High temperatures
Cooling pillows for warm nights: this way you sweat less while you sleep
A cooling pillow can be helpful on hot summer nights.
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There is no question that an even sleep pattern is good for your health. On warm summer nights, however, bed rest becomes more than difficult when you are lying in your own sweat. To increase sleeping comfort, you can take measures – such as changing your pillow.
If a pillow tends to store heat, so-called heat build-up can occur in summer, i.e. moisture is not wicked away, so that you sweat more around your head and neck when the temperature is high. This is not only uncomfortable, but also reduces sleep at night – and thus also the ability to perform during the day. In order to keep a cool head in the truest sense of the word, you should take a closer look at your pillow. Both the material and the air circulation are decisive. For this reason, special cooling pillows are a pleasant alternative to the classic pillow in summer. They usually have special gel inserts that wick heat and moisture away from the body and air channels for better circulation. Below we present five different models.
This is where cooling pads differ: 5 models in comparison
1. Premium CoolGelTM with Eco-Gel
Made from pressure-sensitive memory foam, this cooling pad from Supportiback has a heat-dissipating Eco-Gel. On warm days, it can promote healthy sleep by reducing head sweating. On cold days, you can simply turn the pillow and use the soft, cuddly side to sleep. The dimensions are 30 x 11 x 36 cm.
2. Cooling pad with ClimaCool cover
The pillow made of viscoelastic foam from Third of Life won the Ergonomics Innovation Prize in 2021. It has a special ClimaCool cover (washable at 40 degrees), which is supposed to ensure optimal cooling during sleep on hot days. In addition, the lying height can be changed with a removable insert. The dimensions are: 56 x 36 x 11.5 cm.
3. Neck support pillow with cooling effect
Unlike the other models, this one has neck support pillow for side, stomach and back sleepers standard dimensions (40 x 80 cm). It contains 400 grams of new PES fiber beads, which – according to the manufacturer – should provide the right cuddly feeling. The pillow, which can be washed at 60 degrees, gets its cooling effect from its polyamide fibres.
4. Club spores with thermoelastic gel foam
Ikea is also introducing ergonomic cooling pad (74 x 35 cm) for side and back sleepers. It also consists of cushioning memory foam on one side and thermoelastic gel foam on the other side: This is intended to increase sleeping comfort on warm days as a cool contact surface. The cover is breathable, moisture-regulating and washable.
5. Cooling pillow insert
The bottom of this series is not a real pillow, but a cooling one gel insert (56cm x 32cm) for your regular sleeping pillow. The corresponding cover contains cotton and is washable. According to the manufacturer, the use in the refrigerator can also be tempered, but it is not a must – the cooling effect is given by the gel it contains.
And one last tip: There are also cooling pillowcases in different sizes that you can slip over your regular pillows.
Buying a cooling pad: These criteria are crucial
If you are interested in a cooling pad, you should pay attention to the following criteria when buying:
Breathable Materials: Whether cotton, bamboo or Tencel – natural fibers provide the necessary comfort, good air circulation and fast heat conduction. In addition, moisture should be able to evaporate better, so that a cooling effect is achieved. The thread density can be used to determine how breathable a pillow is. The value should be below 400.
Washable cushion cover: Despite the integrated cooling layer, it will not be possible to completely avoid sweating at night during your sleep. For this reason, when buying a cooling pad, you should make sure that the cover can be removed separately (e.g. via a zipper) and cleaned in the washing machine.
Ergonomic shape: As you can see from our presented series of cooling pads, there are many different sizes. Depending on whether you sleep on your back, side or stomach, you should pay attention to the (ergonomic) shape of the pillow when buying it – depending on the manufacturer, some models have been designed for different sleep types or specifically for neck problems.
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