When it comes to getting a good night’s rest, your bedding makes a world of difference. Make the switch to luxurious wool bedding and experience the many reasons wool has been a favorite bedding material for generations. But, before you purchase your wool mattress toppers and comforters, take a second to learn about the amazing benefits wool has to offer with our professional insight.
The History of Wool Bedding
Wool has been used in bedding for centuries, and as civilization evolved, so did the use of wool in home goods. The earliest signs of wool being used for blankets, sheets, and pillows were in Europe during the Middle Ages. As craftsmanship improved, woolen bedding was created for people at all levels of the class hierarchy.
Prized for comfort and other helpful benefits, wool mattress toppers and wool comforters became a staple in homes across the United States during the Industrial Revolution—and they’ve been around ever since. Nowadays, most companies use more modern techniques than those from hundreds of years ago, but one thing never changes: the unbeatable comfort and luxurious feel of wool bedding.
Types of Wool Bedding
Wool can be used to create all sorts of items, from hand-knit sweaters to carpets or upholstery and more. But some of our favorite wool products are the ones that help us slip off to dreamland before we can even count 10 sheep and keep us snoozing all night long. Build your complete dream organic bedding set with:
Wool mattress toppers: this hand-tied topper gives your bed an additional cushion layer and protects your mattress from day-to-day damage, regardless of your bed’s size.
Wool comforters: with the perfect weight and soft-to-the-touch feel, they can be used with a natural fiber sheet for optimal breathability.
Wool pillows: filled with climate beneficial wool and covered in 100% certified organic cotton, each pillow is the perfect combination of support and supple cushioning to give you a comfortable sleep every night.
How is Wool Made into Bedding?
Wool comforters, toppers, and pillows can all be made from high-quality sourced raw wool using the same steps. After the sheep are sheared, the wool is washed in a hot water (180 degrees Fahrenheit) mixture with soap and your favorite eco-friendly soap to remove any dust, dirt, or residue build-up.
Once each batch is air-dried, it is fed through a carding machine that straightens and separates the fiber to create a fluffy sheet of batting. The batting is then the fluffy filling that goes inside wool comforters. Making wool batting can’t be done by hand, which is why, although there are many bedding materials to choose from when shopping for bedding online, wool has them all beat.
Wool Bedding Can Improve Your Sleep
Your sleep is important. We are reminded daily of how getting a good night’s sleep can help with memory, immunity, and even our moods. When we’re not sleeping well, it shows in our day to day.
Your bedding can impact your sleep quality and is one of the easier changes to make when trying to find solutions that improve sleep. Whether you’re a hot sleeper or have a health condition that leads to difficulty sleeping, studies show that wool bedding can help.
Sleeping with wool comforters or pillows can have positive benefits to your overall sleep quality and health. From lowering your heart rate and decreasing sleep disturbances to increasing beneficial R.E.M. cycles, wool provides numerous potential benefits.
Sleeping With a Wool Comforter May Ease:
- Arthritis
- Sleep apnea
- Fibromyalgia
- Asthma
- Insomnia
How Does Using a Wool Mattress Topper Affect Your Sleep?
Wool mattress toppers are more than a way to add luxury to your nighttime routine—the extra layer of cushioning is designed to keep you cool and relieve chronic pain pressure points as you sleep.
Made with a Climate Beneficial wool batting and covered in a 100% organic cotton fabric, adding our wool mattress topper to your bed helps distribute your weight and absorb movement. Top it all off with a lightweight wool comforter (or two if you sleep Scandinavian-style), and you’re set for life!
Wool Pillows Offer High-Quality Comfort
You deserve premium comfort with each night’s sleep, mid-day nap, and every moment’s rest in between. Wool pillows add a whole new level of comfort to any bed. If you’re tired of waking up in the morning with achy joints and neck pain, investing in a well-made wool pillow will give you the neck support you need to alleviate poor sleep posture and any overnight aches.
Weights of Frankenmuth Woolen Mill Wool Comforters:
- Twin: 3 lbs.
- Double: 3.5 lbs.
- Queen: 4 lbs.
- King: 5 lbs.
- California king: 5 lbs.
- Oversize king: 6 lbs.
Can You Put a Duvet Cover Over a Wool Comforter?
Wool comforters can be used by themselves or with a duvet cover—it’s completely personal preference. Using a cover can help you personalize the look of your bedding and make your wool comforter a tad easier to clean, but you can also buy a complete wool bedding set for a simple and cohesive aesthetic.
Wool Comforters Are Temperature-Regulating
Wool comforters are a beloved year-round option when it comes to bedding, as the material is naturally temperature-regulating. The crimped fiber of wool creates natural air pockets that both trap warm air from the body to insulate against cold air in the winter and keep you cool in hotter weather with incredible breathability.
A temperature change in the middle of the night is one of the most common disturbances to sleepers. Whether you sleep hot or run cold, with wool comforters, you’ll never wake up shivering or drenched in sweat again.
Wool is Naturally Moisture-Wicking
Wool is celebrated for being one of the most breathable options for bedding, and it’s all due to the material’s moisture-wicking structure. Each individual fiber is hydrophilic on the inside yet hydrophobic on the outside. The exterior of each fiber is covered in lanolin, an oily substance secreted by sheep to repel water away from the wool, while the interior core of each fiber absorbs moisture vapor. Here at the Frankenmuth Woolen Mill, we wash out most of the lanolin so there is almost no lanolin in our bedding.
And, if you were to take a microscope to get a closer look at the fibers, you could be able to see that the tightly packed structure encourages small air pockets to form, making it easier for the wool to both absorb and release moisture without an uncomfortable damp feeling. This versatile wicking ability is one of the top reasons people sleep with wool comforters.
Wool Bedding is Great for your Skin
Did you know the bedding you choose can affect your acne? Wool bedding is self-cleaning, absorbing water, and releasing it back into the air. This quick evaporation process keeps your skin dry throughout the night and prevents bacterial growth known to irritate pores and cause rashes.
Wool bedding is also known for being soft and gentle to the touch, ensuring that you avoid annoying irritations and scratchiness that can occur with synthetic alternatives. By helping to keep your skin clean, dry, and irritation free, wool bedding can have you waking up with that fresh-faced glow.
The Hypoallergenic Benefits of Wool
Say goodbye to waking up with a mysteriously stuffy nose! Wool comforters and pillows are naturally hypoallergenic, making them the number one bedding choice for those who suffer from allergies.
The natural fibers in wool create an extremely dry environment that combats bacterial growth, pesky dust mites, and roaming pet dander. Wool mattress toppers, comforters and even nursing pillows are also proven to absorb common toxins working to purify the air as you sleep, protecting you and your health night after night.
Bedbugs are Repelled by Wool Bedding
Thanks to the moisture-wicking powers and consistent airflow, wool bedding creates an uninhabitable environment for dreaded bed bugs. Making your bed with stylish wool mattress toppers and comforters will deter bugs from claiming your safe space as their own.
Our Wool Bedding is Designed to Last
When it comes to choosing comforters and pillows for your bedrooms, you shouldn’t sacrifice longevity for style. Other machine-made materials will fade, tear, or become thin after time, rendering them useless soon after you buy them. Wool is a natural fiber that’s grown to last.
The Durability of Wool
Wool’s powerful elasticity and strong fiber structure are what help make it so durable. Every fiber in wool has a coil of proteins that form a spring-like shape, creating bedding that is resistant to wear and tear and that returns to its original shape if stretched, from wool mattress toppers to pillows and everything in between.
Caring for your Wool Bedding
Wool mattress toppers, blankets, and pillows are all extremely easy to clean and care for, as wool is naturally odor-resistant and has its own self-cleaning properties. With wool bedding, laundry days get that much easier—and fewer and farther between. In fact, some wool-lovers recommend washing wool comforters only when the exterior is soiled, the majority of people wash theirs every year rather than once a week.
Our Recommended Ways to Wash your Wool Comforter
When it does come time to give your wool bedding a refresh, learning how to wash a wool comforter, blanket, or even your wool mattress topper is simple. Try your hand at one of these three methods:
Air drying: for wool mattress toppers and other wool bedding that has been used but not necessarily spoiled, hang your bedding outside to air out in fresh air and sunlight.
Hand washing: for a deeper clean every year or so, just fill your bathtub with warm water and a gentle detergent and place your wool comforter in to soak. Drain the water while pressing lightly on the bedding, do not twist, wring, or agitate it. Then fill the tub again with the same temperature water. Drain it for a final time, press the water out, no twist, wring, or agitate, and hang up to air dry.
Professional: if hand washing or air drying isn’t your speed, let the experts take over! The Frankenmuth Woolen Mill offer professional cleaning services for all of our products. Just ship your wool mattress topper or comforter off to our store in Frankenmuth, MI, and we’ll do the rest.
Sending your Comforter for Cleaning
If you choose to use our 129 plus years of knowledge in cleaning and caring for wool comforters, place your comforter in a box with a piece of paper that includes your name, address, email, and phone number. On the outside of the box, write launder and send the box to us.
Our Address:
Frankenmuth Woolen Mill
C/O Launder Department
570 S. Main Street
Frankenmuth, MI 48734
Your wool mattress topper or comforter will be returned to you in a new, breathable storage bag after being professionally hand-cleaned and dried.
Wrinkle-Resistant Bedding
While linen is known for having a naturally wrinkled look, that isn’t everyone’s cup of tea. Wool comforters have a permanent resistance to wrinkling, even after being washed and dried. This is a high-quality alternative to any bedding fabrics that claim to be resistant to wrinkles, as those materials are coated in chemicals that will eventually wear off.
Wool is Environmentally Friendly
Did you know that wool is a 100% renewable source? As long as sheep are correctly taken care of, they will automatically grow a new fleece every year and someone has to shave it off for their continued comfort!
While this fluff could be discarded, as it is naturally biodegradable and releases important nutrients into the soil, it makes an amazing alternative to more synthetic fibers commonly used to make bedding and clothing.
With countless benefits and timeless style, wool bedding is the way to go. Outfit every bedroom in your house with complete sets, from wool mattress toppers to wool comforters and more, to transform everyone’s sleep for good. Learn more about Michigan’s oldest woolen mill story and find bedding that will last you for years to come.