The usual advice for cold sleepers is "add another blanket," which works about as well as it sounds — eventually you're under four layers, still cold at the feet, and sweating at the chest. Layering properly means thinking about where heat actually escapes, not just adding weight.
Start with the layer against your skin
This is the layer doing the most consistent work all night, and the one people upgrade last. A short-sleeve, bare-leg setup gives cold air direct access to a huge surface area; full-length coverage traps a layer of warmed air along your arms and legs instead, without needing extra blankets to do the same job. Our Long Sleeve PJ Set is built for exactly this — breathable TENCEL™ Modal, so warmth doesn't tip into overheating once you're properly asleep.
Then the extremities
Socks, every time. Feet lose the circulation battle first (the mechanics are here), and warming them helps you fall asleep, not just feel more comfortable.
Consider your hands if they're consistently cold too — lightweight gloves sound extreme until you've tried a single night with them on a genuinely cold night.
Then the bedding, in adjustable layers
A single heavy doona is a blunt instrument — it's either enough or it isn't, with no room to adjust mid-sleep. A sheet, a lighter doona, and a foldable blanket at the foot of the bed let you add or shed warmth without fully waking up, and it's the same system that helps mismatched couples share a bed without a nightly negotiation.
Finally, the room
A genuinely cold bedroom beats any amount of personal layering — if the room itself is below about 16–18°C, no combination of sleepwear and blankets fully compensates. A pre-heated room (heater off before you're actually asleep, to avoid overheating overnight) or an electric blanket used to warm the bed before you get in, then switched off, closes the gap.
The honest bit
If you're cold most nights regardless of layering, room temperature, and season, it's worth ruling out an underlying cause — we've covered the patterns worth mentioning to a GP here. Most cold sleepers, though, are simply under-layered in the wrong order.
The one-line version
Skin layer first, extremities second, bedding third, room last. Get the order right and you need far less bulk to feel genuinely warm.
