No one ever tells you how difficult it is to SLEEP with another person.
It’s not really something that comes up before either-I mean it’s sleeping right? You get into bed and fall asleep and wake up the next day. Also, I feel that the older I get, the more I appreciate sleeping. Before marriage & kids, I took it for granted-I didn’t understand what a GIFT a good night’s sleep was.
My husband are opposites in our personalities, so it seems fitting that we are also opposites when it comes to our sleeping preferences. He’s too cold, I’m too hot; he likes a softer bed, I like a harder bed; he sleeps extremely still, I toss and turn; he’s a light sleeper, I’m a heavy sleeper.
There’s a lot of differences between us. And those differences have resulted in disagreements & lost sleep, and we all know that lost sleep doesn’t do anybody any good!
Anyways, for us, I feel like the crux of the matter has come down to finding suitable bedding that both of us like. I get so incredibly hot at night. Nolan calls me his personal heater–he says I radiate waves of heat at night. And the hotter I get, the more restless I am, and that in turn leads to him not sleeping and so on.
And then we have other weird sleeping habits that work against us.We can’t use a fan, because that gives him a cold. And just sleeping with sheets doesn’t work either, I like to be “tucked in” when I go to sleep. Like, all the edges of the blanket have to be tucked under my body or else I feel like something will come crawling up from under the bed and climb under the sheets with me (yes, I know this is super weird, but it’s just the way I’ve always been).
Earlier this year, we decided that we would switch to a king bed. It literally takes up our entire room, but we don’t care. Sleep is more important than that.
So we got this massive bed, and I started to do some research on bedding.
There are so many options available when it comes to choosing bedding, it can make your head spin. I found the best way was to narrow down some key properties that you have to have. I had a couple things that were important to me, namely a material that would be cool (so nix on the flannel and microfiber), and a fabric that is breathable. You know that hot, sweaty feeling you get when you are sleeping? That’s a sign that your sheets are not letting you breathe, and that’s what I was trying to avoid.
Then I found LINEN. Gorgeous, textured, rumpled-to-perfection, linen. And the more I read about it, the more I was convinced that this is what I had been missing my whole life. And yes, I do confess, I fell in love with the “look” first. I will admit it…I am a sucker for style and will sacrifice comfort for style-but with linen, you don’t have to do that.
I honestly never considered linen for bed-sheets. I didn’t know much about it and what I thought I knew was that it would be rough and uncomfortable for bedding. Oh, was I ever wrong.
Linen is actually one of the oldest textiles in the world. It has been produced for thousands of years and is made from flax. The ancient Egyptians prized it for it’s durability and temperature regulating in their hot, desert climate, and used it in mummification. Fun fact: old King Tut, he loved his linen curtains so much they went with him to the grave, where they were discovered intact!
Linen is known to be cool and airy in the summer and cozy in the fall. It has incredible temperature regulating properties due to it’s hollow fiber, which move air and moisture naturally. It can absorb up to 20% of it’s weight in water before feeling wet, but it can also shed this water quickly.
Linen is known to have anti-microbial and anti-bacterial qualities, which means that it does not provide an ideal climate for bacteria to grow. This is because of it’s capacity to let go of moisture quickly.
I think that one of the main things that made me fall in love with linen was it’s naturally textured, rumpled, look. You WANT to see creases in the fabric-it just gives it this easy lived-in, comfortable look that makes you just want to jump in bed. Unlike cotton, which just looks untidy when creased, linen just looks better! And who doesn’t want a low maintenance bed? Throw on the cover & pillows-it doesn’t have to be perfect. It’ll look good anyways 🙂
One thing about linen, it’s an investment. It is considered to be a better quality than cotton, despite the lower thread count (Note, I used to think the higher the thread count, the better the sheets. This is not necessarily true), and is priced accordingly. With proper care, a set of linen bedding should last decades.
I do not have a full set of linen bedding yet. I have some pillows, and I have a duvet cover, and I absolutely love them. There is some quality about cuddling into it that I can’t quite describe: it feels smooth but textured, cozy but airy.
Linen bedding is is an experience.
I will definitely be adding more to our collection, as my budget allows.
Until then, if you have any questions, feel free to comment below, and if you think anyone else is interested in reading this, feel free to share.
Part 2 of Linen & Wool: Why you should make the switch will be on here soon…and you guessed it…we will be talking about wool!
Enter your email below to receive notifications about new blog posts!