by Walking around Las Vegas Market, nearly every mattress exhibitor has some kind of cooling technology in at least one of their bedding models.
Casper’s Snow model is said to reduce a person’s temperature by 6 degrees, while Tempur-Pedic’s Tempur Freeze reduces temperature by 10 degrees. And the list goes on.
However, I have to wonder what’s driving this trend.
Do people really want to sleep cooler, or are the myriad mattress companies promoting cooling mattresses simply making consumers think that that’s what they want, and then everyone else is following suit?
From what I’ve heard in the industry, consumers don’t want to sleep hot. But that doesn’t necessarily mean they want to sleep cold.
And a simple change, like using a lighter blanket or different pajamas, can be all a consumer really needs to help them sleep cooler.
In fact, one of the things I’ll never forget learning from industry veteran Bob Muenkel is that people actually don’t sleep hot — our body temperature drops when we sleep. Between blankets, sheets and pajamas, a “microclimate” is created, and changing that could be all anyone needs to sleep cooler.
I understand the need to touch on trends, but I wonder if this is a manufactured trend that’s going to die out faster than it came in.
There’s an oversaturation of cooling beds on the market, and it seems there are only a few brands that offer something beyond the simple cooling element that makes their product stand out.
Each company knows the difference between their cooling mattress and other cooling mattresses, but is that message being communicated to retailers in a way that helps them sell?
That’s going to be an ongoing question, and it will become a new challenge for the industry as manufacturers will have to go above and beyond add other features and benefits to differentiate their cooling products.
