Ditch your quilt!

Hand up if you love your sleep. And hand up if you love a toasty warm bed. I’ll take a pretty good guess and say that’s all of us. But did you know being too warm and cosy in bed could be detrimental to your health!

Yup. Being too hot in bed can make you to feel over tired, cause itchy skin and even slow down your metabolism causing you to put on weight. Shut-up!

Well it’s true, research has shown that people who live in cooler environments redevelop a baby fat which we tend to lose as we age called ‘brown fat’. This fat protects against over-eating and inactivity and is believed can help prevent diabetes and obesity.

If our metabolism slows down when we’re sleeping because our quilts are too warm, what happens is our bodies will store fat instead of burn it. If you sleep in a more comfortable temperature, your body will burn calories to keep warm, burning the fat instead of storing it.

As for your actual quality of sleep, experts agree that we sleep better when our body is cool. Temperatures above 32 degrees Celsius reduce REM sleep, which can leave you feeling unrefreshed, tired and vague.

Many health professionals recommend using blankets, which provide a more uniform temperature, rather than quilts, which were designed for the much colder northern hemisphere.

Overheating when sleeping can also cause itchiness. A condition called ‘doona eye’ has started to appear which is caused by dust mites. Itchy eyes, scratching and rubbing results in darkening around the eyes and dry, scaly skin.

The humble quilt has been linked with conditions such as dermatitis, sleep disorders, mental illness, infertility and, among children, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) as well as eczema and acne.

Dr Gavranic said night-time overheating may also be linked to other health problems, including sleepwalking, nightmares, depression, schizophrenia, fertility problems and agitation and restlessness in children.

For your own health, and the health of your family, you really should consider getting rid of your quilts.