My mattress was too firm and too hot until I invested in the Soak&Sleep Topper

Soak&Sleep's Cooling Mattress Topper offers the perfect balance of sink-in softness and support. It's an easy way to transform the way that you sleep, especially when you're having trouble.

If you've ever wondered what regret feels like, I can tell you. It’s lying on a mattress that's as firm as a block of concrete. I bought it for my back health, but I've been having some serious regrets, so I started looking into mattress toppers. When I discovered Soak & Sleep’s Cooling Mattress protector, naturally (and rather desperately) I was overjoyed.

The best mattress toppers are made up of all sorts of different materials, but a cooling foam one like this is perfect if you need some pressure relief and extra softness on your bed. What is it like to sleep on? Well, you’ll have to keep reading to find out.

Specifications

Unboxing

The beauty of a foam mattress topper is that it can be vacuum packed and squeezed into packages that seem impossibly small. The Soak&Sleep Cooling Mattress Topper arrived in what felt like an impossibly small and yet impressively dense package. I could easily carry it up the stairs and then, as soon as I sliced into the plastic, the topper began to grow.

Whilst I’m not a big fan of single-use plastic in packaging, this did do a wonderful job of keeping the topper clean as well as firmly in place. When you cut the protector out of its packaging, you’ll want to leave the foam to breathe and grow. It’ll have been compacted for a while, so most brands recommend waiting 1-3 hours before you commit to fitting this on your bed

Who would it suit?

Foam toppers like this are perfect if you’re suffering from joint pain or any niggles that require you to make your mattress a little softer for a while. As a regular runner, my knees are regularly in the wars and my hips and spine aren't far behind. Sleeping on the Soak&Sleep Cooling Mattress I definitely felt that my joints and aches were well supported, which is great if you want some pressure relief.

Hand-in-hand with the supportive foam, you've got the cooling technology and breathable structure that helps to keep you cool when you sleep. It's not going to make your night sweats disappear, but it will do a decent job of helping to manage and stay on top of night sweats in the context of foam toppers, which are naturally hot anyway.

To finish off the trifecta, the Soak&Sleep Cooling Mattress is also reasonably priced. Compared to other foam toppers, it's excellent value for money, especially because it feels like it's good quality too.

How does it fit on the bed?

Soak & Sleep has opted for the more modern grippy underside to keep the topper in place on the bed. It’s a very neat alternative to straps that often sounds better in theory than in practice, but this stuck in place like a limpet.

I move around a fair amount in the night which should have put the Soak&Sleep though its paces, but it stayed pristinely in place, spreading from corner to corner. It’s a great size fit and, without it moving around a lot, this is pretty perfect.

What is it like to sleep on?

My mattress was should win awards for how firm it is, so I was intrigued to see how much this could soften the bed. The 6cm layer of foam certainly added so softness to the feel — I would say that it took the bed from firm to medium firm, which is a decent transition. The foam feels a little harder than the OTTY, for example, but it’s still cushioning and gentle on aching joints.

Lying on my back, it neatly and effectively kept my shoulders, back, and hips aligned. It made lying my side a lot comfier too — it was not a comfortable affair without the topper.

One of the Soak&Sleep Cooling Topper’s biggest challenges is actually keeping you cool while you sleep. Foam naturally warms, softens, and hugs the body, which can be really insulating. As far as foam goes, this seemed to keep up a good, open structure that allowed the air to flow around my body. I still woke up not in the night, but in the context of foam toppers I was much cooler than I have been on the alternatives.

Cleaning

Soak&Sleep has a dedicated care guide for how to look after your mattress topper. They recommend having a protector on top of your topper and that you should shake out your topper every week to make sure it spreads across the bed fully and evenly.

Soak&Sleep also emphasise that you should rotate your topper so that it wears evenly and that you should wash it every season. For the Cooling Topper, you'll need to unzip the case and pop it in the wash, which works well.

How does it compare?

The OTTY Cooling Mattress Topper is crafted from a blend of bamboo foam. It’s another great cooling foam topper, although this is softer and thinner. That makes it great for enhancing the feel of beds that are already soft, but it would’ve be quite as useful for someone like me, sleeping on my hard mattress. It retails at a similar price and lots of people prefer the easy clean zip case around the OTTY as well as the eco-credentials. Me though? I need more thickness.

If you like the idea of a mattress topper that is soft and cooling, but you don’t think memory foam is a necessity, the world is your oyster. Woolroom’s Wool Mattress Topper is a miracle worker for adding light cushioning as well as some really effective cooling technology. It comes with a price jump and not as much thickness, but it’s the one that lots of our team sleep on.

If that’s out of your budget, the M&S Comfortably Cool Topper is brilliant for being cushioning, cooling, and inexpensive. It’s not as effective as the Woolroom, but it’s a reasonable alternative.

Should you buy it?

If you want an affordable, cushioning foam mattress topper, this is perfect. It’s cooling in comparison to your average foam topper. It took my super firm mattress down a notch, so I could sleep on my side and if that’s what you need, I can’t recommend this enough.

How we test

At woman&home, sleeping on the job is encouraged. In fact, it's a requirement when we're talking about mattress toppers. All the reviews that you read come from real-life experience from me or one of our experts as we put these toppers to the test to make sure that they live up to their claims.

I make sure to keep notes on everything from the packaging that the topper arrives in right through to what kind of maintenance and cleaning you'll need to do to keep your mattress topper in perfect condition. I like to think that we cover everything and, if you're keen to find out more, you can read all about it in our page for how we test mattress toppers.