What do you sleep under?

[jducoeur]

One thing I've been noticing on our current trip is the different assumptions about how a bed gets covered.

In the US, you typically have (bottom to top):

• Boxspring
• Mattress
• Fitted bottom sheet
• Top sheet
• Blanket
• Quilt

The three top layers are optional, and you use whatever makes sense for the weather.

In Europe (at least, most of the places I've traveled, both hotels and AirBnBs/VRBOs), the custom seems to typically be to just have a duvet on top, and that keeps throwing me for a loop.

I mean, I kind of understand the appeal: when I was growing up, I invariably just used a quilt, year-round. I didn't learn The Way of the Hospital Corner until after getting married.

But I'm coming to the opinion that I like the American norm better, because it's more modular. In winter, I'll have all three pulled up; in summer, I'll just be using the top sheet. Right now on our trip, I'm finding the duvet typically just a little bit warmer than I want, at least during part of the night.

No idea whether I'm typical or weird this way, but the difference has been catching my attention.

(Tangent: posts of more than 500 characters are going here, but short microblog-length entries about our vacation are going on my Mastodon, using the same #europe2024 tag as here.)

Comments

[cvirtue]

We switched to duvet-as-top-sheet a couple decades ago, and have not switched back.

We didn't have any issues with temperature regulation at any point during the year; we move covers off or back on when asleep just fine. I could see that it might take a few days to get this activated in whatever part of one's brain that monitors this, however.

The main thing that stands out is that some people, based on confused articles/advice columns, don't understand that the duvet cover is changed with the same frequency that one would change one's sheets.

.... whatever frequency that might be.
*whistles aimlessly*

PS: Oh, this does require that the duvet covers be pleasant to encounter with bare skin. For us that means cotton and linen only; nothing with any plastic fibers (polyester, nylon, microfiber, etc.) Our duvet insides currently consist of two thin-ish comforters, and those have polyester fiberfill.