Which cover will keep me nice and cool on hot nights?
31/5/2026
Translation: Jessica Johnson-Ferguson
Pictures: Stefanie Lechthaler
Do you also suffer during tropical temperatures at night, but aren’t willing to ditch your duvet altogether? To solve this dilemma, I put three covers to the test. While one was a total disappointment and the other of limited use, the third one was a game changer.
Imagine being attacked by an animal in the middle of the night while you’re lying there with no sheet to protect you. Easy prey, right? Well, that’s exactly why I crawl under my duvet every night. Even in the height of summer.
So when my bedroom reaches sauna temperatures, I’m put onto slow roast under the covers. I wake up soaking wet and feel like I’ve been hit by a truck the next morning (linked article in German). Forget about the perfect room temperature of 16 to 19 degrees in the old-style building I live in. At least there’s one aspect of my setup I can work on: the duvet. On my quest to find the coolest covers, I snuggled up to tussah silk, muslin and satin.
Muslin: wrapped up like a baby
The latest addition to my ever-growing collection of bedding is a muslin blanket that Instagram has been aggressively shoving in my face. What can I say, they got me. The claims that the fabric regulates temperature and therefore keeps you cool in the summer convinced me to buy it. Shame on me.
That said, the advantages speak for themselves. The fabric, usually cotton, has a light and airy texture thanks to its loose weave. This allows air to circulate beneath the cover, so your body heat is released to the outside. In addition, it absorbs and releases moisture really well. This evaporation chill has a nice cooling effect.
My experience with the six-layer muslin blanket from Milkii
The fabric is very soft to the touch. In her product review of the muslin duvet cover from Journey Living, my colleague Pia points out that muslin blankets become even softer with every wash.
When I cover myself with it, I feel as cosy and safe as a baby. Still, I’m not convinced. Six layers are probably just too many. On hot nights, the blanket kept me too warm to fall asleep, and I didn’t feel the cooling effect until later in the night. I also had to get used to the fabric. Although it’s super soft, I found it uncomfortable against my skin when I was trying to fall asleep. So overall, I had restless nights under the muslin cover.
Room temperature: 22 to 24 degrees
Suitable for: anyone who likes to be really snug.
Washing: at 30 to 40 degrees
Tussah silk: a top-quality duvet made from second-rate material
Using silk as the filler for a cover sounds pretty pretentious. Surprisingly, tussah silk, also known as wild silk, isn’t of great use to the textile industry. The silk from the tussah silkworm is obtained from the cocoon in the same way as that from the mulberry silkworm. However, due to the worm’s diet, tussah silk has a rough texture and an uneven beige-brown colour. So if you allow the wild caterpillars to hatch, it’s more laborious to spin the cocoon into silk.
Because of its coarser, less lustrous texture, this animal-friendly material is hardly used in high-end fashion. By contrast, wild silk makes for excellent blanket filling material. Why? Because its excellent moisture management creates an evaporating chill that has a cooling effect.
My experience with the Silk Dream Duvet from Billerbeck
Brace yourself for a rave review. This duvet was definitely one of my best buys last year. Even without a duvet cover, it feels really soft against my skin. And when I got under it, I didn’t feel weighed down. But what I loved most was that I didn’t sweat. In addition to the tussah silk filling, this is probably down to the chequered quilting. This means that the top and bottom layer of the duvet are sewn directly together, resulting in less insulation at the seam. This creates thermal bridges that facilitate the transfer of heat.
Since I’ve had this cover, I haven’t woken up once because I’ve been too hot. That’s why I’ll be using it year-round from now on. This has worked well so far, unless the temperature in my room exceeds 24 degrees. In that case, the heat stops dissipating, and I struggle to fall asleep under it.
Room temperature: 19 to 24 degrees
Suitable for: anyone who likes to be cool at night. This model doesn’t have that fluffy down duvet feel but is still soft and lightweight.
Washing: on a gentle cycle at 30 degrees
Satin duvet cover: a quick fix when the heat’s unbearable
As soon as I hear the term «tropical night», I know what to do: unzip, pull out the duvet, zip up. In other words, I use the satin duvet cover without the filling.
Satin is a type of fabric made from cotton or silk yarn and has a smooth, shiny surface. Used as a cover, it transfers your body heat almost directly into the surrounding air. The material also absorbs and releases moisture, which results in evaporation chill. Silk is said to have an even greater cooling effect than with cotton. Unlike cotton, though, this material feels smoother, almost slippery to the touch.
My experience with the silk duvet cover from Galaxus
Last year, I also picked up the Galaxus own-brand cotton-satin duvet cover to go with my Billerbeck duvet. At first, it felt a little too smooth for my liking, and the glaring white was an eyesore to me. After a year of washing, though, it feels softer now and not as blinding when the sun shines on it.
I love it as a makeshift summer blanket on hot summer nights. A single-layer summer duvet, like the one Pia tried out in her product review, would probably be even a bit cooler. But if I stick one leg out from under the blanket (Yeah, I know, there’s a risk of predators… that’s why just one leg!) and leave the window open at night, that’s more than enough.
Room temperature: from 24 degrees
Suitable for: Anyone who doesn’t want to go without a blanket on very hot nights and is looking for a simple solution.
Washing: at 60 degrees
If you can’t give up feathers, go for chequered quilting this summer
If you occasionally suffer on hot nights, but just really love down duvets, it’s worth investing in a summer duvet. Unlike a winter duvet, the summer version’s usually less densely filled and often quilted.
Most manufacturers use a diamond-quilted pattern, which is a square stitching pattern. Others market creative patterns such as honeycombs or waves. The rule is: The tighter the seams in a blanket, the more thermal bridges there are and the greater the heat exchange.
Find out how temperature regulation works with wool and other materials, and why wool socks are a great choice for summer in this article:
Header image: Stefanie Lechthaler
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