Getting a good night's sleep on a bed that is too cold or too hot is extremely tough.

Have you ever spent sleepless nights tossing on your mattress due to uncomfortable temperatures? If yes, you are not alone. Most of us don’t even know that different mattress types are suited to different climates.
Sleeping too hot can lead to excessive sweating, frequent sleep breaks, and a lot of tossing and turning, ultimately leading to sleep problems and a fatigued and unrested body. On the other hand, sleeping too cold can worsen body issues like fibromyalgia and arthritis.
India, being a tropical country, has a diverse set of climatic conditions. Its either hot or humid down south and in the east and west, and extreme hot or cold in the north. With varying climates, the suitability of mattress types also changes and it becomes necessary to choose a mattress that is best suited to the climate in your area.

Are you a Hot Sleeper or a Cold Sleeper?
Though climate plays a large part in the room temperature and the temperature of your mattress and bedding, individual preferences and metabolisms also are responsible for temperature while you sleep. Due to the dependence of body temperature on metabolism, sleeping partners generally have different ideas of what’s comfortable. Sleeping partners can have opposite preferences, which becomes even more difficult to deal with.
Also, our body temperature fluctuates during the night. What feels comfortable when you go to bed might feel too hot or too cold in the middle of the night. Plus, there are allergies or non-preference of certain fabrics or materials in your bedsheet or in the mattress, that might further impact your sleep comfort.

Such personal preferences and individual metabolism related temperature problems can also be fixed using sleeping or bedding accessories like blankets, clothing, etc.

Climate and Mattress
When it comes to climate-related temperature issues, all it boils down to is choosing the mattress with the right material and make.
The materials used in mattresses can affect the mattress’ heat retaining properties and breathability. Therefore, while picking a mattress for any climate, you need to lay special emphasis on the materials used, properties of those materials, and how they interact with your body type. Each mattress construction provides a different level of breathability, some varying more than the others.

Here is what you can expect from different materials used in mattress construction;

Memory Foam:
Memory foam is a widely used material for many mattress types. Its wide use is mainly because it fulfills many sleep functions including spine alignment and pressure relief, at an affordable cost. Mattresses that use memory foams as core material tend to do just fine in winters. However, in summers, memory foam tends to increase the temperature resulting in people complaining about heat issues.

Such complaints also differ based on brands and types of memory foam. Generally, higher density foams provide lesser breathability than traditional memory foam. However, mattress companies also use other kinds of memory foam like gel-infused or plant-based foam, which helps people sleep cooler on these mattresses. The overall heat complaints come down significantly when heat issues are addressed with such foam types.

Additionally, memory foams can sleep much cooler when mattresses are topped with cooler materials like natural fiber in the top layer.

PU Foam:
This cousin of memory foam is not much different when it comes to sleep temperature. PU foam generally sleeps hotter and is not a good fit if you want to sleep cooler. Similar to memory foam, PU foam would not sleep much hotter, if it is topped with cooler materials in the initial layers.

Bonnell and Pocket Spring
Innerspring or coil mattresses have metal springs or coil in the core layer. As springs provide a lot of empty space, the air circulation is generally better in innerspring or coil mattresses, making them cooler. However, innerspring and coil mattresses have layers made of other materials like foam or fiber on the top, which may impact the overall sleeping experience and such mattress may end up sleeping hotter. This is especially the case when the top layers are made of thick memory or PU foam. Such construction, though increases the sleep comfort, impact the temperature construct negatively.
Here again, usage of more breathable materials like gel-infused foam or natural fiber in the top layer can help you sleep cooler.

Latex Foam:
Contrary to general belief, latex helps sleep much cooler than other material due to its temperature neutral properties. Its temperature neutral properties ensure no heating up or cooling based on temperature changes.
The heat complaints in latex mattresses are generally the lowest as all kinds of latex absorb heat and moisture from the environment. Mattresses manufacturers can use two types of latex in the core layer of the mattress - natural or synthetic. Natural latex generally sleeps cooler than the synthetic latex.
Even in latex-based mattresses, the upper layers can be made of materials that sleep hotter, which can effectively reduce the temperature neutral property of the mattress. As latex mattresses are also amongst the expensive mattresses, you must ensure that that the materials used in top comfort layers don’t sleep too hot, making the latex base useless in terms of temperature neutrality.
Latex mattresses with pinholes sleep even more cooler because of its enhanced breathability.

Newer Technologies:
While mattresses have been built using the above materials for ages, some innovators have now come up with the mattresses built up of the same materials with built-in temperature controlled technologies. These mattresses haven’t yet seen a wide acceptance because of their steep price tag and a general averseness of the public to trust a new technology.
Going forward, such temperature-controlled mattresses, which are today a new toy for sleep enthusiasts, may become mainstream and gain wider acceptance.

How to Choose Mattresses for Different Climates in India?
To choose the best mattress for yourself, analyze the climate patterns of the area you live in. If you have lived in the area long enough, you would already know what you need in your mattress.

Temperature consideration while buying a mattress aren’t too common. However, it adds a lot to your sleep comfort if your mattress does not pile up to the already existing heat when you live in a hot climatic destination.

Latex mattresses can be your ultimate choice if you need the best temperature neutral mattress. You can pick a latex mattress that is built using more temperature neutral materials like natural fiber in the top layers. Look further for a more breathable quilting layer made up of silk, linen, wool, and horsehair (in premium mattresses).

The second best choice can be Bonnell and pocket spring mattress if you do not want to spend much and still need a mattress that’s more temperature neutral than high-density foam mattresses. The Bonnet and pocket spring mattresses will still use memory foam in the comfort later taking away some of the air circulation benefits of the spring base. In these mattresses also you must look for comfort layers and quilting layers that are made of more breathable materials.

Memory foams generally sleep hotter than latex and springs but are amongst the most affordable and comfortable mattresses on the market. In memory foams, the higher the density of the foam, hotter it will sleep. When a high-density foam is used in the top layers, the mattresses sleep even hotter. If you live in a geography with a hot climate throughout the year, buying a memory foam mattress will require a high level of room temperature control using air conditioners or other modes for a good quality sleep.

Conclusion:
Sleeping comfortably in a temperature-controlled environment isn’t too much of a problem because once you make the temperature of your room ambient, quality mattresses also adapt to the temperature. However, when you cannot control the temperature of your room, you need a mattress that does not add to the already existing heat or cold.

It could be frustrating to sleep if you are too hold or too cold at night. The lack of sleep may end up impacting your regular life sooner or later. The best way to choose the right mattress for a specific climate is to understand how all the materials mentioned above interact with your body and select the best mattress for your body type.

Also, it is not the case that the materials that sleep hot or cold are poor materials. In fact, it is just one area where they fall short. For example, memory foam a lot many advantages, and 90% of sleepers don’t feel problems sleeping on them, but when specifically asked about how hot these mattresses sleep, a minor 10% sleepers report heat-trapping issues. Such ratio for latex mattresses will be around 5% or lesser. 

It’s not only the mattress that impacts the heat and chill while sleeping, other accessories like bedsheets, comforters, blankets, and pillows also impact your overall quality of sleep. Therefore, when you buy your temperature neutral mattress, make sure that you don’t top it up with accessories made of unbreathable materials to get the best sleep possible.

If you are looking to buy a mattress in India, you can browse through a wide collection from King Koil’s catalog of products. King Koil is one of the best mattress brands, providing all sorts of mattresses to deliver best night’s sleep to its customers. You can also find out the kind of mattress best suitable to you by using King Koil’s proprietary technology tool called SleepID. All you would need is to answer a few questions on your body type and sleep patterns and the system will analyze your answers and find the best mattress for you. You can then select the mattress best suitable to you and buy it online hassle-free.