The best comforters for when it's hot, but you still need to be covered

Waking up in a pool of sweat isn't fun for you, the person you're sleeping with, or the sheets you just washed. But when you're already sleeping in minimal clothing and without a blanket even covering your toes (*shudders*), what more can you do to stay cool? Casper's innovative Humidity Fighting duvet could be your game changer.

Inside the airy, 100% cotton shell lies a layer of ethically-sourced down fill and, wait for it, merino wool. Primarily known as being warm and occasional itchy, wool might seem counterintuitive to cooling — but merino wool is actually quite breathable and one of the best natural moisture-wicking materials out there. This duvet is so light that it's probably not enough insulation for chilly sleepers in the winter.

If you're not digging the aesthetic of the sewn-in rectangle chambers, use the duvet as an insert and pair it with an equally-cooling cover.

Prices range between $350 and $450 depending on your bed's size.

After the success of the cult-favorite Cloud comforter, Buffy took its sustainable-yet-luxurious bedding a step further with the Buffy Breeze. And yes, it keeps things as cool as it sounds.

Both the Buffy Cloud and Buffy Breeze are puffy, have a glorious 300-thread count that feels similar to silk, and create a ~breeze~ every time you move. Aside from its fun squiggly pattern, the Breeze sets itself apart with 100% eucalyptus fill (compared to the Cloud's recycled polyester fill). When you compress the comforter, you can feel air puffing out the sides and moving through the fabric, which aids in temperature regulation. Reviewers swear by the Breeze's ability to keep them from overheating at night — including people who sleep with someone who's a walking space heater.

You know eucalyptus as the stuff koalas eat, but the bedding world knows it as a naturally-breathable fiber that's just as soft as but requires less water to source than cotton. Lyocell (the technique used to process eucalyptus tree fibers) apparently guarantees that 99 percent of the water used can be recovered and reused again. Most of the process is done by hand rather than using machinery, which significantly reduces CO2 emissions.

Prices range between $179 for a twin to $259 for a king.

Feathers are the thermal insulator that birds rely on to keep cold air out and body heat in — so at first glance, down comforters seem antithetical to a cool sleep. But with a lightweight down comforter like Brooklinen's, hot sleepers don't have to give up that fluffy cloud feeling.

Down comforters aren't automatically heavy. (In fact, down is typically more breathable than synthetic down alternative fills.) The warmth depends on the loft power, or the amount of space that the down fills up. A 700-plus fill power is lofty and warm, while a fill power of 600 (like Brooklinen's) or below allows heat to flow and escape through the fabric. The airy clusters are enclosed in Brooklinen's famous cotton sateen shell, which provides a subtle, slippery feel that's perfect for finding the cold spots with your toes.

Brooklinen sources all of its duck down from an eco-friendly Hutterite farm. This Canadian down is never a result of live plucking and has been washed five times to reach the highest level of fluff possible. It has also been treated with ultra-fresh antimicrobials to decrease the chance of attracting allergy-triggering dust mites.

Prices range between $199 for a twin to $299 for a king.

Down comforters have long been revered for their ability to take a bed from drab to luxurious. What's not luxurious are the quills that stick out, the occasional smell, or the washing instructions that are usually a pain. If you want the puff with a little less maintenance, we don't blame you for going the down-alternative route.

Fill made of synthetic fibers (especially microfiber) don't always aerate the under-blanket situation as well as cotton or other natural fibers. Cuddletown's temperature-regulating comforter is not only a down-alternative, but its gray mesh pockets make it a cooler microfiber alternative as well. Perforated squares sewn throughout the comforter create climate zones, which regulate air temperature around the body and keep hot air flowing up and out.

As you could expect, a comforter with holes isn't the coziest all-season comforter (that is, unless you always sleep hot and everyone else in your household votes to crank the heat). Chilly air can pass through easily and it's not a heavy comforter as it is.

Prices range between $239 for a twin to $399 for a king.

Shopping for a kids comforter seems as easy as grabbing the first Fortnite or Frozen set that you see. But if your kid is a hot (or otherwise picky) sleeper, that staticky polyester could be behind their restless nights and sleep-derived tantrums.

Instead, a down-alternative, breathable comforter that's still wallet-friendly and easy to wash is a smoother route for everyone — and doesn't run the risk of quills poking out. This all-season comforter by Linenspa appears on countless lists of best comforters all across the internet, including a number of cooling-specific ones. The lightweight microfiber fill provides heat dissipation for warm nights but gets cozy enough when the weather turns cool — a lifesaver when it comes to maintaining a kid's bedroom. Pair it with some silky, sweat-wicking bamboo sheets or a bamboo duvet cover for the full experience.

The combo of children and white comforters is an accident waiting to happen. The Linenspa is reversible and easy to match to a room's theme, available in solid colors like navy and mocha plus striped patterns. For parents, the fact that it's machine washable is a selling point in itself.

Prices range between $29.99 for a twin and $64.99 for a king.

A cool sleep doesn’t mean much if the sweating is just replaced with sneezing. If your past experiences with down have resulted in insatiable itching (or you just know your nose and throat won’t react well to feathers), a 100% bamboo comforter might cater better to sensitivities.

Other suggestions surrounding hypoallergenic bedding focus on thread count: The more tightly-woven the fibers, the less chances that dust mites have to squeeze through. Though bamboo is extremely breathable, bamboo fabrics still tend to use tightly-packed weaves and are less likely to tear and pill than cotton. Cozy Earth says that its bedding skips traditional weaving all together, and is instead crafted from long fibers that stretch across the entire length of the comforter. Bamboo is known for its smooth, buttery feel that’s less likely to irritate skin and cause dust mite-attracting skin cells to shed. That soft surface doesn't stick to skin either, and Cozy Earth says it's 50% less humid than other comforters.

People with allergies should plan on washing bedding once a week. A comforter that can be thrown in the washing machine and the dryer is a must. Be sure to wash your comforter before using it to get rid of any lingering chemicals, dyes, or weird smells.

Prices range between $383 for a twin and $527 for a king.

Most cooling comforters are white — white comforters get dirty easily — and most white comforters are a huge pain to clean. If you're not attached to that all-white bedding hotel room vibe, a cooling duvet cover like the organic bamboo one from Ettitude is a heavenly solution. Bonus: It's machine washable.

Putting a cooling comforter inside a duvet will totally defeat the purpose if that duvet doesn't have thermoregulating properties as well. If your comforter is 100% cotton or has special air pockets to promote airflow but your duvet is microfiber, your body heat has nowhere to escape. Bamboo is breathable like cotton and great at drawing sweat away from your body — two features that work together with your comforter to avoid a steam trap.

Depending on the material and thread count, some cooling comforters are a rough and borderline crispy. Ettitude's bamboo lyocell fabric is lustrous, silky, and exactly what you'd want to roll in after a hot day. The lyocell process that turns bamboo pulp to fibers is a closed-loop system where 99% of the water and chemicals are reused, you can feel good about this purchase.

Prices range between $104 for a twin to $134 for a king.

Weighted blankets attempt to mimic the therapeutic pressure of a hug, cuddling, or even a pet on your lap. People are finding that Deep Touch Pressure Simulation (the same idea behind swaddling babies) could help to lull you to sleep by relaxing your nervous system — subsequently reducing anxiety or insomnia. 

That level of bundled works for the cold, but the mere thought of sleeping under a 20-pound blanket on an 80-degree night may make you start to sweat. A cooling weighted blanket was essentially an oxymoron until Gravity had the idea to add a cooling cover.

The iconic weighted blanket has been reimagined for warm weather, now enclosed in a moisture-wicking duvet. Admittedly, the faux Tencel material in the new cover won't inherently produce chills, and the blanket won't float on you like a sheet. (That's an unrealistic expectation, anyway.) However, the Gravity Cooling Blanket is noticeably more breathable than your average throw and the glossy sheen feels cool on skin. The glass beads that give it its weight don't retain heat and are stitched in a grid to stay evenly distributed.