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As a travel writer, I spend a lot of time in other people's beds. While that statement is not nearly as salacious as it sounds, the reality of being on the road half the year is that I fall asleep on hotel, Airbnb, and friends' guest room mattresses just as often as I do my own. And lucky for me, I'm often checking in to five-star properties outfitted with the cushiest bedscapes. Over the years, I've developed a habit of pulling up the sheets on the most comfortable mattresses to get a peek at their label. All of this experience has made me a bit of an expert at judging what makes a genuinely superior one, which recently came in handy when my husband and I purchased a new home and needed to furnish it virtually from scratch.
In our previous apartment, we were sleeping on an older BeautyRest mattress. While it was relatively comfortable when we first bought it, I noticed that over the years, its integrated pillow top retained heat and became uncomfortable (I'm an especially hot sleeper). And it’s not just my bed at home—whether I'm posted up on a Caribbean island or sleeping under the Northern Lights in Finnish Lapland, I run hot, and having a mattress or room that gets a little too warm will almost certainly interrupt my sleep.
When I learned that Casper unveiled an entirely revamped mattress lineup for 2024, I immediately had my eye on the one that promised cooling features. After testing the Casper Snow mattress out over the last two months, I can confidently say that it is a total game changer for my sleep. Here's what you should know if you're considering upgrading your own mattress.
How do the cooling features work?
The hybrid cooling mattress consists of a foam comfort layer on top of encased coils for support. But the standout feature is definitely in its name—Casper’s heat transfer technology allows for full nights of more relaxed, cooler, restful sleep for warm sleepers such as myself. Utilizing a phase-change material, the mattress is designed to pull heat away from the body. The material is in a solid state while at room temperature, but when it comes in contact with body heat, it melts to create a cooling sensation, the same way an ice pack dissipates heat.
Additionally, the Casper Snow contains HeatDelete Bands, which work to transfer any excess body heat away from the body. These bands, made of an innovative aluminum graphite material, act like a thermal highway for heat to travel away from the body along the band versus gathering within the mattress foam. This unique design feature is a key reason the mattress is so effective at cooling and provides warm sleepers like me with 12+ hours of comfortable, relaxed sleep. The bands are strategically placed around the neck, back, and legs, ensuring that heat is efficiently dispersed and not trapped within the mattress.
When I lay on the Casper Snow mattress, I feel like I'm melting into fresh, crisp, powdery snow. This was by design, as Casper wove special cooling fibers made of polyethylene yarn into the mattress cover. The result is a sensation I’ve never experienced before—feeling cozy and cool simultaneously.
What about firmness?
Aside from saying goodbye to my night sweats, I also thoroughly appreciate Casper Snow's memory foam, which feels soft and gooey to sleep on without losing its medium firmness. But even more critical is its zoned support, engineered by the mattress maker to keep the spine in ergonomic alignment through firmer foam under the waist, hips, and back. With all my hours spent on planes, trains, and automobiles, where it really pays off is in the lower back. I’ve noticed that even after long-haul flights, my lower back feels much, much better the following day on the Casper Snow mattress than any of the others I've tried recently.
While solo travel has become a regular part of my job, at home, I sleep next to my husband and a territory-hogging Biewer Terrier. After trying out the Casper Snow mattress, which has a 30-day return policy, I also learned the mattress boasts individually pocketed flex coils. These coils surround the body for support and to further reduce motion, something I can attest to from my companion sleepers. Since we started sleeping on the Snow, I no longer feel my husband tossing and turning or my dog tip-toeing across the bed. And while I generally sleep on my back and my husband sleeps on his side, we’ve both noticed that the Casper Snow is exceptionally comfortable to sleep in regardless of our position.
Other standout features?
For peak comfort and to really feel like our bed mimics one of those at a five-star hotel, my husband and I have paired the mattress with a super soft Cozy Earth quilt and diamond knit throw blanket, as well as my current obsession, Cozy Earth's incredibly soft, hotel-quality bamboo sheets, which also happen to be temperature regulating. Sleek in its design, the Casper Snow mattress has a standard 12-inch profile with a simple heather gray and turquoise color block at its foot. One of my other favorite parts of this mattress is how it smelled— like fresh, crisp linen—upon opening it. Who knew a mattress could smell this good right out of the box?
Is it worth it?
Yes. We got our Casper Snow mattress in a queen size (regularly $2,495), but the mattress ranges in standard US sizes from twin to California king. The Snow and the rest of Casper's updated mattresses are currently on sale for 20 percent off, making now an ideal time to upgrade your nighttime routine to hotel-quality slumber. I promise, it'll make you'll look forward to coming home to your own bed after every trip.
