It’s documented that around 30% of American adults have insomnia-related problems. Some can get to sleep, but wake up three or four hours later. For others, it takes 3 to 4 hours just to get into REM sleep, that critical part of your slumber cycle that releases growth hormone, and helps repair the body.
Experts agree the temperature of your sleeping area and how comfortable you feel in it affect how well and how long you snooze. But why is this? When you go to sleep, your set point for body temperature — the temperature your brain is trying to achieve — goes down. You could think of it as your internal thermostat. If it’s too hot, the body struggles to achieve this set point.
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That mild drop in body temperature induces sleep, and if you are in a cooler room, it is easier for that to happen. But if the room becomes uncomfortably hot, you are more likely to wake up. Additionally, the comfort level of your bedroom temperature also especially affects the quality of REM (rapid eye movement) sleep, the stage in which you dream.
Recommending a specific range is difficult, though, because what is comfortable for one person isn’t for another. While a typical recommendation is to keep the room between 65 and 72 degrees Fahrenheit, ideally, setting the temperature at a comfortable level, is the optimal strategy. Sleep experts advise thinking of a bedroom as a cave: It should cool, quiet, and dark. And socks are important as well, as cold feet, in particular, can be very disruptive to sleep.
ChiliPad Cube with Dual-Zone Technology
The Dual-Zone ChiliPad Cube is here to help, with the ability to heat OR cool each side of the mattress independently. It uses 2 separate units to pump cooled or heated water through a series of embedded tubes in the pad, which sits over your mattress like a cover. The company calls it a “Microclimate Thermostat Control System”, which allows you to attach 1 or 2 units to cool or heat each side of the bed. As you can imagine, this allows you to have ‘your’ side of the bed at the temperature you’d prefer. If you sleep like an oven and your significant other has feet like icicles (or vice versa) this may be a godsend.
Chili Technology
The surface temperature of the ChiliPad is regulated by actively circulating water through a system of micro tubes and can be set anywhere from 46°F to 110°F. Varying temperature control has many benefits, such as relieving symptoms of many diseases like endometriosis, MS, arthritis…even menopausal hot flashes. The ChiliPAD Cube Cooling & Heating Mattress Pad was made to fit all standard and extra thick mattresses. The 150 thread-count, poly/cotton cooling mattress pad uses soft medical grade silicone tubing to circulate regular water through the pad.
Installation and Ease-of-Use
Installing the ChiliPad Cube is a breeze. You simply put the cover over your mattress, which is held in place by two large elastic straps. Connect the heating/cooling unit and
fill it with water. A remote is included, or alternatively, you can just reach over and turn it on or off.
Once set, you can select from 46 to 110 degrees Fahrenheit, and the ChiliPad Cube will heat or cool your side of the bed to closely match that temperature. Interestingly, your natural body heat will increase the temperature somewhat, so the pad temperature indicator may fall a little short of what you set it on because your body is constantly warming it back up. Nonetheless, after the ChiliPad Cube is on for a little while, it can get very hot or cold, depending on what you set it at, which is the whole point of this product.
Because the ChiliPad cube is dual zone, my first question was whether it could really keep one side at a certain temperature, while maintaining another temperature on the other side, both consistently. I had my doubts. Would there be any bleed over? After a few hours of testing, I can tell you that there’s barely any. The two zone keep to themselves so to speak, and the product does what it claims…. provide true dual zone temperature, whether one side is extremely hot and the other side is extremely cold. It does the job. The ChiliPad is also very energy efficient, so you’re not paying an expensive electric bill at the end of the month.
Bottom Line
Because most people are hot at night when they sleep, vs cold, the ChiliPad Cube does an awesome job of cooling you down, helping you sleep tremendously. And when I say it gets cold, I mean it. So watch how low you turn the temperature down because this product delivers a chilly experience if you aren’t careful. When the temperature is adjusted properly to your preferences, you’re going to wake up refreshed, more comfortable, and completely void of any lack-of-sleep hangover.
There’s also a brief timer so if you’d like to just cool down or warm up enough to get to sleep and have it shut off, you can do that too. Kind of a nice edition to the product. The ChiliPad Cube Dual-Zone is meant to reside under your bed or off to the side, so while bulky, it really doesn’t get in the way. Additionally, it’s pretty quiet when operating, so other than the setup, you pretty much forget you’re running in essence a temperature controlled waterpad.
The Chilipad runs around $499, so it’s not the cheapest thing in the world, but if you want to start getting a restful night sleep, which is as important as it gets, then the Chilipad is bargain. Besides the dual zone model, Chilipad is also available in a one-person / 1-zone pad version, as well as a built-into a mattress model called the ChiliBed, which is available in all major bed sizes.
