Do you have a sheet underneath your duvet? Have I been making a bed wrong all these years?

[MaCosta]

So I'm looking for bedding for DS2 who is having a new bed delivered on saturday. The pictures all show a fitted sheet (or tucked in flat sheet). Then a sheet and then a duvet (in a duvet cover of course). Then often a throw or quilted "comforter" on top.

I've never put a flat sheet between me and the duvet. Have I been doing it wrong all these years?

Actually yes hotels do always have a flat sheet. And my grandma did but she used blankets and a bedspread.

Yep. I use a flat sheet between me and the duvet.
I get hot. I can kick the duvet off but still have a sheet. It's nice. I like cool satin sheets.

Yes, I do. It's never tucked in though, I can't bear my feet being pinned down. I like throwing the duvet onto dh and sleeping with just the sheet, dh ends up completely mafted but that's for him to sort out, lol

Hang on, so it's

(the wrong way up)

Bed
Mattress protector
Sheet
PERSON
Sheet
Duvet cover
Duvet
Duvet cover (cos it's both sides of the duvet)

Or are the people who have sheets between them and the duvet not using duvet covers?

I might try it when I change the beds tomorrow and see what DH says.

Yes , of course I use a duvet cover.
It's not complicated. It's how you often see beds made up in displays in shops or bedding adverts.

This is pretty much what my DDs bed looks like.

I always think of the extra sheet as a hotel thing. It stops the duvet being cosy as you can't pull it round you properly with the sheet stretched across. Also the top of the sheet gets in my face in an annoying way.

Yes this is a throwback to when people used to use blankets rather than duvets, so a top sheet was necessary. In America it's still in common use because they often use 'comforters' - a duvet with a printed pattern on it which isn't intended to be covered up with a duvet cover.

It is quite useful for minimising laundry. But I don't use a top sheet because I can't stand getting tangled up in too much crap when I'm sleeping, and I often get too hot anyway.

Pantone: except when it is a 'continental quilt', which is a duvet.

I think it makes sense if you like sleeping under a sheet, either to be tucked in or for coolness.

Otherwise it just seems like more stuff to wash. It is no harder to put a duvet cover in the washing machine than a sheet, and, assuming no mobility problems, duvet covers take about a minute to put on a duvet.

No. I like to tuck the duvet around myself which wouldn't work with a sheet

I do, but only to avoid changing the duvet cover, sheet is much easier.

"It is quite useful for minimising laundry"

How does it minimise laundry? You are exchanging duvet cover for a sheet. And on the days you change the duvet cover you have two sheets to wash instead of one.

I have never seen beds made up with two sheets plus a duvet complete with cover in shop displays.

Thank you GoldenBeagle! I use both, but prefer duvet, it's shorter and sounds more modern.

I don't give a monkeys whether it's old-fashioned, I hate sleeping without a flat sheet - and I know very few people who don't use them for adults. More control over temperature, more layers in winter so cosier - I find just a duvet lacking in comfort.

As for saving on laundry - one layer of (often thinner, depending on your duvet cover) fabric rather than two. Less space in washing machine, less time to dry, easier to remove and replace on bed. Hardly rocket science.

By the way, all you folk who have blankets or throws on top of the duvet - it's making the duvet less warm.

In winter we have a flat sheet, a blanket and then the winter duvet.

In summer, just the summer duvet in covers of course

In the inbetween months, its the flat sheet and then the duvet depending on how the nights are in autumn or spring.

We don't have any central heating here, so its gets bloody cold during the night in winter....

I have a flat sheet, just a single one as I don't like the feel of my bare feet touching so I have the sheet to wrap around my lower legs.

The sheet thing is very old fashioned isnt IT? And all that crap on top of you

"as I don't like the feel of my bare feet touching"

Touching what? Each other? The duvet?

"By the way, all you folk who have blankets or throws on top of the duvet - it's making the duvet less warm."

How? When we lived in a house with no central heating we had the worst winter for many years. We had a blanket and a patchwork quilt over our duvet and we were lovely and warm in bed.

By the way, all you folk who have blankets or throws on top of the duvet - it's making the duvet less warm.

erm, we had plenty of scientific trials when camping and a blanket on top definitly is warmer than just the duvet.

I used to have a goose feather duvet and it falls all around your body keeping you warm in winter and cool in summer. Now I have a synthetic duvet as after 25 years the feather duvet started shedding feathers through the worn duvet material. The synthetic duvet just lies across you and doesn't fall around your body in the same way.

There I could have a sheet across the bed between me and the synthetic duvet and it wouldn't make any difference. But under a goose down duvet a flat sheet would be detrimental to the duvet working as it would stop the duvet falling around your body lying in the bed.

erm, we had plenty of scientific trials when camping and a blanket on top definitly is warmer than just the duvet.

Well, yes, obvs! But not optimal warmth from what you're using.

The theory is that having the blanket on top crushes some of the air out of the duvet, reducing its warmth. For max warmth, the blanket is better under the duvet apparently. (That's how we had it in the freezing house with no heating I grew up in, lovely and warm.)

People make up beds according to whether it is fashionable rather than comfortable?

[boggles]

I have a sheet under the duvet during summer and usually forget to stop doing that for a good part of the winter but eventually go back to just the duvet.