What to sleep under when the duvet is too much
Every warm night has the same gap in it. You want something over you, and everything you own is either a winter duvet or nothing. The summer bed is built out of cotton layers, and one of our duvets belongs in it more often than people expect.
Build the summer bed from cotton layers you can add and remove. A fitted sheet, a flat sheet over you, and on the warmer nights the empty duvet cover on top, which is two layers of organic cotton sateen and nothing inside them. That gives you the weight of something over you with none of the insulation, and every layer of it washes weekly. If you want a real duvet on cooler summer nights, or you sleep with the air conditioning on, the wool duvet is the one that belongs in summer, because it keeps the air under it dry and dry is what feels cool. Under your head, buckwheat, which is the coolest surface we make.
A summer bed changes across the night. The trick is having three light cotton layers to hand rather than one heavy one.
A generously cut flat sheet in 300 thread count organic sateen, with a wide double-turned hem. On a hot night it is the whole bed, and it washes weekly.
Best for sleeping under a sheet and nothing else
Fitted sheet, flat sheet and pillowcases in one undyed cloth. Cotton takes the moisture off your skin, which a synthetic sheet cannot do at any thread count.
Best for replacing a hot synthetic set in one go
Same sateen both faces, so with no duvet inside it is a two-layer cotton blanket. Zip it shut and it is the lightest thing with weight you can put over yourself.
Best for the nights a sheet is not quite enough
Hand-tufted organic wool that takes the moisture your skin gives off into the fiber, so the air under it stays dry. It is the duvet people are surprised to keep out in July.
Best for air conditioning, and the last cool nights of June
Air moves between the loose hulls all night and carries your heat out, so the surface never builds a warm hollow. The firmest pillow we make and the coolest.
Best for a pillow that feels hot
Buckwheat on one side for the surface temperature and organic wool on the other for the sweat. Flip it as the night changes.
Best for hot and damp on different nights
A slip-on case in the same sateen, no zip against your face. The cloth your cheek is on decides more of how hot a night feels than most people think.
Best for finishing the bed
Why summer bedding disappoints
The summer aisle sells lightness. What decides whether you sweat is what the fabric does with moisture, and a thin polyester sheet does nothing with it at all.
1
A microfiber sheet or a thin synthetic summer duvet, because it weighs nothing and feels cool in the packet.
2
Polyester holds almost no moisture. The sweat your skin gives off has nowhere to go, so it sits in the layer of air against you.
3
Damp air at body temperature is what your brain reads as overheating, and it happens under a microfiber sheet as fast as under a winter duvet.
4
Which is cold once the room drops, and you wake up reaching for the sheet you threw off.
Cotton absorbs, so a cotton sheet takes the moisture off your skin and lets the air around you stay dry. That is why the same weight of cloth feels cool in cotton and clammy in polyester, and why the summer bed is built from cotton layers rather than from the thinnest thing available.
The two-sheet bed
The simplest summer bed is a fitted sheet under you and a flat sheet over you, both in a cotton that takes moisture off your skin. Ours are 300 thread count long-staple organic cotton sateen, cut generously so the flat sheet still tucks after it has shrunk in the first wash, with a wide double-turned hem you can fold back into a cuff.
When a sheet alone is not enough, put the duvet cover on the bed with nothing inside it. Zipped shut, it is two layers of the same sateen, which gives you the feeling of something over you with almost no insulation. It is the layer for the night that starts warm and ends cool, and it goes in the wash with the sheets.
The duvet that stays out in July
This is the part that surprises people. A duvet feels hot in summer because of what it does with moisture, and wool takes the moisture your skin gives off into the fiber, up to 30 percent of its own weight before the surface feels damp. The heat travels out with it, so the air under a wool duvet stays dry, and dry is what your skin reads as cool. It is why sheep wear it in August.
It suits the nights when you want a real duvet, which in most of the country means air conditioning, a cool stretch in June, or a bedroom that drops hard once the heating goes off. Our queen is about 9 pounds, hand-tufted so it stays spread, and the same duvet is the one we recommend for January. It is spot clean or dry clean only, so the organic cotton cover over it is the layer that gets washed.
Under your head
Your face and neck give off more heat than anywhere else you are lying on, and a foam or polyester pillow has nowhere to put it. Buckwheat is thousands of hard hulls with a gap beside every one, and air keeps moving through those gaps all night, carrying your heat out. The surface runs several degrees cooler than foam and never builds the warm hollow you keep turning the pillow to escape.
If it is sweat rather than surface heat that wakes you, wool is the pillow, and the Buckwool Hybrid puts a buckwheat chamber and a wool chamber back to back so you can flip between the two as the night changes. Every one of them opens at the side so you set the height, and all of them wear the same organic cotton pillowcase.
Weight is the wrong thing to shop by. The right thing is what the fabric does with moisture.
| Layer | What it does with moisture | How the night goes |
|---|---|---|
| Organic cotton flat sheet | Absorbs it off your skin and lets it dry through the weave | Cool and dry, and it washes weekly |
| Empty organic cotton duvet cover | Two layers of the same cotton, no insulation between them | Something over you, without the heat |
| Organic wool duvet | Takes it into the fiber, up to 30% of its weight, and the heat leaves with it | Dry under a real duvet, on the nights that call for one |
| Thin polyester summer duvet | Cannot absorb it, so it sits in the air against you | Clammy inside an hour despite the weight |
| Microfiber sheet | Cannot absorb it either, however thin | Feels cool in the packet and hot before the night is half over |
| Bamboo or eucalyptus lyocell | Cool and slippery on contact, and the drape holds it close to the skin | Good first hour, then it depends on the fill underneath |
| Linen | Absorbs well and breathes well | Cool, and a coarser hand than sateen against bare skin |
A cotton flat sheet. Ours is cut generously in 300 thread count organic sateen, and on the hottest nights it is the whole bed.
Organic Cotton Flat Sheet ›The duvet cover with nothing inside it. Two layers of cotton sateen zipped shut give you weight without insulation, and it washes with the sheets.
Organic Cotton Duvet Cover ›The wool duvet. It keeps the air under it dry, so it is the one duvet that does not feel like a winter duvet in summer.
Organic Wool Duvet ›Buckwheat. Air moves between the hulls all night and carries your heat out. If you also sweat into it, the Buckwool Hybrid has wool on the other side.
Buckwheat Pillow ›A cotton flat sheet, and on the nights that is not enough, the duvet cover on its own with nothing inside it. Two layers of organic cotton sateen zipped shut give you something over you without insulation, and both wash weekly. When you want a real duvet, the wool one is the summer duvet, because it keeps the air under it dry.
We make two duvets, cotton and wool, and neither is a thin summer weight. The one that belongs in summer is the wool, which stays dry under you because it takes the moisture your skin gives off into the fiber. For the hottest nights, the flat sheet and the empty duvet cover do the job better than any thin duvet, and they wash weekly.
It is the opposite of what people expect. A duvet feels hot in summer because sweat has nowhere to go, and wool takes that moisture into the fiber, up to 30 percent of its own weight, so the air under it stays dry. Dry is what your skin reads as cool. It is the duvet for air conditioning and cool summer nights, and the same one for January.
Yes, and it is one of the best summer layers there is. Ours is the same 300 thread count sateen on both faces, so zipped shut it is a two-layer cotton blanket with no insulation. Put it over the flat sheet on warm nights and take it off on hot ones.
Not in organic cotton at this weight. Sateen describes the weave rather than the fiber, and what it changes is drape and softness rather than warmth. What makes a sheet hot is a fiber that cannot absorb, and cotton absorbs. If you sleep hot, the layer that matters far more is what is inside your pillow and duvet.
A cotton that takes moisture off your skin, in a weave that lets it dry through. Ours are 300 thread count long-staple organic cotton sateen, undyed and without a finish, which matters because a resin or softening finish closes the weave. Polyester and microfiber feel cool in the packet and hold sweat against you before the night is half over.
Buckwheat, by feel. Air keeps moving between the loose hulls and carries your heat out, so the surface runs cooler than foam all night. If it is sweat rather than heat that wakes you, wool does more, and the Buckwool Hybrid puts both in one pillow so you can flip between them.
Most of our customers do not. The wool duvet works on moisture as well as warmth, so it is dry in July and warm in January, and the summer bed is made lighter by taking layers off rather than swapping the duvet. If you want a second duvet, the cotton one is the heavier, more grounded option for winter.
The layers against you, weekly. In summer that is the fitted sheet, the flat sheet, the pillowcase and the empty duvet cover if you are using it. Machine wash warm or cool, tumble low or hang, and skip fabric softener, which coats the fiber and stops it absorbing.
Send it back inside 60 nights, and free shipping applies. A hot room is still a hot room, and bedding can only stop adding to it. What it can do is stop the sweat collecting against you, which is the part of a hot night that wakes people.
Cotton layers you can add and take away, and a wool duvet that stays dry in July. Handmade in our New Jersey workshop.
See the summer bed178 verified reviews
If you've sent more pillows back than you've kept, you're our customer.
“I have owned more pillows than I have owned houses and I have owned 12 houses.” This is by far the only pillow to use if you don’t want to wake up with sore shoulders or neck. I have replaced all the pillows in my house with this pillow.
I have compressed discs in my neck, and I have spent hundreds of dollars over the past 6 months trying to find one that will help me sleep. Every pillow I bought caused me to wake up in even more pain than the night before!! The buckwheat pillow is life-changing!! I have slept through the night and wake up with no pain!!
I was leery to try another expensive pillow without some sort of trial period after being very let down by a different company's natural fiber pillow… I don't hear anything at all with the buckwheat! It does stay fresh and cool as well, but most importantly it actually holds my head/neck up and in place. Which allows me to actually get rest instead of always adjusting.
I've been a buckwheat pillow customer for the last 7 years and I can say that Circadian has the highest standards of quality paired with incredible customer service. Very very impressed and would not hesitate to send anyone their way.
I have spent years searching for a pillow that feels supportive and comfortable all night. I have finally found it. I absolutely love the Buckwool pillow. I removed a bit of the material to get it to exactly how I want it… I rarely wake up with neck pain now.
I find myself switching between the two and loving the feel of both. I haven't woken up with a sweaty head with either and that's an amazing feeling especially in the AZ summer. The buckwheat side is a lot quieter and more comfy/soft than others I've tried in the past.
I have tried at least 10 different pillows in the last 3 years. Nothing has worked out except for this wool pillow. I have chronic neck pain which has been greatly reduced. I am very happy with my new pillow.
I have pretty bad chemical sensitivity (housebound most of the time)… I try to only buy totally safe, non-toxic products. I found this pillow to be very safe and non-toxic, and the packaging was fragrance free which is always a huge plus.
I ordered this pillow to replace my very old (but beloved) down pillow and I'm so glad I did. It is heavenly!… I advise you to heed the recommendation given by the quiz. I ordered cotton initially despite the quiz giving me kapok as a result… the quiz was right.
The quality craftsmanship and materials is evident… when I asked if extra stuffing were available for the second one I'm using as a knee pillow, they not only pointed me to the right place on their site, but also created a new, smaller 1-lb. refill size based on my request.
The three-star ones are in there too. Read all of them
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