BRIEF RESEARCH REPORT article
Front. Sleep
Sec. Insomnia
Volume 4 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/frsle.2025.1587801
A Non-Randomized Pre-Post Pilot Study of Cooling Bed Sheets in Hot Sleeping People
Provisionally accepted
Matthew D Weaver1*
Salim Qadri2Jason P Sullivan2Chidera Ejikeme2
Stuart F Quan1Charles A Czeisler1
Rebecca Robbins1- 1Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, United States
- 2Division of Sleep and Circadian Disorders, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, United States
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Introduction: Sleeping hot is a common barrier to good sleep. Characteristics of the sleep environment may impact temperature regulation and sleep. We tested the effectiveness of one brand of bed sheets that advertise cooling properties on sleep and vasomotor symptoms. Methods: Participants were recruited through multiple channels that included potential customers of the intervention sheets and targeted online advertisements. Participants completed a baseline questionnaire, daily electronic diary for 6 weeks, and an end-of-study questionnaire. Assessments included the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index and Restorative Sleep Questionnaire. Daily diaries assessed sleep, mood, and perceived temperature during sleep. Within-person responses were compared before and after use of the intervention bed sheets. Results: 64 participants provided 2,627 total days of data. The study sample was 89% female, mean age 48 (SD 12). 69% of participants reported improved sleep quality after implementing the intervention. Mean improvement on the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index was 1.9 (95% CI 1.3-2.6), from 8.0 (SD 3.0) to 6.1 (SD 2.5) at end-of-study. The proportion of participants reporting trouble sleeping due to feeling too hot was reduced from 82.5% to 39.7%. Reported sleep duration increased 26 min (95% CI 14-38 min), from 6.5 hrs (SD 1.0) to 7.0 hrs (SD 0.8). Participants also reported improvements in night sweats, restorative sleep, mood, and alertness. Conclusion: Individuals reported improvements on several dimensions of sleep health, reductions in night sweats, and less sleep disruption due to sleeping too hot after implementing the intervention bed sheets. These findings warrant replication in a randomized, placebo-controlled design.
Keywords: sleep disruption, temperature, Bedding, sleep quality, Night sweats
Received: 14 Mar 2025; Accepted: 30 Jul 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Weaver, Qadri, Sullivan, Ejikeme, Quan, Czeisler and Robbins. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Matthew D Weaver, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, United States
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.