Bed Builder

How it decides

Five questions. Each one decides a layer.

You get a sheet, a duvet weight and a verdict on the top sheet. Every call is explained, so you can overrule it.

Answers stay on your device. The site remembers your setup, and clearing it takes one tap.

The five questions

1. What does your bedroom do between bedtime and morning?

• Stays about the same. A steady room lets one set of layers work all night, so the choice comes down to feel.
• Gets noticeably colder by morning. A room that cools overnight wants layers you can add without waking fully, which is the strongest case for a top sheet.
• Starts warm and stays warm. A warm room wants the fewest layers and a weave that lets heat out.

2. Who else is in the bed?

• Just me. Sleeping alone means the setup only has to suit one body.
• Someone who runs about as warm as I do. A partner at your temperature can share every layer.
• Someone who runs much warmer or cooler. Two people at different temperatures under one duvet means one of you is always wrong, and that is a layering problem with a known answer.

3. What do you want against your skin?

• Crisp and cool, like a hotel sheet. Crisp and cool is what a tight plain weave does: percale.
• Smooth with a slight sheen. Smooth with a sheen is sateen, which carries more yarn on the surface and feels warmer for it.
• Soft, textured and lived-in. Soft and textured is linen, which starts stiff and softens with every wash.

4. How do the sheets you have now feel after a few months?

• Still good. Sheets that still feel right mean the fabric and the washing are working.
• Rougher, or pilled. Sheets that roughen or pill are wearing at the surface, which is partly the fibre and partly how they are washed and dried.
• They have stopped feeling cool or absorbent. Sheets that stop absorbing have usually been coated by something in the wash, not worn out.

5. What goes in the wash with your sheets? (shown if you pick rougher, or pilled or they have stopped feeling cool or absorbent)

• Detergent only. Detergent alone leaves the fibre as it is, so a change in feel is the fabric itself.
• Fabric softener or dryer sheets. Fabric softener and dryer sheets leave a coating on the fibre that makes cotton and linen slower to take up moisture, which is exactly the change you describe.

Six setups

Percale and a light duvet, for sleepers who want a crisp, cool bed

Readers who want a crisp, cool feel, in a room that holds its temperature or runs warm.

Linen with no top sheet, for sleepers who run warm and like texture

Readers who want a soft, lived-in feel and sleep warm, where one fewer layer is the point.

Sateen and a mid-weight duvet, for a steady room and a smooth feel

Readers who want a smooth sheet with a slight sheen, in a room that does not swing much.

A top sheet and layers you can add, for a room that cools overnight

Readers whose room is colder at 5am than at bedtime, which is the setup a top sheet was made for.

Two duvets on one bed, for partners who run at different temperatures

Couples where one runs warm and the other cold, for whom one duvet is always wrong for somebody.

Your bed may be fine, and the problem is the laundry

Readers whose sheets stopped absorbing or went rough in a house that uses fabric softener. New sheets washed the same way will go the same way.