I'm a hot sleeper, but I won't be losing sleep during the heatwave with this cooling gel mattress pad – the pillow version got me through last year

There are a lot of positives to a heatwave, but for me, one of the biggest downsides has to be those hot and sticky nights struggling to sleep in a sweltering bedroom.

Thankfully, Silentnight has launched a cooling solution just in time for this year's first mini heatwave. The Silentnight Restore Cooling Gel Body Pad is a cooling pad designed to be used on your mattress. You just pop it under or over your fitted sheet to lower your temperature fast.

I tested the smaller version, the Silentnight Cooling Gel Pillow Pad, during a heatwave last year, and as a hot sleeper and certified Sleep Expert who is usually a little cynical about the claims of most cooling bedding, this is one cooling sleep product that really impressed me.

In fact, the only bugbear I had with the Silentnight Cooling Gel Pillow Pad was that I found it was actually *too* cold under my head. Instead, I swapped to using it under my fitted sheet to help regulate my body temperature during the heatwave, and it certainly gave the best cooling mattress toppers I've tested a run for their money.

The only problem was that, as the Cooling Gel Pillow Pad is designed to go on a pillow, it is understandably quite small, measuring just 40 x 60cm. As a result, I found it kept my torso cool, but my legs were still hot.

In contrast, the newly launched Cooling Gel Mattress Pad is exactly what I needed back then: a larger 60 x 90cm cooling surface that's perfect for cooling the whole body.

Like the cooling pillow pad, the mattress pad is only a few millimetres thick and is constructed of three chambers that all hold cooling gel within a thick PVC cover.

Cool to the touch, Silentnight says the cooling gel mattress pad will 'help absorb excess body heat so you can enjoy a blissfully cool night's sleep', and I found the version I tested did just that.

It felt cool straight out of its box, but if you want a cooler sleep still, you can also fold it and pop it in the fridge for half an hour or so before bed – although be warned, when I did this it did feel truly ice cold!

Silentnight cooling sleep products

What's more, this cooling pad isn't just useful in a heatwave. It's actually a part of Silentnight's Restore collection – a range which is designed as 'cooling sleep solutions for the menopause, designed by women, for women', so if you're currently looking for bedding for menopausal night sweats, this cooling pad could be a key part of the puzzle when it comes to how to stay cool in bed.

Personally, I think either of these heat-busters are well worth having in the cupboard for when a heatwave rolls around. I'll certainly be popping my version in the fridge tonight, ready to get a cooler night's sleep!