“Would you like an extra blanket on your bed?”
“No,” I answer proudly, “Because I sleep among the wool.” It is -8°C outside and I sleep nice and warm in my bed.
That was different last year. Shivering from the cold under 6 layers of blanket! A regular duvet, two extra duvets folded over it (4 layers) and a blanket on top of that. I was still cold. “Can I warm myself with you?” I then asked my partner. But he left the bed sweating from the heat.
A person loses approximately 60 ml of body fluid per hour. Over eight hours of sleep that means about half a liter per night! This varies per person. The average is between 250 ml and 2 liters per person per night.
When I'm in a lot of pain, I feel icy cold. Really unnaturally cold. According to my partner, I feel warm, like a burning stove, but I'm still shivering. My partner sweated out of bed every night, even though he only had 1 blanket on his bed. I cried bitter tears because I wanted to sleep together so badly, which was not possible with this enormous difference in perceived temperature.
Until we decided to sleep among the wool.
After an interesting information evening about healthy sleeping, we learned that real wool (unprocessed sheepskin) insulates very well. It keeps you both warm and cool. You can store ice cubes between two layers of sheep's wool with confidence. They will hardly melt. You can also keep a hot drink warm with it. Awesome!
A sheepskin is naturally intended to insulate, but still breathes. Does a synthetic duvet keep all the moisture under the blanket? A sheepskin allows sweat and moisture to pass through. This keeps you dry and warm or cool.
This especially works with two layers of wool. You have to lie on the wool so that the sweat is reflected and does not end up in your mattress, and lie under the wool. The sheep's wool blanket allows sweat to evaporate, keeping you warm and dry.
Between 2 layers of wool!
It works fantastic. We have a woolen underlay on the mattress and sleep under a woolen blanket. Although I have an allergic reaction to processed wool (washing and spinning the woolen yarn causes the wool fibers to spread out, which stings and itches), I can easily touch natural sheepskin (the fibers do not spread out). I'm warm and my partner keeps it cool.
We sleep together in one bed again.
He does not longer wake up drenched in sweat and I have less pain and have lost that unnatural, annoying cold.
Recently I accidentally put a synthetic fitted sheet on the bed and I immediately felt cold again at night. Due to the synthetic fitted sheet, we had no effect from the wool underlay. One layer of wool does not insulate. So I quickly bought a new cotton fitted sheet and it worked again. We really sleep under the same sheep's wool blanket in summer and winter.
In summer we stay cool and in winter we stay warm. This way we don't crawl under the wool every evening, but between the wool.
Never again will we go back to synthetic sheets and blankets!
What is your tip for sleeping nice and warm during the cold winter? Please leave your comment below.