Bed warmer. Let's face it, whether you want a good night's sleep or fun in the sack, a cold bed is not a hot invitation to a spouse, partner or stranger.
After many years of suffering through cold winters where drafts fill our bedroom and the heat goes down at night (Really. Our super has the building on a timer and the heat comes on at 6am and goes off at 10pm most days).
After spending one night in the W Hotel and visiting friends in Vermont two years ago who had electric blankets, we have built the perfect bed for drafty apartments:
One: Down filled duvet (Ikea has great ones)
Two: Eco or high thread count cotton sheets
Three: Down feather Bed (Overstock.com or Pacific Coast)
Four: Sunbeam electric mattress pad
Five: A good mattress on a frame that breathes (slatted or boxspring)
i cuddle with a heating pad on low, under an amazing down-filled company store duvet. it really does the trick too.
A more low-tech solution to nighttime cold, though maybe not quite as effective, is a hot water bottle tucked under the covers with you. Especially nice when you have a little knitted cozy to put it in.
I hate to state the obvious, but having a lover in bed is also a help.
When I was 21 I was doing my first stint in Europe and it was a year of study in Galway, Ireland. Second semester, I was living in a bed-sit with no hot running water and no heat! Well, that's not entirely true... There was a meter next to the electric box. After putting 50p in and turning the crank, I got maybe 20 minutes of time in which I could plug in an electric heater. Not worth the trouble. I was poorer than I've ever been and that 50p was valuable... that was 1/3 of a pint of guiness back in 1989! So I made do with 7 blankets at night... and let me tell you something... It was sheer hell to get out of the warm bed into the cold room in February. Then I started going out with someone and it was easier to stay warm...
When visiting a friend in countryside, I also discovered electric mattress pads in Ireland... slipping into a toasty bed was heaven on earth. I got one when I came home to the States, but stopped using it...
Max, as someone who sleeps with the window slightly open, I'm sweating just reading that description. I switched to a down comforter this winter and one side seems to have more filling than the other, despite the stitching. When I switched to the thicker side, I almost died from the heat.
So any recommendations for people who get hot easily?
I have a heated mattress pad, and it's heaven. For most nights I just turn it to "pre-heat" while doing my evening routine, then turn it off when I go to bed. My body heat can keep the bed warm after I'm in it, but a pre-warmed bed does wonders for the quality of my sleep on cold nights.
For those cold East coast winter nights, I highly recommend flanel sheets. Garnet Hill has nice ones called English Flanel. Cara
I already use a down filled comforter and a feather bed and it is warm and cozy on a cold winter night. I didn't know about electric mattress pads, now I will get one to pre heat the bed.
Cara, I had flannel sheets once but found that I couldn,t slide into bed. The nap of the sheets caught pajama fabric and made them ride up.The sheets were gone the next day.
Not to be a total downer, but I personally wouldn't use an electric blanket/mattress pad because they produce electromagnetic radiation fields like cell phones (although obviously, you don't have a cell phone clamped to your body, in use, for 8 hours a day--at least I hope not) I am so not a hypochrondriac, but I figure why risk it? Just my 2 cents, for what they are worth.
This is also a good argument for condo ownership in a property with control of your own heating in the unit. Something too rare in NYC.
I too am a little wary of using an electric blanket or electric heated pad for different reasons. Several years ago I was using an electric heating pad for a bad back and went to bed with it on low. In the middle of the night one of the heating filaments shorted and burned thru the pad starting a fire in my bed. Fortunately I was a light enough sleeper and I only had a very minor burn myself, but it was quick enough to leave a quarter size hole in my sheet and start on the mattress itself. I was able to douse it quickly, but count myself extremely fortunate.
Looooove my heated mattress pad. I'm cold-blooded to a reptilian degree. The pad allows me to save considerable cash (and energy) since I don't have to crank the heat to sleep anymore.
(To jimkk -- Don't know if this will relieve your suspicions, but heated mattress pads are designed to be slept on, unlike heating pads, and operate at a lower temperature than heating pads.)
Does anyone know whether an electric heated mattress pad may be used over a Tempur-Pedic mattress? I'm concerned that the heat-sensitive "memory foam" might be adversely affected by the heating pad...
I love my heated blanket...used in conjuction with a high quality mattress/ high count sheets and a comforter
Unfortunitly the elctric blanket doesn;t hold up too well to cleaning(every month or so) I'm on my 3rd blanket ...yet I still love it.
I have a question regarding the placement of a bed next to a heater.
We are moving into our new condo which has electric baseboard heating. We want to orientate the bed so the head board will be right next to the heater. When we told a few people they seemed to be concerned with the heat source located at the tip of or heads. Has anybody heard anything like this?
How does an electric blanket actually work ?
That's what I was wondering too. How the hell does the damn thing work?????? most heating appliances are definitively not flexible because of the heating wire that's usually in a ceramics 'bed' of sort which keeps it from moving and desintegrating. It would be very interesting to find out how the electric heating blanket actually works.
i'm not keen on electric blankets ever since i woke up to a burning smell. must have rolled on it and it got really hot in one place. burn marks on one side. and it was an expensive one. sunbeam i think. over a hundred bucks. i use the venus rising limited non-electric wool blanket after seeing the company here. good purchase. keeps us totally warm and don't have to worry about lighting ourselves on fire. down just gets too hot and makes me sweat. i've heard from my buddies that most men have the same problem. don't know if it's a guy thing because my wife doesn't get as hot. but she doesn't like down either. we switched to the wool blankets because she read somewhere that wool breathes better. down just seals everything in and i could never rest right. for what it's worth.
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