Whether you own a gel memory foam mattress or gel foam mattress topper for the hot summer nights, you must’ve struggled with regulating the temperature once the hot night’s end and you need more coziness for the upcoming cold nights. There are several ways to warm up your bed and prepare it for cozy and restful sleep, but none of them feels reliable enough for you.
A lot of people resort to electric blankets and heated mattress pads during the cold months of winter, especially if you live in a cold climate where nights can get extremely cold and you just want to lay down in a warm and cozy bed and unwind for the night.
These two options are quite useful, but mostly when you sleep on an innerspring or latex mattress and mattress topper.
It’s no secret that memory foam mattresses and mattress pads, react to our pressure and temperature. With our laying pressure and our body temperatures, memory foam curates itself in such a way that it adapts itself to the shape of our body, creating cuddly and cradling sensations that we all fall asleep to.
It conforms to the natural shape of the body, and too much-applied heat can make it lose its overall volume and its quality to decay over time. That being said, is it possible to use a heated mattress pad with a gel topper and how can we combine the two?
In this article, we’ll talk about whether it’s possible to sleep on a bed that boasts a memory foam gel topper, as well as a heated mattress pad and how can you combine these two to get a restful, yet warm sleep in the winter months.
One of the main perks of using memory foam mattresses is that you can experience the feeling of sleeping on clouds or sugar cane without spending the money you’d normally spend on an innerspring mattress as memory foam mattresses, as well as mattress toppers, are more affordable than those made out of other materials.
One of the key problems with memory foam was that it responds to heat, which means that a lot of sleepers felt hot during the night and were unable to get a proper night’s rest. However, thanks to microbeads made out of gel, also known as gel memory foam, a lot of people rushed to buy such mattress toppers which ensured a cool sleeping experience once the hot summer months would hit in.
However, once the summer ends again, a lot of people with gel memory foam mattresses and toppers are left pretty much feeling too cold in the bed. During the winter months, it’s of utmost importance to ensure a cozy sleeping environment for everyone to get enough sleep. With gel toppers, that’s almost impossible.
That’s where heated blankets and heated mattress pads come into play. They not only help you warm up during the cold winter months, but they’re also useful for people with sciatica, osteoporosis, and arthritis because they can help them keep themselves warm at night. But, can it be used with gel memory foam toppers? Let’s find out below!
Can You Use a Heated Mattress Pad With Gel Topper?
Before we answer this question with impeccable detail, let’s first detail what heated mattress pads are in the first place. Thing is, a lot of people don’t know what heated mattress pads are and are searching for an article like this to learn more.
As its name suggests, it’s essentially a pad that can be used to warm you up during the cold winter nights, laying down on top of your mattress or your mattress topper. This pad is either equipped with electric wires that warm up the fabric or even warm water that gets warmed through a separate engine.
That way, it can keep the surface beneath it, and above it warm, and will benefit people who want to feel warm as they dive into their peaceful slumber. It instantly warms your bed, so if your bedroom doesn’t use central heating and hasn’t been warmed through the entire day, you’ll be able to almost instantly warm up your bed.
As mentioned above, heated mattress pads come with more therapeutic benefits that can help people who have problems with arthritis, back pain and other chronic conditions warm up in the night and relax their tensed up muscles and compressed nerves. It’s almost instantly, helpful towards back pain.
Now, can it be used with the gel memory foam topper in combination? That makes sense, a lot of people who craved the cool and breezing embrace of cool memory foam in the summer are now freezing in the winter. So, can it be combined? The answer is yes, under certain conditions.
Why under certain conditions? Well, for the starters, we know that gel memory foam reacts and adjusts itself according to your body temperature. But, as the heating pad spans across your mattress topper the heat is distributed everywhere, which may decrease the likelihood of the topper adjusting its shape to the shape of your skin.
Additionally, the extra heat may lead to your memory foam topper decaying after a time, making it lose its cooling properties, as well as its ability to conform to your body. Still, it’s encouraging to know that most modern, quality memory foam toppers are made in a way that’s able to withstand the heating temperatures of heating pads placed at them.
Why You Should Use Heated Mattress Pad With a Gel Topper
There are various reasons why you should use a heated mattress pad with a gel topper. Below, we’ll mention the key reasons for this practice. This way, you will be able to decide whether you should get a heating pad or put it on your mattress topper.
It Will Warm You Up
Understandably so, gel mattress toppers are equipped with microbeads that will help cool down the memory foam despite the heating properties of memory foam that are a result of applied pressure and body temperature laying down on the surface of the mattress.
This is good for the summer temperatures when nights are hot and humid and you happen to sweat easily which easily results in unwelcome hot flashes and sweating periods. However, for winters, it can be bad. You may end up feeling too cold, especially if your sheets are made out of percale or some other breathable material that will get your bed to warm up slowly.
That’s where the heating pad comes into play, your body will be soothed with the warming properties of the heating pad laying over the memory foam, warming your back and helping you relax. Even better, you can warm even faster if your heating pad comes with the preheat option.
Editor’s notes: Keep in mind that the heating pad won’t warm up your entire body. What’s more important, the heat won’t radiate up but stay only on the surface. If you want to warm your entire body up, using a heating blanket seems like a better idea.
It’ll Help Soften The Memory Foam
Due to cold temperatures, memory foam mattresses and mattress toppers become firm and hard on touch, to the point it feels uncomfortable. The memory foam hardens and gives a rough and sometimes even harsher touch.
It can stop responding to your touches, and its ability to conform and adapt to the shape of your body simply ends there. However, if you opt to use an option like a heated mattress pad, you won’t have to worry about this problem. It’ll warm up the memory foam mattress topper and make it easier to lay on.
Of course, oftentimes, your body may be enough to soften up the memory foam, but if your mattress topper was in the cold environment the whole day, it can take some time, and make you feel uncomfortable in the process.
Editor’s notes: There are two things to be wary about when it comes to softening memory foam. Too much heating on the memory foam can cause it to disintegrate its adaptive properties. That said, not enough heat will certainly be bad for it, and too much for it will also be bad for it and lead to permanent damage, especially if the mattress is soft and plush to the touch.
Luckily, mattress makers put a lot of work and effort to make the mattresses work properly and have lasting conforming effects, so you won’t have to worry about damage to your memory foam topper, as long as you don’t always keep the heater on.
One good alternative is to use a heating pad that can be preheated. When your bed feels warmed up, you can turn off the pad, and lay in the bed. That way, your mattress topper will be preheated with the pad, which gives you additional comfort, but your natural heat will continue warming the bed.
It Can Soothe Chronic Pain
People who struggle with arthritis and other forms of chronic pain, especially in their joints are searching for ways to soothe that pain. One of the best ways to soothe nerve and muscle tension is to keep the area warm, but using heat gels gets exhausting over time and burns too hard.
Using a heating pad is a good solution if you spend most of the night laying on one side. However, if the affected area is in the opposite direction of the pad (meaning your affected joint is facing upwards,) it won’t be heated and it’s otherwise pointless to have the pad.
People with osteoarthritis can benefit from both heating and cooling therapy. According to a study, for some people heating therapies are better, which is exactly why heating pads can work wonders.
Editor’s notes: Just like with the previous example, here it’d be good to use a pad that comes with preheating option so that the bed is warm.
An alternative to consider here would be to get a heated blanket that can cover your body in its entirety and thus heat the affected joints. That way, you wouldn’t have to worry about one side being warm and the other one not.
How to Use a Heated Mattress Pad With a Gel Topper?
To get the most of your experience with a heated mattress pad on a gel topper as to not damage it, read these tips that will help you choose the option to use that will suit you the most.
Use it Under The Mattress Topper
A lot of people who are worried about using a pad above the mattress topper will use it underneath it. However, you should only use it this way if your mattress topper is thin and the heat from the padding will get above your mattress topper, making you feel warm in the process.
If your mattress topper is 3-inches high or higher, using a dense memory foam formula, chances are that it won’t feel as convenient as with other options that are available on the market, and you won’t feel the effects of using the heating pad.
Using it On Top Of Gel Topper
Using the heated mattress pad on top of a gel mattress topper is far more effective than using it beneath it, although some people still prefer doing it the former way. If you’re one of those who want to do it more effectively, then continue reading.
Some people are worried about potentially damaging the memory foam on the gel topper, which is possible as we mentioned earlier. Luckily, if your pad can change temperatures and is adjustable, then you have nothing to worry about as the memory foam won’t be damaged that way.
Additionally, if the pad also comes with preheating option, then you can turn off or remove the pad from the bed before you lay down. That way, the foam of the mattress topper won’t be additionally heated and will naturally cool down during the winter.
Lastly, you can put a blanket or some fabric that can isolate the heat between the mattress topper and the heat pad. That way, you prevent the direct heat to fall on the mattress topper. This is what most people do and it has proven to be smart practice.
