As Ideal Home's Sleep Editor I've spent the past five years testing the best bedding, mattresses, and bed linen on the market.
And during the past five summers I've tested more cooling bedding products and ways to stay cool in bed than I can count.
Some have worked, most haven't, but faced with this week's 35°C heatwave and a south-facing dormer bedroom, there's only one thing that's actually helped me cool down enough to sleep.
Don't get me wrong. Opting for cooling bedding materials definitely helps me to sleep a *lot* cooler.
Before I understood the impact of different fibres, I used to sleep on a memory foam mattress and under a microfibre duvet filled with polyester. As a hot sleeper anyway, and as a woman whose temperature fluctuates every month, I hadn't realised just how much those synthetic fibres were making me overheat and subsequently, disturbing my sleep.
Switching to a pocket spring mattress filled with natural materials and swapping to a breathable wool duvet has been a game-changer.
(I now sleep on the Hypnos Pillow Top Select mattress, and I always recommend the Woolroom Deluxe Wool Duvet to anyone looking to swap to a wool duvet, but there are cheaper options available – my guide to the best duvets has more info.)
Those natural fibres offer such great breathability compared to polyester, which many experts dub a hidden sleep thief. Pair a wool-filled mattress with a wool-filled duvet and top it with breathable cotton or linen bedding, and I now sleep at the perfect temperature at least eleven months of the year.
However, the recent heatwaves that the UK has encountered are a different story. This is extreme heat, and it's not a temperature that my south-facing dormer bedroom is equipped to deal with.
I've tried cooling pillows, cooling sheets, cooling pads, and, having been lucky enough to test out many of the best fans on the market, I also have a top-of-the-range £150+ Duux Whisper Flex fan that genuinely works miracles most summers by keeping me cool at night.
After testing numerous options for Ideal Home's buying guide, I even own one of the best portable air conditioning units.
And yet, despite air con flying out of stock this year – our live blog is keeping you updated on where to find an in-stock air con unit or a fan if you're considering shopping – before I reach for this £500 air con unit, I find again and again that every time we have to endure a heatwave, I choose a £15 solution to beat the heat and get a cooler sleep instead.
What is it? The humble air bed, one of which you can buy at Amazon, Argos, or any of the camping stores for well under £20.
The reason for this choice is that heat rises, so the top floor of my home – and the level that most of us in two-storey houses have our bedrooms on – is always *much* hotter than the ground floor.
I still take all the steps to cool down a bedroom – from keeping the blackout blinds closed all day to creating a cross-breeze when the outside temperatures are cooler than inside – and they do help, but nothing makes it cool enough to sleep well up there when outside temperatures top 35°C.
Instead, rather than battle endlessly to cool down the top floor of my home with an air conditioning unit that's noisy, expensive to run, heavy to move, and whose energy use is making the climate crisis (and resultant heatwaves) worse, I've accepted that in heatwave weather I move downstairs to sleep, and camp out on an air bed in my significantly cooler living room.
Of course, this solution doesn't work for everyone. I live in a two-storey house, so I have a downstairs. Many of us don't. I also live alone, so there's only me, not five family members, camped out in my small living room. And I'm still limber enough to get on and off an air bed, which isn't the case for everyone.
However, if you too are struggling with the heat on your top floor this week, I definitely recommend this option if you can. Plus, whilst fans and air con are almost sold out, the best air beds are (currently) still in plentiful stock.
To make things more comfortable, you can now get double-height air beds that make getting in and out of bed easier, plus camping bed bases, and even folding mattresses you could stash under the stairs if you have more space than I do.
I've rounded up some of the best options I've found below, and many – especially if you shop for an air bed on Amazon and you're an Amazon Prime member – can be delivered with super-fast delivery. (Although we should be mindful that any orders currently mean delivery drivers have to face the heat of the day to deliver.)
Already super affordable, this budget-friendly under £15 air bed is now reduced to just £10 if you shop on Amazon. However, it doesn't come with a foot pump to inflate it.
If you want an affordable air bed *and* the foot pump, this Silentnight model offers both.
This double-height air bed lifts you further from the ground. Plus, it's super easy to inflate and deflate thanks to a mains electric pump.
If you want to lift a normal air bed higher from the floor, you could add a camping mattress onto a raised camp bed. This one folds up into a compact carry bag when not in use.
Or, if you don't fancy assembling a camp bed when you're hot and bothered, this inflatable option will also raise you up from the floor.
If you have more space to store a bed when it's not in use, this folding bed with mattress also makes a useful temporary sleeping area.
Plus, if all else fails, you could always sleep on the sofa for a few nights.
In fact, now that heatwaves are becoming more frequent, I'm even considering swapping my sofa for one of the best sofa beds or best chair beds so that hot-weather living room camp-outs can be even more comfortable.
