Why are people dumping their top sheets?

I got rid of my top sheets.

Reason: I move around when I sleep and my feet just get tangled up in them. Annoying. Additional issue: Depending on the sheet and blanket, the blanket slides off the top of the topsheet and leaves me unblanketed because the sheet slid to the floor..

No sheet, Sherlock!

I hadn’t heard of this. A top sheet is great for when the blanket is too warm, but you still want to be covered from the cold AC blasting directly on you. My husband sleeps without a blanket (I don’t understand it) so when the temperature drops I sometimes put the sheet over him, because inevitably he’ll wake up freezing, and then with the blanket eventually he’s sweating.

I have comforters I use without a duvet and also I use duvets, and the duvet is a pain in the neck. Especially, if it is a king size.

You can triple sheet like at hotels. I’ve considered it in lieu of a duvet. I guess I’m in the opposite direction of the no top sheet trend.

My “expensive” down comforter feels great against my skin sans the sheet or duvet, but then you have to clean the comforter eventually.

@elbanditoroso What about the laundry issue? That would be part of my problem with no top sheet. I am a thrasher, but don’t seem to have a tangling thing going on, lucky me!

One last thought. Back in the day we had a blanket and bedspread. Thank goodness those days are gone, although where I live some people still do it. Sometimes those blankets were itchy wool, so the sheet protected you from that. The duvet is essentially a sheet over the comforter.

I lived in Japan for years where they don’t use a top sheet. There’s the cover for the futon and also the duvet cover.

I hadn’t thought of the image of putting a sweater on a baby rhino, but it’s a good one. Wrestling the duvet into its cover is indeed a feat of prowess.

These days, I use a top sheet and rarely wash the duvet cover. I wash my sheets every other week. That schedule works for me.

Now I’m off to ask AI for pictures of baby rhinos in sweaters.

Maybe the same reason people have stopped ironing their clothes: It is a hassle, especially in the modern world, where you simply no longer have the time for it, and unnecessary.

I have heard of this, but I will continue using a top sheet. I actually kick off my comforter and just use a top sheet when I get too warm. Sheets are so much cooler and lighter.

@Hawaii_Jake Please share if you find any!!

@chyna Yeah, me too. My body temperature is constantly changing during the night, so I can go from down comforter to one sheet in minutes. S9metimes that involves sweating a bit. Better to sweat on a sheet, which is more easliy laundered than the down comforter or my blankets!

I think it’s only people who use a duvet to hat do that in my experience. It can very comfortable to use just a duvet but it still needs a cover that requires laundering. And probably harder to get the duvet back inside. But I do think that’s the reason.

What I heard when I was young, and asked a relative what is the purpose of a top sheet, is that the top sheet keeps the blanket from getting smelly.

No top sheet here. In fact, I often sleep on top of the quilt with just a blanket.

@canidmajor The AI I have free use of is not yet able to make pictures of baby rhinos in sweaters, and the other AI I attempted to use wants money. :(

@Hawaii_Jake Ha! Which seems to make my analogy all the more apt!! :-D

@Hawaii_Jake
Are you sure about that?

And we are saved by @ragingloli.

That is their loss. If they say it’s because of tangle, then they don’t know how to make a bed.
There is not much that can beat the feeling of high quality bed sheets and pillow cases. The duvet or blanket is there for weigh and warmth. The top sheet helps regulate temperature and keeps the blanket cleaner
I suspect they never experienced good quality bedding or a lazy bed makers.
You also need to wash whatever layers is on your body more often.

Hope hotels don’t start doing this. I’ll be traveling with my own top sheet. HA!

I’ve always had a duvet and no top sheet (I was born after blanket/sheet combo fell out of fashion in the UK). I change the duvet cover weekly. Changing the duvet cover is easy if you use the roll method.

I haven’t used the top sheet for years but I don’t dump them. I save them for times like this past spring when our apartment complex decided to replace all our windows and I need it to cover some items because they were also painting the window frames. Things like that.

I don’t have a duvet either and I don’t know if I would ever buy one based on all the times I’ve heard people complain about them. But I have a really nice soft blanket that also easily goes in the washer so I use that and then a quilt. But then I get easily cold, so sweating under the blanket is not something I have to worry about.

I have used a duvet since some point years before I was a teenager.

They’re very cozy.

No making the bed. (Yay! Lifetime of pretty much never “making” a bed! Whee!)

No fuss with tangling sheets or anything while sleeping.

No tucking in anything.

I’m taller than most beds, so tucking in things mean suffering and my feet will just untuck things.

One learns how to put a duvet in a duvet cover, and it becomes not very hard, and somewhat fun or at least funny.

@Zaku But do you use a fitted sheet on the mattress?

@gondwanalon Hotels should be triple sheeted. Otherwise, gross. Lol.

They can do what they want. My top sheet is staying for the reasons @canidmajor and @chyna said.

@chyna Yes, always a fitted sheet on the mattress. No sheet on top of that. It would seem and feel weird to me to have a sheet between me and the duvet. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a bed equipped that way – it’s either just a duvet, or some battery of sheets and blankets that someone else concocted.

@Zaku How often do you wash the duvet?

In the current freezing temps I am sleeping between two fuzzy blankets. Sheets are too cold in winter for me.

Have not used a top sheet in years. Just peel blankets on and off as needed.

@KNOWITALL I will be putting flannel sheets on my bed on Friday. Usually, I have them on the bed before this. I agree about the cold sheets being annoying.

So do all who don’t use top sheets not have laundry issues? Even if you use a duvet cover, it still needs launder8ng, and is essentially equivalent to 2 sheets in bulk. Unless you are covered from neck to toe In pajamas, there will be some transfer of potentially icky organic gunk (sweat, skin flakes, oils) that should probably be cleaned off.

My body temperature changes, so I am constantly changing the covers during the night. I am aware that not everyone experiences that, but some probably do.

@canidmajor I wash our blankets regularly. I ditched the traditional comforter as well, if that makes sense. When I see a big comforter, it makes me feel icky because I realize it probably has not been cleaned in a very long time, if ever.

@Blackwater_Park I have a big comforter for winter, and it has a cover (mostly because of the dog) that I wash once a year, then a bunch of blankets, then the top sheet. I love the feel of All Of The Things; if they made weighted blankets with bricks I would be happy.

LOL!

@canidmajor I do sometimes use a weighted blanket. It’s 25lb and I wash it a few times a year.

Just to stir the pot a little more, last night was the coldest night we had had since last year. I still do not put a top sheet on, but I did add an extra quilt on top of my normal one!

Top sheet wouldn’t really help with the cold anyway. They just give me comfort.

We used to have a large number of quilt size crocheted blankets. There were lots of holes, and they were not terribly warm. But put a sheet over the top, and it’s much warmer. If you put a sheet between two such blankets and one on top of that, it’s extra warm. Used properly, top sheets can really make a difference.

@Dutchess_III me too. Even on a hot night in summer, 8 like having a sheet over me, I just feel safer. Which is kind of silly, I know.

No, not silly @canidmajor. I don’t like being fully exposed either. Plus I love the way it feels on a hot night. Light and gentle. Juuuuust right!

And they’re bullet proof.

Yup!

@canidmajor No laundry issues, just two blankets. :)

@JLeslie I wash the duvet itself almost never. I wash the cover about as often as I wash the bed sheet.

@Zaku I meant the cover, thanks for answering that. Such a hassle to take the cover off and on. It’s not that it’s complicated or takes very long (although longer than stripping off a sheet) but that it’s heavy and I’m getting to old with a weaker back. King comforter/duvet is a lot to deal with.

@JLeslie Sure. Though I suppose if you wanted one, you could find one with an easier opening, say, that opened on two or even three sides, so you could just lay it on and then fasten it with a zipper or light velcro or something.

@Zaku, That would make it simpler, but I still need to lift the entire comforter to lay it on top of the bottom of the duvet cover, unless I get creative with folding it in half, put part of it on top of the cover then unfold it and I don’t know what else. Remember most women are shorter than men, with shorter arms, and significantly less muscle mass and strength on average. Men, according to various studies, have 60% more strength than women, and 80–90% more upper body strength. It’s not that most women can’t lift the comforter, it’s that it is much more taxing or can be more strain for us.