What is Celliant and does your cooling mattress need it?

A couple laying on Bear Elite Hybrid mattress with Celliant in bedroom with black pattern rug, grey headboard and black bedside tables with lamps

(Image credit: Bear)

Celliant is just one of the many mattress technologies promising to bring you a cooler, more restorative sleep experience night after night and boost your physical and mental wellbeing.

Sleep is the most underrated recovery tool, flushing toxins out of your brain and giving your muscles time to rest and repair. Therefore, sleeping on the best mattress for your body type and sleep needs is essential to getting the restorative ZZZs your body needs, especially if you lead an active lifestyle. In mattresses, Celliant specifically targets muscle recovery and nighttime hot flushes.

If you're a naturally hot sleeper or active person looking to optimize your sleep, investing in a Celliant-infused mattress in this month's mattress sales could be your perfect sleep solution. But what is Celliant and how does it work? Let's take a closer look.

What is Celliant?

Celliant is a thermo-reactive synthetic fiber innovated by a company called Hologenix in 2002. It's made from a blend of minerals and embedded into fabrics. It is designed to capture body heat and covert it into infrared energy, which comes with health and wellness benefits.

It is often sewn into different textiles including apparel, sleepwear, upholstery, uniforms and medical supplies alongside mattresses to help thermoregulation, blood circulation and tissue oxygenation.

How does Celliant keep you cool and aid recovery?

Human beings are warm-blooded creatures. This means we emit energy as heat. Celliant keeps you cool by absorbing excess body heat and transforming it into infrared energy. The scientific law of energy conservation comes into play here.

This law states that energy can neither be created nor destroyed, only transferred from one form to another. Therefore, the amount of cooling energy the Celliant gives out will depend on how much excess heat your body gives off. This helps your body regulate and balance its temperature depending on your natural thermal tendencies, which is good news for both hot and cold sleepers.

Reviewer Alex laying on her side on the Bear Elite Hybrid mattress — (Image credit: Future / Alex Temblador)

The Celliant also wicks away moisture and dries fabrics quickly, helping hot sleepers manage night sweats and hot flushes as it maintains a cool, dry bed surface.

As it reflects energy back to your body, Celliant also aids muscle recovery. The material has been clinically proven to increase blood circulation and oxygen supply to cells, which helps break down lactic acid built up in muscles during exercise. Essentially, Celliant takes heat energy that would otherwise me lost to your surroundings and recycles it into recovery fuel for muscles.

Cooling mattresses with Celliant covers

Celliant is primarily used in our best cooling mattress of the year, the Bear Elite Hybrid. This premium mattress comes with the option to upgrade to a Celliant cover. In our testing for the Bear Elite Hybrid mattress review, we found the Celliant cover had a mild cooling sensation when touched and the mattress was able to keep our lead tester comfortably cool even during warm July nights. They were able to sleep through the night without being disturbed by sweats or hot flushes.

A close up image of the Bear Elite Hybrid mattress — (Image credit: Bear)

Celliant is also used in the (currently sold out) Amazon Rivet mattress. Elsewhere, it is woven into mattress pads (found at Allied Home Bedding), bedsheets and nightwear.

5 alternatives to Celliant in cooling mattresses

1. Graphite-infused memory foam

Our reviewer's hand resting on the surface of the Zoma Boost mattress — (Image credit: Future / Becks Shepherd)

Another cooling mattress known to boost athletic recovery is the Zoma Boost Cooling Mattress, which is built with graphite-infused memory foam. Utilizing the thermal conductivity of this element, graphite foam actively draws excess body heat away from your body and disperses it to keep your sleep surface cool.

2. Smart cooling technology

The best smart beds on the market come with active temperature regulating systems to keep you at an optimal sleep temperature through the night. These systems can be water or air based and they work with smart sensors to measure your body and room temperature and adjust the temperature of your sleep surface accordingly. The Eight Sleep pods are known for their top-rated climate control technology.

Eight Sleep Pod 4 temperature regulating mattress cover in light room — (Image credit: Eight Sleep)

3. Breathable materials

When mattress brands are manufacturing cooling mattress profiles, they must think about which materials are naturally cooler than others. Natural mattress fillings, like wool and cotton, are less likely to trap heat than their synthetic counterparts, such as polyester.

This is because natural materials tend to have open-cell structures promoting airflow, while artificial materials have closed-cell structures that tend to trap heat. This is why the best organic mattresses made with organic materials tend to help you sleep cool.

4. GlacioTex covers

GlacioTex is a fabric made of fibers with high thermal conductivity that work to transfer heat away from the air and your body. GlacioTex fabric is often used in mattress covers so the bed remains cool to touch.

Your body naturally cools down when it prepares for sleep, so laying on this cooler sleep surface signals to your body that it's time to wind down, helping you fall asleep faster. GlacioTex is found in many top-performing cooling mattresses and mattress protectors including Brooklyn Bedding Aurora Luxe Hybrid Mattress and Nolah GlacioTex Cooling Mattress Protector.

5. Hybrid construction

While memory foam tends to hold on to heat, the best hybrid mattresses and innerspring mattress are better at regulating temperature. Thanks to open structure of individually encased coils and springs, air can easily flow through these mattresses. Even better, these mattresses offer a good amount responsive support.

The construction of a hybrid mattress — (Image credit: Future)

Does every cooling mattress need Celliant?

As we've explored here, there are several ways mattresses can help you regulate your body temperature at bedtime and throughout the night. While Celliant is an effective cooling agent in mattresses, with the additional benefit of promoting muscle recovery, it is not compulsory in a cooling mattress.

While it is favoured by leading cooling mattress specialists like Bear, other mattress brands have other methods of helping you achieve cool comfortable sleep.

Eve is a PPA-accredited journalist with an MA in Magazine Journalism from Cardiff University. She is a Sleep Staff Writer at Tom’s Guide and has four years’ experience writing health features and news. She is particularly interested in the relationship between good sleep and overall health. At Tom’s Guide Eve is responsible for coverage and reviews of sleep tech and is our smart and cooling mattress specialist, focussing on brands such as Eight Sleep and Sleep Number. She also covers general mattress reviews, seeks out the best deals to produce tried-and-tested buyer's guides for sleep accessories and enjoys writing in-depth features about sleep health. She has been involved in rigorous testing procedures for mattress reviews in our Sleep Studio and has interviewed experts including sleep doctors and psychologists. When not covering sleep at Tom's Guide, Eve enjoys writing about health and fitness, food and culture.