Do you often find yourself tossing and turning all night long, feeling hot and uncomfortable no matter how cool your bedroom may be? Or do you wake up in the middle of the night feeling hot and sweaty and find that going back to sleep is unappealing because your sheets are as damp and sticky as you feel yourself? Sleeping hot can lead to a serious lack of sleep, which can cause problems in concentration, irritability, and, eventually, issues with your health. 

A cooling mattress pad may help you to get a better night's sleep and to maintain your health. But do cooling mattress pads really work? 

What Exactly Is A Cooling Mattress Pad?
A cooling mattress pad is a pad that goes over your mattress and is able to absorb extra heat and help regulate your body temperature while you sleep. When you sleep cooler, you are able to get a more comfortable night's sleep. Most cooling mattress pads have specific features that are designed to draw heat away from your body during the night, preventing you from sleeping too hot and resulting in a better and more restful night's sleep.

Why You Sleep Hot On That Memory Foam Mattress 
Most high-quality mattresses are made from memory foam that supports your body while you sleep. However, memory foam can lead you to sleep hot due to the fact that the foam needs to be dense enough to support your body, which can constrict the amount of air circulation between your body and your mattress. 

Due to the lack of air circulation, the heat from your body gets trapped in the mattress, and as you sleep, the temperature within the mattress continues to rise. The denser the mattress, the hotter you are likely to sleep.
In order to sleep cooler, you can either change to a cooler mattress (which can be extremely expensive) or solve your problem by purchasing a cooling mattress pad to allow for better ventilation and allow you to sleep cooler. 

What Features You Should Look for In A Cooling Mattress Pad
Not every mattress pad is a cooling mattress pad, so when choosing one, there are some features you need to look for. 

Air Flow - The first thing you want to look for is good airflow between you and the mattress pad and through the layers of the pad. Having adequate air flow will allow you to sleep much cooler since there is less chance of heat building up.

Cotton or Bamboo - When looking for a cooling mattress pad, choose one that is covered in either cotton or bamboo fabric rather than in man-made materials. Studies suggest that mattress pads made from plant-based products tend to stay cooler than those that are man-made.

Look for that Something Extra- Most cooling mattress pads have an added something that is believed to help keep the pads cooler (such as gel or copper infusions). These types of additional materials tend to help keep your mattress pad cooler and, therefore, your body cooler longer than mattress pads that do not have any of these added features. 

Don't Expect Your Mattress Pad To Provide All the Cooling You Need
While a cooling mattress pad can help you to sleep cooler, it may simply not be enough to help prevent you from sleeping hot all on its own. There are other things you need to do to help your cooling mattress pad do the job it is meant to do. Here are other things you need to do to help you to sleep cooler.

Make Sure Your Bedroom Has Good Ventilation 
Airflow is important to sleeping cooler, so you need to make sure that your bedroom, as well as your cooling mattress pad, has good ventilation because you want air to circulate around your bedroom as well as in your mattress pad. Cracking a window slightly open or having a small cooling fan running in your bedroom at night can supply proper ventilation and air movement.

Lower Your Bedroom Temperature
Experts recommend that your bedroom temperature be somewhere between 68 and 72 degrees while you are sleeping. Keeping your bedroom temperature lower will help you sleep cooler and help your cooling mattress pad function properly. If you keep your bedroom temperature too high, it makes it difficult, if not impossible, for your cooling mattress pad to be as effective as it is designed to be. 

Choose Cooler Bedding
All too often, people purchase a cooling mattress pad and then choose and use bedding that actually holds your body heat in. If you want your cooling mattress to work properly, then you need to choose cooler bedding. Try using cotton or bamboo sheets instead of those polyester sheets, since these natural materials tend to be more breathable than man-made materials. When you lay on and under a cooler surface, you are much more likely to sleep cooler. 

If you use a comforter on your bed, then a down-filled cotton comforter can keep you cooler than those comforters filled with other substances. In the summer, when temperatures soar, you may even want to invest in an electric cooling blanket to actually help keep you cooler even on those hot steamy nights. 

So while cooling mattress pads do work to help prevent you from sleeping hot, they simply can't do the job alone. You yourself do take other steps to keep your bedroom ventilated and cool as well as choosing breathable and cooler bedding can all help that cooling mattress be more effective at providing you with a cooler and more comfortable night's sleep protecting your health and leaving you feeling well-rested and ready to take on the world or at least your little part of it.