Your bedroom is your refuge after a long, hard, sweaty day. It’s the last place on earth you want to be pained by the discomfort of heat. With Empress Quilts’ top tips, keep your bedroom cool this summer, without the overheads of an expensive air conditioning unit. Welcome to the second instalment in our series on bedroom cooling tips.

Cotton Sheets

Once you’ve controlled the passage of lights and heat into your bedroom, your next port of call is your bedding. The types of sheets, pillows and duvets that you use will have a massive impact on the quality of your sleep, during hot summer spells. In summer months, cotton sheets are your foremost prerogative. Cotton is a natural material and, as such, is more breathable than man-made materials such as polyester. Cotton sheets will absorb the heat form your body and help you to stay cool and perspiration free. Conversely, polyester will absorb your body heat and prevent you from cooling down. So, first thing’s first, make sure you change your sheets to cotton ones!

Which duvets are best for summer?

A duvet’s tog rating is a measure of the effectiveness with which it provides thermal insulation. Duvet tog ratings can start at 1.5 tog and go all the way up to 15 tog. When considering a duvet, it’s also worth bearing in mind the type of material with which it is stuffed. In terms of pricing, options start with hollowfibre. Hypoallergenic, machine washable and inexpensive, hollowfibre duvets certainly have their positive points. However, when it comes to staying cool during a hot summer night, the tog rating is probably the simplest thing for you to go off. Choose a lightweight duvet and, coupled with cotton sheets, enjoy a comfortable night’s sleep.