What's on your bed?

[BucknellAlum]

The combination of reading the "heat or bundling up" thread and the dropping temperatures has me rethinking my bed linens.

We finally got new linens at the end of last year. But I am already freezing and it's only October! So I think I need to supplement what I have, and I am wondering what those of you, particularly in northern climates, use on your bed.

We have flannel sheets, a polartec blanket, and a matelasse cover, all from LandsEnd. I like the weight and look of the matelasse all year round, however, I think I may need to get a down-alternative comforter or comforter type blanket to use with the matelasse. (It seems like you would want the comforter under the matelasse? Yes, no?) I just don't think a cotton blanket will do it.

How do you stay warm under the covers?

[Gilgamesh37]

First, all cotton high thread count sheets. (I own both flannel and knit jersey but don't like either one)
Light cotton blanket

then in addition, in

Summer:
cotton handmade cathedral windowpane quilt, often removed before actual sleeping

Winter:
electric blanket (we used to have one with a programmable control, so it would come on to warm at 9:30 pm whether I remembered to turn it on or not. LOVE sliding into a warm bed, esp if the room is cool--and it would auto shut off at 6 am)
Down comforter

[ChristyMarie]

Regular sheets, can't sleep on flannel.

Down or down-alternative blanket (depending on which bed I'm in)

Down comforter or quilt - again, depends.

I gotta say, the down and down-alternative blankets are nice. Warm and lightweight. I usually buy them at TJMaxx for very little money.

[charley]

I'm in the deep south. We sleep under cotton sheets and use a down-alternative comforter year round. In the winter I switch to flannel sheets. The quilt gets folded to the end of the bed each night. It's too heavy to sleep under.

[Silvery Moon]

In the winter, I turn the heat down to 58 at night. We use flannel sheets, a fleece blanket, and two quilts. If it really cold, we add another blanket over our feet.

I grew up in an old farmhouse, and my bedroom was not directly heated. I like a cold bedroom with lots of covers.

[wallycat]

WOW Silvery Moon!! I'd LOVE to sleep at your house! Dh would leave me if i had the room that cold.
With hot flashes, I find no matter what blankets we have, I am over them and not under them most of the time

[avariell]

My house is probably 55-60 degrees in the winter. I love sleeping in the cold. I have regular, high thread count sheets on my bed year round. I have a super heavy down comforter on top of a heated blanket in the winter. I love love love it. Oh also in my bed you will find the very important stuffed animal named Dr. Dawg who has been with me for nearly 25 years

[funniegrrl]

George Cloo-

Oh, you said ON my bed. Never mind.

[Rae]

Originally Posted by Silvery Moon

I like a cold bedroom with lots of covers.

Me too. Flannel sheets, cotton blanket, hand-crocheted very heavy blanket and then a quilt on top. In December, I'll add a wool quilt under the decorative top quilt.

I also think it's important to have a thick mattress pad for warmth. I once lived in a house with an unheated bedroom and put a wool blanket under the mattress pad.

[BucknellAlum]

Well, I am glad to see I am not the only one who wants or needs to have a pile of blankets on the bed. Right now I have my grandmother's hand crochets granny-square blanket and it is HEAVY but really warm. It totally clashes with the other bedding though.

I love the idea of a heated mattress pad or electric blanket, but I am a little leery of them from a safety standpoint. Maybe I just read one bad story and it stuck with me, because it seems like a lot of people use them.

[cherylopal]

[leightx]

Currently? A chocolate lab and a pile of laundry.

The chocolate lab definitely helps with the warmth issue - a little too much since it's been steamy hot all week.

[Natasha]

Cotton sheets, duvet that was a wedding gift, and usually also one or two other throws / blankets (we share the sheets and duvet, and that works fine, but often each have our own throw / blanket(s) in addition because I'm one of those people who supposedly moves around a lot and steals covers ). Nice to know I'm not the only one who loves a pile of covers!

Sometimes during winter, I have 4 or more blankets over me. Seriously. And this is with a husband who does space heater duty.

When I was a kid, one of my favourite things was when my mom would quickly run a warm iron over my sister's and my sheets before we crawled into our respective beds. Heavenly

[Shugness]

there is a tennis ball currently on my bed. Wonder who left that there?

Anyhoo, I have sateen sheets that I absolutely LOVE. In the summer months I have a lighter weight quilt type of blanket that I put on top of that. Now that's it's gotten colder I've thrown the winter comforter on top of that - so I have sheet, blanket, comforter. It'll probably stay that way.

I tell you what though - I'm looking forward to getting one of those heated mattress pads one of you guys mentioned in that other topic - it was a tad chilly last night when I crawled into bed. Shug was cold.

ETA: I forgot I have a chenille throw on my side of the bed for extra warmth.

[kathyann]

Definitely the electric mattress pad (with dual controls)!!! I swear I will never sleep in the winter again without one!! DH likes his on low all night, and I put mine on high for a few hours and then turn it off when I get into bed. It's like slipping into a hot tub at bed time...mmm...
On top of that we have high thread count cotton sheets, 2 velour-like blankets and a down comforter. The only reason we have 2 blankets instead of one is so that we can align them on either side of the bed so that when the dogs settle in the bed sucking all of the covers under them we each have something to cling to!!

We heat with a propane stove on the first floor, so our bedroom (2nd floor) gets chilly at night, but we stay warm enough with this scheme.

[Robyn1007]

In the summer it's organic cotton sheets from Target that I love plus a cotton blanket.

In the winter it's the same sheets and a down comforter. When really cold another down comforter or the cotton blanket is added.

[Beth]

Right now, bamboo sheets and a light blanket. But our ultimate warmth is polar fleece sheets with a down blanket and a quilt and/or down comforter on top. With our winter, all those layers are used a couple of nights here, couple of nights there....

[Peweh]

We use just a bottom sheet (because DH was raised by wolves, and doesn't understand having a top one) and a lightweight quilt.
2 Coonhounds ranging in weight from 70-95 pounds keep us RIDICULOUSLY warm... so much so, in the middle of the night I often migrate to the spare room across the hall where the smaller coonhound joins me. I call it the 'Girl's Room' and let DH and the other male dog fester in 110-body-heat-degreedom.
We use a woodstove predominantly to heat the house, so it's nice & cool upstairs. But not when we're all in one room!! My more sophisticated girlie dog Izzy likes a top sheet & lightweight quilt as do I. Funny, I just bought us new sheets tonight!! I hope Izzy appreciates the Calvin Klein bargain I got at Marshall's...

[leightx]

Originally Posted by Beth

Right now, bamboo sheets and a light blanket. But our ultimate warmth is polar fleece sheets with a down blanket and a quilt and/or down comforter on top. With our winter, all those layers are used a couple of nights here, couple of nights there....

I was going to say! I nearly started sweating just reading all that, imagining "winter" in Houston...



When it gets frigid here (like below 60 or so ), I might stuff the lightweight down blanket back into the duvet. But probably not.

Peweh - I am totally with your husband on the top sheet thing. (I think this is when Michael Scott would bust out with "That's what she said!"). Hate them. They get all bunchy and twisty and...argh!!! And if I tuck them in really tight, then my feet are trapped and can't breathe and get claustrophobic! However, it does pose a problem since no one seems to sell individual sheets anymore - only sets!

[Peweh]

Originally Posted by leightx

However, it does pose a problem since no one seems to sell individual sheets anymore - only sets!

LOL, Leigh about Michael Scott... I usually buy JUST flat sheets at Homegoods or Marshall's (about $10-$12) but then when you add the pillowcases, sometimes it's cheaper to buy the set! And I like the top sheet myself, unless DH is next to me sleeping on TOP of it, then I just feel like a pinned down mummy!

[Beth]

Originally Posted by leightx

I was going to say! I nearly started sweating just reading all that, imagining "winter" in Houston...

I'll be honest and say that I'm not sure the down comforter ever made it on the bed after we tried the fleece sheets, and the down blanket is a pretty lightweight one. DH loved the fleece and would wash them and put them back on most of the time. LOL My toes stayed warmer with them, so I was okay with that.

Our bedroom has a 10 foot ceiling with a tray effect that goes up to about 13 feet and a bay on the northern exposure that is all windows and French doors. It tends to get a little cooler than the rest of the house at night. I also like to turn the heat down at night because the vents blow towards the bed and it gets too hot, so I need the fluff -- make sense?

We also have a lab that sleeps in the middle of the bed and a border collie/retriever mix who gets up on the bed but usually sleeps beside it. The 17 year old cat who is now sick used to sleep on my pillow, but she moved into the bookcase in the living room recently. I'm not sure if that has something to do with her being sick, the dogs being rude to her, one of them getting gas (the collie mix was a street dog and will eat most anything) or things just got too crowded for her.

[LakeMartinGal]

We're in the sunny South, but it still gets cold, here! I keep the house at 67 to 68 in the winter, because that's all my wimpy DH and DD can stand! We have regular sheets on our bed, and a Polartec blanket from LL Bean. DH has a twin electric blanket on his side of the bed, trimmed so it doesn't cover me. He also uses various throws, if it gets really cold. I will occasionally use one of the throws that just covers my middle, so my feet don't get too hot, but that's it. No dogs on our bed, though.

[kathyann]

Originally Posted by Peweh

2 Coonhounds ranging in weight from 70-95 pounds keep us RIDICULOUSLY warm...

LOL for a while I thought I was getting hormonal night-sweats just a bit early in life- then I realized it had less to do with me and more to do with the 90+ lb rottie dog that insisted on spooning with me at night... That definitely calls for an adjustment in the bed/cover (or the dog/bed) ratio!!!

[Jazzmatazz49]

In Louisiana we just keep the same sheets and lightweight comforter on the bed all year. We can't do flannel or down. In the summer, we crank down the A/C and still use the comforter.

[sneezles]

Right now DH is asleep under the sheet and a blanket...it's only 63º in there at the moment...when I go to bed (sleepless right now) I start out without the sheet but will probably pull it over in the early morning.

In the winter DH uses flannel and I put a cotton sheet over my side. DH also sleeps in flannel with at least one heavy blanket. Thermostat in the winter is set at 60º at night. I start out with the sheet and will rarely pull over the blanket but it has to be really cold in the room before that happens.

[LakeMartinGal]

I forgot to say that our summer blanket is a cotton one, and it is twice as tightly woven on DH's side than on mine! That was a real find, and has saved us from 'cover wars!'

[sparrowgrass]

Another vote for an electric mattress bad--climbing into a warm bed is luscious.

I have the mattress pad, cotton bottom and top sheets, a waffle weave blanket and a quilt my mother made on my bed.

I am a warm sleeper, so even in coldest winter I might not use the quilt. My thermometer is set at 55 at night.

No dogs in the bed--my three seem to spend their days rolling in the poison ivy, so even the thought of sleeping with them makes me itchy.

[katygirl]

Since we keep our house fairly cool AND our bedroom is the coldest of the rooms (it's above the unheated garage) we sleep with a sheet, polar fleece blanket and two quilts. I'm liking the electric mattress pad idea though!

[doggerham]

I'm another one with a dog warmer. Plus 2 cat warmers for my feet when it gets into the 50s. We had our first 3 pet night a few days ago.

However, DH is always cold, so I got a heated mattress pad last year, and it is lovely! Our bedroom is slightly above ground level (pier & beam house) with no sub-floor, so it can be darn cold in winter there. We've learned to keep the bedroom door partially closed to trap heat at night -- otherwise it all just whooshes up the stairwell.

[donleyk]

We leave the flannel sheets on all year. In summer I use just the duvet then for winter I have a down comforter (that is lovingly refered to as feathers) that goes in it. I occasionally have use of one cat too. Last night was one of those occasions. My feet were very warm.