It’s that time of year again. The sky is an oppressive slate-grey; the tarmac is slick with black ice; small furry mammals have sensibly retired to their holes until spring. Yes, winter is here, and that obviously means that everything is decidedly chillier than it was just a few weeks ago.
There are few better times to reflect on this difference in temperature than when you’re tucked up in bed, listening to the rattle of your teeth and watching your breath turn to fog. Naturally, you could blast the heating all night long – but then you’d be spending an unpleasant amount of money.
Fortunately, warmth and comfort can be achieved via decidedly more efficient means. Let’s take a look at some of the ways in which you can keep warm in your bed – even when the temperature in the house is at near-arctic levels.
Duvet Covers
It’s hardly ground-breaking science to say that the more insulating material you have wrapped around you, the warmer you’ll be. This is something that was obvious even to our cave-dwelling ancestors. It’s a principle well understood by a wide variety of modern animals too – from bears to birds to tiny little burrowing beetles.
To apply this premise to the world of duvet covers: thicker quilts offer more warmth. But telling the difference between the different sorts of duvet cover on offer is not quite so straightforward. How does one, at a glance, tell which duvet will offer a warm night’s sleep?
The thermal resistance of a duvet is measured in togs. A tog is equivalent to 0.1m2KW. Or, to put it another way, you can calculate the tog rating of a duvet by multiplying the temperature difference between one side and another by ten when the flow of heat between the two is one watt per square metre.
If that sounds overly complex, then don’t worry – the precise science behind the number is not terribly important when compared with how the quilt cover feels to you. As a general guideline, a 3-tog quilt will be extremely lightweight, while a 14-tog quilt will be extremely thick and warm. For the best results, be sure to go into a shop and try the quilt out for yourself!
Blankets
Even if you’ve got the heaviest quilt cover available, you might feel that you occasionally need a little bit more cover. In such instances, you’ll find that an extra blanket comes in extremely handy.
Blankets, like quilts, come in a variety of different shapes, sizes and consistencies. Unlike quilts, however, blankets vary a great deal more in thickness, size and consistency, and there’s no real way of knowing exactly what you’re getting unless you feel the blanket for yourself.
Blankets are useful as they offer a little bit of flexibility. If you feel that you want to go for a slightly thinner quilt, then you’ll be able to change a little earlier and use the blanket to make small adjustments. And, if your significant other has slightly different thermal requirements, you can allow one side of the bed to be slightly toastier than the other. You can even use your blanket or throw to keep yourself warm when you’re not in bed – making the blanket an eminently useful and flexible piece of heat-preserving equipment.
Hot Water Bottles
Of course, no matter how thick your quilt and blankets are, they are not going to be able to retain heat if there’s no heat to retain. If you’re not in the bed, then you’re not going to provide that heat. If you’ve ever gotten into bed to find that the sheets are freezing cold, then you’ll be familiar with the problem – your bed takes a little while to properly warm up.
If you’re looking for a little extra piece of heat to help you get your bed up to temperature quickly, then a hot water bottle can prove an effective solution. It consists of a rubber package, which you can fill with boiling water. Suffice to say, when you do this the rubber will quickly become scalding hot – which is why your hot water bottle comes in its own insulating cushioned package!
If you’d prefer, there are alternative devices which perform a similar function. For example, you might consider a wheat bag, which are a popular means of soothing aches and pains, and even come in aromatic varieties. Simply heat your bag up in the microwave, place it into its insulating package and enjoy a cosy night’s sleep. That said, it’s worth a word of warning – if you leave these in the microwave for too long, and place it under your covers, the result can be that it continues to heat up and eventually catches fire!
