As Ideal Home's Sleep Editor, and a certified hot sleeper, I've come across a *lot* products that claim they can deliver a cooler night's sleep. Sadly, on testing most tend to promise a lot more than they can deliver.
So when I read about Silentnight's Cooling Gel Pillow Pad, I treated it with a fair amount of skepticism. That is until I tested it out during a heatwave and found it really *can* deliver an icy cold sleep. And even better? It's only £15.
The Cooling Gel Pillow Pad is a part of Silentnight's Restore collection – a range which is pitched as 'cooling sleep solutions for the menopause, designed by women, for women'.
As the NHS website says, common physical symptoms of menopause and perimenopause include hot flushes, which are described as 'sudden feelings of hot or cold in your face, neck and chest' and 'difficulty sleeping, which may be a result of night sweats and make you feel tired and irritable during the day'.
The Silentnight Cooling Gel Pillow Pad is designed to combat both of these problems, with the brand saying it's ideal for 'overheaters and those who struggle with night sweats or hot flushes'.
However, it isn't just menopause that can cause overheating at night. A bedroom that's too warm (experts recommend the ideal bedroom temperature is around 18°c) can also play a large part in causing us to wake up hot and sticky during the night, as can synthetic bedding and memory foam mattresses that lack breathability.
All in all, it's no wonder that so many of us are looking for ways to sleep cooler at night, whether that's by investing in one of the best cooling mattress toppers, swapping out a polyester duvet for a wool-filled duvet that offers better temperature regulation, or investing in a breathable mattress made from natural materials rather than synthetics.
However, when a heatwave strikes or your struggling with hot flushes, having a product that can cool you down fast is a game-changer. Which, as I discovered, is where the Silentnight Cooling Gel Pad really delivers.
Once unboxed, the 60 x 40cm Silentnight Cooling Gel Pillow Pad looks pretty unassuming, but when I lay my hand on its surface I was instantly impressed by how cool it felt.
The pad is only a few millimetres thick, but it's constructed of two chambers which both hold cooling gel within a thick PVC cover. There's no detail given on what that gel is made from, and no information on the pad as to how it can be disposed of, so unfortunately I doubt it's recyclable, but it definitely does do what Silentnight claims, which is to absorb body heat and retain its coolness.
In fact, I tested this gel pad during a heatwave when my bedroom was around 30°c and I was struggling to sleep, and I found it was almost too cold to sleep on!
Silentnight suggests you can lay the Cooling Gel Pillow Pad on top of your pillow as it is, or pop it into a pillowcase, and I chose to do the latter as a bit of a buffer between my hot skin and the cool pad whilst I got used to it.
It does add some firmness to your pillow, but it's still flexible enough that it definitely wasn't like sleeping on a rock, and in no time at all despite the surrounding temperatures soaring, my head felt actually... chilly!
Having the gel pad under my head made a huge difference to my body temperature, instantly making me feel cooler despite no change in the ambient air temperature.
In fact, before long I decided to try placing the gel pad under my bedsheet instead to see if I could cool the rest of my body. Silentnight doesn't mention this is an option, so I'm not sure if there are weight limits on how much pressure the gel should have placed on it, but, it certainly did the trick.
After a few minutes it felt like my core temperature was dropping, and as this is a key factor in slipping into sleep, it really helped me drift off whilst the mercury was soaring.
If you want even more cooling power than the gel alone offers, you can also pop the pad into the fridge for an hour or so before bed to *really* drop the temperature.
All in all, this is now my heatwave go-to for a good night's sleep even when the bedroom is super hot.
I've tried the best portable air conditioners – most of which are noisy, costly to run, and with their high energy use not good for the environment – and I've tested many of the best cooling fans – some of which, like the Duux Whisper Flex Ultimate Fan, I would definitely recommend for helping you feel cooler as you drift off.
But, this cooling gel pad has been the product that's made the most noticeable difference to my body temperature when the mercury is rising.
And for just £15? That has to be worth a try if you're struggling either with hot flushes, or, like me, you want to get heatwave-ready so you can still sleep during the next summer scorcher.
