Yes. Buy a Featherbed.

Sleeper has spent the last icy nights of the season curled up on an L.L. Bean featherbed ($129), a classic model filled mostly with goose feathers.

The fabric is quite soft and the color of frozen custard, nice in itself but something to consider if you believe, as you should, that sheets are clothes for your bed. You have the option of buying a special cover or having one stitched up by your dry cleaner — easy enough — but that'll take the edge off the fantastic sinking-into-bed effect.

Sleeping directly on top of the thing is best. In fact, it's so good you'll hardly give a thought to the hairs left behind by your sweet little dog. It's almost like floating.*

So it is not silly, after all, to put a bed on top of your bed, if you live in a cold climate and have (as you should!) a non-pillow-top mattress. The question is economics. The L.L. Bean has some drawbacks: it's heavy, sort of like an old-school down jacket. You need to fluff it every day, which is not a task to take lightly, especially if, for some reason, you have a kingsize bed. If you don't get to the gym in winter, this might really work out for you.

You can feel the feathers, the way you can feel them in a pillow that's not 100% down. No danger of quills poking through this particular cotton, with its thick nap. I didn't mind one bit. But what a down-filled bed must be like! The mind reels.

I have this figured out: We just have to cooperate. It's the Internet age, after all. We simply timeshare featherbeds with Sleepers in the opposite hemisphere. I'm ready to brush aside the exchange rate for one of these. Or maybe even buy one of these ($493). I'll coordinate the whole thing. Let's hear from you!

*The co-sleeper, for his part, felt like he was in the middle of a queensize lettuce-and-tomato sandwich.

Comments

[Nicole]

I honestly have to say I don't think unsheeted featherbeds are good for people with dogs. You can't really clean those beds. Great as they are, they are best for the fastidious.