Usually a Latex mattress is cooler than a conventional foam mattress. I spend almost 6 months out of a year in SE Asia, where its hot and humid all the time. I find a 100% latex mattress cooler, Anytime you make a soft topper it will be warmer, because your sinking into the mattress more which keeps air circulation down. The gel tops and the gel-infused memory foam advertise to be cooler but it really comes down to simple fact that more air circulation will make a cooler mattress. A spring mattress with a soft latex top maybe your coolest mattress.

Dear Friends -- Thanks to you all! I think I will try the Cuddleme that Raven has so nicely detailed to see if I can live with this mattress. (It's comfortable enough, even with the sort of button indentations, but it is TOO HOT!) We have never had a guest complain about the bed here. We got out here Jan. 1 and WE were uncomfortable so we ordered this new mattress, but we'd had no prior complaints. The people who were here over Christmas want to book again for two weeks; guess they were happy too. Since the heat is my only big complaint I won't do the return/replace thing -- at $200 cost. We would be back in Illinois before any replacement arrived on Maui. "Island Time" is lovely as long as you are here as a tourist! socks -- Eliot is home 'cuddling' with our regular house and dog sitter. She's a TV addict and lets him sleep up on the sofa with her. He's 14 and deaf, with limited agility due to arthritis and his poor malformed puppy-mill bones. I'm not sure he knows we are away...or cares! Thanks for asking. Do you have Oski full time now the grands have arrived?

Sarahlee, It somewhat surprises me when you say that your topper is gel foam. When I was in the market for a new mattress I told all the sale people that I did not want foam because of its reputation for being hot to sleep on. I'm extremely bothered by being too warm when I sleep. One of the salespeople told me about the gel foam and how it is sensitive to your body temps and makes for a cooler sleep. I was skeptical, but with a money-back guarantee I did purchase it and have been very pleased. I have never been in the market for a topper, so I wasn't even aware that they made a gel foam one. It would seem that if it is a topper only, the gel layer can't be that thick. Seems like most replies you've gotten have been relative to regular foam, rather than the gel foam.

Put a thick wool blanket underneath your cotton mattress pad, with percale sheet on top. The wool allows heat (and moisture) to dissipate out from underneath you. It has to a be a thick one, though, for best effect. It does not make you warmer, in the least bit. I use old double-faced blankets, or Hudson's Bay-type ones underneath every mattress pad, on every bed in my household. There were a type of old fashioned percale sheets made before A/C was ubiquitous, intended for use in the summer. Cannon Featherlite was one brand name but there was also a similar line made by Wamsutta. (I am not at home now, or I would look up the name for you.) These are very long staple cotton, with a TC of about 200/220 and very light weight and smooth. I use them in the summer from time to time. They are still available on eBay (NOS) once in a while. Another very cooling sheet material is actually mid-to heavy weight old linen sheets. (That's what I am sleeping under at present during this heat wave in NY, in a farmhouse w/o air conditioning.) New linen sheets are usually a finer weave, so not as comfortable in hot weather to me, plus they cost a fortune. Some people used to use relatively new muslin sheets (TC140-180) for the same purpose as the old linen ones. Cool to be next too, and just enough body and weight so that all you need is the sheet, nothing more. OTOH old muslin that's very well worn isn't as comfortable in hot weather because it becomes very drape-y and can feel almost too soft and clingy. That's because it is made with relatively shorter staple fibers. Muslin sheets also can still be found on eBay, though usually never in sizes for beds larger than a full. Though they are easily seamed to create larger ones. I think the most important thing to choose, however, is a pure, unfinished fabric. Most sheets are covered with synthetic resins to enhance their no-ironing-needed properties. if the sheets are billed as "easy-care", despite being all cotton, they have been treated. Pure finish sheets are usually advertised as such, and often a bit more expensive. (Unless you buy old stock ones on eBay.) Untreated sheets need ironing if dried in a dryer, or hanging outside on a line to dry in order to be flat and smooth after washing. I rarely iron sheets for myself (only for guests), but all of my sheets are line dried. I do iron pillowcases, though. Also, I sleep on fresh sheets every night in hot weather. It may be just be psychological trick, but it always seems cooler to get into fresh sheets, and usually if you start out feeling cool, you'll sleep better and longer no matter what the temp. HTH L.