Traditional wool blankets - how to sleep in the heat

Heady summer days and long evenings come with a price. Hot, sweaty nights, that leave you twisting and turning, kicking off the covers only to wake up, chilled, in the early hours. The next morning you wake, bleary-eyed and groggy headed. Well, we have the secret to sleeping well in hot weather: traditional wool blankets.

Why we love traditional wool blankets in summer

Recent research shows that when you sleep under wool, your heart rate actually lowers. You enjoy a more restful night’s sleep and wake the next morning refreshed and ready to jump into your day. Scientists tell us that one of the main reasons for this is wool’s extraordinary thermoregulatory powers that make it the perfect material for hot nights. Your body keeps itself cool by releasing moisture onto your skin surface and when that evaporates it cools your skin. Wool acts like an extension to your skin , increasing the surface area enormously and therefore allowing more evaporation and increasing the cooling effect. It’s quite normal to lose around half a litre of moisture even on a cold night, but because highly breathable wool wicks away 30% of its own weight in moisture from your skin, it cools you down and keeps you dry. And asleep! For those nights when you want to cocoon yourself under a cover just to feel secure, and it’s too hot for a duvet, a traditional wool blanket is perfect. We have a range of wool bed blankets to suit all budgets and tastes.

Best at the cellular level

Our best selling wool blanket is as traditional as you please: Wool Cellular Blanket. Sometimes there’s just no improving on perfection. These British made Pure New Wool blankets have been manufactured in Bradford by A W Hainsworth since 1828, so you can expect yours to last a lifetime. The cellular structure traps enough warm air within the knit but still breathes, preventing you from overheating. Being also very light in weight and trimmed with softest satin, we think you’ll sleep like a baby.

Make mine a merino

We use the finest Australian merino lambswool for our ultra-fine, light as a feather, smooth as silk merino wool blankets. The wool itself is naturally long, which creates a strong, soft yarn, that’s long-lasting and drapes so elegantly over the bed that you’ll want to ‘gram it immediately. Our range also includes the best of British (woven in Yorkshire), Italian, and French superfine merino lambswool. We recommend the Lightweight Merino Blanket from John Atkinson for summer months or if you live in warmer climates. All their blankets are manufactured from raw wool to the hand-finished product at the mill in West Yorkshire.

Secret cashmere

When only the finest will do, our cashmere blankets are simply divine. And shh... don’t tell anyone but our superfine Kaschmir Superb Cashmere Blanket is on a super special offer (at the time of writing). This extraordinarily soft cashmere is carefully and gently combed from the bellies of goats that live high up in the Mongolian grasslands, by their nomadic goatherds. The result is a super soft, light and airy blanket, finished with a velvet binding.

Portuguese waffles

The deep honeycomb texture of our Cotton Lambswool Waffle Weave Blanket is gorgeous to touch and perfectly weighted for summer months. Woven in Portugal just for us, we like to layer these up in winter too. We know it’s about style just as much as function, so we’ve made sure the fabric drapes beautifully too.

Wool inside and out

When you’re not sleeping with your new best friend, you’ll be sure to find it thrown casually over sofas, armchairs, or the garden chair, just ready for an evening under the stars… Let us know if you need help choosing which wool blanket is best for you. Drop us a line!