Do Weighted Blankets Make You Hot? (+COOLEST FABRICS)

As someone who’s a hot sleeper, I know it’s important to pick the right comforter or duvet.

Weighted blankets are of course heavier than normal blankets, so it’s understandable to expect that they are also hotter.

The good news is that not all weighted blankets will make you hot, it largely depends on the fabric and filler materials used in them.

I’ll walk you through which materials to look for in this short guide.

One thing you can also do is look for a “cooling weighted blanket.” These don’t actually have any cooling devices in them, they’re just made with materials that we’re going to look at that retain less heat.

How Hot a Weighted Blanket is Depends on 2 Factors

The softness of a blanket has very little to do with how warm or cool it is.

When you touch a thick comforter that hasn’t been used in a while - it’s cold. That’s because blankets work by trapping in your body heat.

In other words, how hot or cool a blanket mostly depends on how breathable it is (i.e. let’s air flow through). Technically the specific heat capacity of a material also matters, but not as much.

A weighted blanket has 2 main components: outer fabric and inner filling (the filling gives it the weight).

The Best and Worst Fabrics for a Cool Weighted Blanket

Let’s start with common fabrics in weighted blankets that you should avoid:

• Polyester (most synthetic materials trap in a lot of heat)
• Flannel
• Fleece
• Wool

These fabrics aren’t particularly breathable, which is great in a winter coat, but not necessarily in a comforter for someone who runs hot at night.

Instead, these are the coolest fabrics for a weighted blanket:

• Cotton
• Bamboo (Rayon and Viscose are typically made from bamboo)
• Linen
• Chambray

Any of these materials are typically good for allowing airflow.

With that being said, all materials have different varieties. Some cotton has extremely high thread count, which can actually reduce breathability.

The Best Filler for Cool Weighted Blankets

There are a few different fillers that are common in weighted blankets, but by far the most popular ones are glass beads, metal beads, and plastic pellets.

If you didn’t know, polyester is a type of plastic, and since it’s a warm fabric, your intuition might be right that you should avoid weighted blankets with plastic pellet filling. These typically run hot compared to others.

On the other hand, glass beads are the most common in cool weighted blankets, since they retain virtually no heat, but aren't too common in cheap weighted blankets.

Metal beads are somewhere in-between, but there are quite a few good weighted blankets with glass beads, so I would recommend sticking to those if possible.

Are Weighted Blankets Good for Hot Sleepers?

Weighted blankets can be good even for hot sleepers, as long as they’re made with the right materials.

As we’ve seen, the coolest weighted blankets are with fibers like cotton, bamboo, and linen, and filled with glass beads.

If the room is kept at a reasonable temperature (see my post on why you sleep better when it’s cold), most people will be able to sleep comfortably with the right weighted blanket.