The dynamic duo behind Dorm Room Mamas shares their must-haves for comfortable dorm room sleep spaces.

Out of everything you could possibly get for a dorm room, a mattress topper may indeed be the most crucial product to invest in. Standard dorm room mattresses haven’t evolved, likely just as uncomfortable as you remember them to be: ultra-firm slabs of vinyl-encased springs or foam. Without a bit of cushion to act as a barrier, your body receives no pressure relief or general comfort as you attempt to go to sleep. 

When sleep is absolutely essential not only for health, but a student’s sanity (think finals week, practices, classes, study sessions, and all-nighters), there’s really no room to overlook this.

Amber and Elise are completely aligned on the necessity of a mattress topper, with Elise calling it a “definite need” with how dismal the dorm room beds are. This doesn’t just have dorm room applications—it’s a bedroom staple for Amber as well. 

“Both my son and I both sleep on the ViscoSoft mattress toppers, the high density ones,” she shares. “The three- or four-inch are what we recommend. Actually, I say for athletes to go with the four inch because it's more supportive. It's interesting. Most mattress toppers, the more inches, the softer and squishier it is. But with ViscoSoft, it's the other way. And so it just transforms your mattress. It's not adding a layer of cushion. It's changing your mattress altogether.”

According to Amber, it’s not just the support that makes the ViscoSoft topper stand out. “It's supportive, it's cooling, it has the straps so it doesn't slide off the kids mattresses. We're getting a lot of complaints about that. In our group right now, like, how do I keep the Lucid mattress topper down? Like, you go back in time and not buy that one. [Viscosoft] also has a grippy bottom, so it helps keep it into place. It's just, it's a quality product that is really gonna help them sleep better.”

A horror story in five words: some dorms don’t have AC. Whether that’s due to where your student’s school is geographically based, like Amber’s kids on the West Coast, or older buildings that can’t hold up against Southern humidity, like Elise’s, a fan could be a lifesaver. One fan in particular is the Dorm Room Mamas’ go-to: the Woozoo 5 Speed Fan. While it has a smaller size, this helps it sit nicely on a desk or nightstand, while it still has the power to keep air flowing around a small dorm room.

When we asked Amber why it was so special amongst all other fans out there, she wrote that it was a random discovery-turned-staple that’s held up during years of testing. “[I] discovered it while her son attended school three years ago, and ever since, they’ve taken up residence within her home and follower dorm rooms alike. “I have one in my kitchen, one at my desk, and brought my mom one to use in Cabo (she lives there and it is HOT). They are small but mighty—they circulate the air in all directions, the fan moves side-to-side as well as up and down.”

Make sure to opt for the 5 Speed Fan as opposed to Woozoo’s other 3 speed version. As Amber puts it, “It's kind of become a staple for the dorm room, the Woozoo fans, but a lot of people try to get the 3 speed because it's about, I don't know, half the price when it goes on sale. It's just not as strong. So the five speed is where you have to go…so it's just blowing on them while they're in bed.”

“It has a remote. You can set a timer,” Amber also shares. Turns out, creating the “coolest” spot on campus may not be so hard after all, not when a Woozoo fan is involved. 

The Woozoo fan is meant to sit on a bedside table, but there’s another fan option the Dorm Room Mamas adore—the Bunk Butler. “The bunk butler actually attaches [the fan] to their bed. So it's just blowing on them while they're in bed,” Amber shares. This way, sleepers are constantly kept at a consistent temperature as air blows across the bed’s surface, which could be game changing if unreliable or no air conditioning altogether is a factor. 

Bunk Butler is the brainchild of a small Etsy creator, who has built a customer base off of her design. “She has a patent pending; she sells it on Etsy,” Amber says. While cheaper knockoffs do exist, Amber cautions against them. “There's an Amazon knockoff. There's a Target knockoff, but I've been hearing a lot of complaints of ‘it doesn't fit my bed’ or ‘the fan doesn't stay on.’” 

Additionally, the Dorm Room Mamas point to The Bunk Butler’s care and customer service as why they’ve also been fans for so long. “The Bunk Butler is the OG, and she's willing to work with you,” Amber says. “[She] just messaged me a couple of days ago and said, ‘some people are saying they need a wider clamp. Let me know if you hear that. I'll send them a wider clamp, you know.’ So we go with the OG brand.”