I hate getting into a cold bed – my 2p per hour solution

It’s December, and that means cold winter weather, and my pet peeve about this time of year: getting into a cold bed at night.

Now, as Ideal Home’s Sleep Editor, I’m lucky enough to have one of the best duvets on the market on my bed, so I’m always lovely and cosy once I’m *in* bed, but there’s still that first few minutes of getting into a bed with cold sheets to contend with.

Luckily, I have a solution, and it doesn’t mean cranking the thermostat up and spending a small fortune on heating the house.

Ever since I tested it for our guide to the best electric blankets, the Silentnight Comfort Control Electric Blanket has been my go-to for particularly cold nights. And the good news is it only costs a few pence an hour to run.

During the past four years of testing where to buy bedding, I have learned some hacks to help combat those initial bedtime shivers – swapping my summer cotton bedding for a snuggly brushed cotton fitted sheet and adding the best linen bedding to my bed is now my go-to October through March – but still, there are some nights even that doesn’t do the trick.

The exact figures for how much it costs to run an electric blanket will depend on your energy rates, but last time I totted up how much this heated blanket cost me, it was less than 2p per hour. To my mind, that’s a small price to pay to combat the dread of climbing into an icy, cold bed this winter.

Now, if you’re looking for an electric blanket to use on your bed for a good few months of winter, I still definitely recommend the Dreamland Snowed In Dual-Control Mattress Protector. It’s by *far* the best electric blanket I’ve tested, and has retained its crown as my #1 recommendation in our guide for the past two years.

The only problem (other than the Dreamland electric blankets’ £140 price tag) is that I’m an awkward customer.

Despite the fact that I hate that cold chill on the sheets in winter, I’m also a hot sleeper, and being peri-menopausal definitely doesn’t help. That means that once I get warm in bed, I’m likely to keep getting warmer and warmer, and then overheat if I have an electric blanket on the bed all night.

And I’ve found that even if the heated blanket comes with a timer that I can programme to shut off after half an hour so (like the Dreamland Snowed In Dual-Control Mattress Protector does), the fact that every electric blanket I’ve tested hides the electrical wires in polyester wadding means I can still overheat.

I sleep on a mattress filled with natural, breathable materials (the Hypnos Pillow Top Select mattress), have a wool-filled duvet on my bed for its fantastic breathability (the Woolroom Deluxe Washable Wool Duvet), and use bedding made from cotton or linen rather than synthetic fibres, all in a bid to prevent the overheating that happens the minute I add the hidden sleep thief that is polyester to my bed.

Call me high-maintenance, but I’ve found adding an electric blanket under my fitted sheet during the winter disrupts all that hard work (and investment – natural fibres aren’t cheap) that I’ve put into creating a breathable bed that offers my body good temperature regulation and a better night’s sleep.

For me, the solution has been to slip this budget-friendly Silentnight electric blanket between my duvet cover and fitted sheet for twenty minutes or so before I get into bed on a cold night. I then slide it out before I get into bed.

The bonus is that it also means I don’t have to have messy cables protruding from my bed day in and day out over the winter. And although this budget electric blanket doesn’t have a timer, if you don’t fancy making the trip upstairs to turn the blanket on 20 minutes before bed, I tend to pop it into the bed earlier in the evening and then use a smart plug that I can turn on or off via my phone whilst I’m sitting downstairs on the sofa. Any of these smart plugs from Amazon will do the trick.

Plus, did I mention this little bit of winter kindness costs less than 2p for the time I have it on the bed? I think that’s an investment that’s well worth making to make the cold winter weather a little more bearable.

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