Memory foam mattress heat sink

[Duane King]

I read an earlier thread about foam mattresses. I went to Wal-Mart and purchased a 4" thick memory foam mattress topper. It is actually 2.5 inches of medium density foam and 1.5 inches of memory foam. This seemed perfect for my teardrop trailer. It is not designed to be a stand alone mattress, but I put it on the hardwood floor of my living room and it was pretty darn comfortable.

My wife and I spent the night in the living room on this mattress. I slept great except for the fact that the foam mattress seemed to be drawing the heat out of my body. I usually sleep very warm and have never experienced this before. Usually any mattress I sleep on warms up from my body heat and I sleep under just a sheet and a light blanket all night. But this foam bed never warmed up. It was cold all night even though I kept piling on the blankets. I finally put blankets between me and the mattress and then I slept fine. I have a raised foundation home and there is no insulation under the wood floor. Just 2' of crawlspace. Maybe it was the wood floor. But then, the floor of my tear will not be insulated either. And there is air below the tear.

My question is this. . . Has anyone else experienced having their foam bed feel cold? My wife says get a down cover for the foam bed. I feel silly getting a mattress cover for my mattress cover. If the down cover doesn't work, I guess we could just cover that as well. This could go on forever. I think the foam is acting like a great big "heat sink". But maybe it is totally the fault of the floor. Waddayathink?

[IndyCubby]

Hi Duane,

My guess is that since the mattress is so thin, your bodies are compressing it to the point that you are actually very very close to the floor. There's just not that much space insulating between your body and the floor when you are laying on it.

I have the thicker version of the mattress from Walmart and have never experienced the chill. Maybe you could add another couple of inches of regular foam to the bottom and you would not only do away with the chill, but you would also get a little more cushion too.

[SteveH]

I have a Knox Foam 4" mattress with a 1 1/4" memory foam topper in my TD and have not experienced the "heat sink" problem.

[Steve_Cox]

Hi Duane,

Insulated floor, 5" foam futon mattress, 3" memory foam here. The memory foam in it's cover with just a sheet over it felt a little cool to us too, so my wife put a filled mattress cover on it and the "heatsink" feeling went away.

[halfdome, Danny]

My floor has 1" of rigid insulation and our mattress is 4" of Knox foam with 1" of memory foam. We use two sleeping bags rated for 30 deg zipped together and it's warm, sometimes too warm this summer so we had to run the fantasticfan all night long. Now sleepingbags are on sale we will get a couple for warmer weather. Danny

[Finntec]

We have a 3" and an 8" from walmart. We have not noticed anything like you describe. FYI the 8" is way too thick for us. Our combined weight is about 290 lbs. We cut them down to 4 X 6.

[Guy]

Dear Duane,

The most common form of inexpensive memory foam is the type that responds to temperature from your body. That is the type you have.


The more expensive form of memory foan responds to weight and has no "heatsink" properties.

The usual solution is to place the foam in a terry cloth or other thick cover which would allow for air under your body to circulate keeping you pleasantly cool or warm dependent on the ambient temperature.

[Miriam C.]

Duane,
We got our mattress in yesterday. I hadn't realized what I ordered relyed on body temperature to mold itself to you (extra firm). Mike loves it. He sinks right in and doesn't get hot and his back didn't hurt at all. He loves to sleep cold with a fan on.

I have no body heat and it is like laying on a rock. I am putting a 2" layer of eggcrate something on my side.
Cheap =JC Penny's pad

May I suggest a feather bed to snuggle in.