You wake up in a panic. At best, you’re a little warm. At worst, you’ve sweat through that Ralph Lauren pajama set. We talked about this in our

duvet testing, but there is nothing as horrible as waking up hot. If you’re a hot sleeper, a cooling mattress is one of the best investments you can make. You can revamp your bedding, dumping those old sheets for cooling-specific sheets, switch out your pillow, or go for a quilt instead of a fluffy down duvet. But honestly, the one true fix is switching out your current mattress for an ultra-cool option.

But what makes a cooling mattress good? What makes one great? It centers around memory foam. Memory foam is plush, squishy, and we all love it, but it is hot. So, cooling mattresses are trying to work around that. They’ll typically feature some sort of porous memory foam, with little (or large!) air channels to cut through that dense foam, as well as cooling gels and specialized textile toppers. Some brands infuse their memory foams with cooling elements. On this list, Bear uses copper, and Tuft & Needle uses graphite. These are porous elements that pull heat away from you.

All around, you’re looking for something that tries to work around the memory foam problem. Some brands, like Saatva, ditch it for latex foam. All the others on this list have concocted some sort of scientific work around. Everything on this list is sufficiently cooling, but each solution changes the mattress, either making it more firm, soft, or expensive. It’s about finding what works for you.