarding “sleeping cool” and “cooling technologies”, much of it represented poorly by the industry and salespeople. I can provide a bit of general information that hopefully can guide you through your search.

I’ve learned from one of the leading chemists in the foam technology industry that the most important thing to maintaining a more neutral sleep environment is air flow, stating they can accomplish more with air flow that any current phase change/mineral technology. To that end…

Softer mattresses will generally “sleep warmer” than harder mattresses. The more you sink in, the more you’re insulated, regardless of the materials within the mattress. Also, less surface area of your body is exposed for heat exchange.

More breathable comfort materials can flow more air and help with both humidity and temperature regulation. Newer generations of memory foams and higher-density ultra plush polyfoams do flow more air when they are at rest, but as softer foams, when compressed (these materials tend to be located higher up in the mattress) the cell windows tend to be closed off and air flow is minimized.

Additives can help to a degree (pun intended). There are some materials that can be added to foams and yarns that will technically distribute heat faster than other materials without such additives. Phase change materials (there are a myriad of different types) can help flow heat away from the body, and some are more effective than others, and this also depends upon the concentration within the padding materials. Minerals are one of the more effective means of transferring heat, but again concentrations have to be large for them to be truly beneficial. A combination of phase change materials with minerals seems to offer the most benefit. But the thing with these additives is that the system is limited by the percentage of additives to the foams, so in effect (this is an oversimplification) the system reaches a point and then “loads”, at which point it has reached its capacity to transfer heat, and then your temperature is going to be dictated primarily by your 91-92 degree skin temperature. Realize that these materials aren’t actually lower your body temperature, but its more about the the flow of energy from your skin that creates your perception of hot and cold.

“Hollow” support cores tend to flow more air than “filled” support cores. Innerspring units will typically allow more air to flow through them than foam support cores. Mattresses placed upon slatted networks or coir bed rugs will also have an increased ability to flow air.

The things closest to your skin will tend to have the most dramatic impact - mattress pads and sheets.

With mattress pads, avoid anything using an impregnated PVC/plastic/vinyl layer. You may even want to avoid a polyurethane film. Choose something breathable and unobtrusive. You may wish to investigate something like the Chilipad system. Circulating water at a temperature in the 60 degree range certainly will provide a sensation of coolness - just ask anyone whose waterbed heater has decided to quit in the middle of the night!

As for sheets, you want a weave that is breathable and a yarn that helps to promote moisture wicking and release. Viscose derivative fibers, such as rayon or lyocell, tend to be good at this,

Of course, attempting to keep the bedroom temperature in the mid-60 degree range and a relative humidity below 50% assists greatly.

As to one of your other more specific questions, yes there are health conditions associated with feeling warmer, such as hyperthyroidism, excess weight, medication side effects, diabetes and anhidrosis, just to name a few. A visit with a health care professional would be in line to discuss such things.

Hopefully this general information gives you some insight as you move forward.

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Cuboos-
Have you solved your problem with hot mattresses? Because I’m having the same problem and if you’ve found a temperature neutral mattress I’d like to hear what brand it is.

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Take a look at eight sleep. You can select the temperature of your bed in an app, the mattress topper has water in it that can be heated and cooled. It is amazing. I haven’t been through a summer with it but I love heating it up a bit in winter.