For the last few years, I have suffered badly from chronic insomnia, so when someone offered me a new duvet from sleep-tech firm Simba in exchange for a review, I jumped at the chance—anything to try to improve my sleep.
I really didn’t expect it to have as large an impact on the quality of my sleep as it has, and in only a few nights. But it has!
Insomnia
Modern life is complex and busy and distracting and there are so many factors that can negatively impact the quality of our sleep.
One common sleep disorder is insomnia—a difficulty in falling asleep and staying asleep all night. I’ve experienced insomnia for years.
Among the common signs of insomnia are:
- Being awake for long periods of the night
- Waking up frequently or early in the morning
- Feeling tired after a night’s (broken) sleep
- Feeling tired all day but unable to sleep at night
Sleep-tech firm Simba has a useful article on their site called Understanding insomnia: causes, signs and ways to overcome it.
The chronic insomnia that I have experienced is probably due to complex trauma. Working for two years as a university hall of residence warden also probably didn’t help, as I was woken most nights to deal with difficult pastoral and safety incidents. I am currently going through tests with an NHS sleep clinic and should receive my results this month (October 2024).
I’ve tried all sorts of advice to improve the quality of my sleep from keeping a regular sleep schedule, reducing screen use, using blue-light filters on screens, meditating, limiting caffeine before bed, listening to white noise, and adapting my sleep environment (dark, cool, quiet).
But nothing has really worked, until I got this new duvet from Simba.
For the last three nights, I have consistently had good, deep, comfortable sleep. This is a game changer!
How duvet know?
So, a few weeks ago, I was sent an email by a kind gentleman by the name of Jack who works for a PR firm representing Simba.
“We’d be happy to send you an Original Hybrid® Mattress or Hybrid® Duvet to enjoy and review,” he wrote.
How do they know that I am struggling with my sleep, I wondered?
I got in touch and kindly asked for a new King size (225 × 220 cm) duvet worth £249. It arrived by courier on Wednesday (9 October) afternoon.
My son, Isaac, helped me unpack it and get it onto my bed.
Hybrid® Duvet
Simba describes their Hybrid® Duvet variously as “wonderfully soft, warm and light. The only problem is you may never want to get out of bed”, as “cloud nine comfort” and “practical makes perfect”.
T3 described the duvet as a “lifesaver for people who struggle to maintain a consistent body temperature at night.”
With a 10.5 Tog rating, this duvet is designed for year-round use.
The Hybrid® Duvet is light and soft and warm. It’s made from recycled plastic bottle fibres gently combed into airy layers, designed to allow plenty of airflow through the duvet for a drier warmth.
Paradoxically, as warm as it is, it also features an innovative cool-touch technology called Stratos® which is also meant to support fresher sleep.
This is the kind of duvet I didn’t know I needed. I am one of these people who constantly hangs out of the duvet at night because I’m always too hot. I especially don’t like my feet feeling too hot at night.
This duvet keeps my feet warm but strangely cool—perfect!
Evaluation
So, after three nights of deep, refreshing sleep—something I have not experienced in years—let’s take a deep dive into some of the features of this duvet.
Comfort and warmth
The Hybrid® Duvet reminds me of my mum and dad’s down duvet, when I was a child. It feels luxurious and soft.
I let me three children try it out and they all told me how warm it feels. I rarely wear socks and shoes in the house, preferring to walk around with bare feet. I regularly go to bed with my feet feeling like blocks of ice. My old duvet would struggle to warm my feet and I would be forced to get up to find a pair of socks, only to peel them off again in the small hours.
With this duvet, my feet are warm within a few minutes and then (seriously, how do they do it?!) they remain at a perfect temperature (at the risk of sounding like Goldilocks) neither too hot nor too cold.
Thickness
For all the warmth that this duvet provides, it is surprisingly thin.
But its width doesn’t detract from its luxurious feel or from the warmth that it produces.
The duvet feels light, warm and malleable; it’s definitely not stiff or uncomfortable. Lying in bed, I can easily scrunch it up in front of me to hug me close.
Material
The duvet has a cotton top and bottom and a polyester filling (made from recycled plastic bottle fibres). I like how eco-friendly that suggests it is.
- Filling: Polyester (Simba Renew Bio™)
- Cover top: Cotton with Stratos® finish
- Cover bottom: Cotton
This is the thing I keep coming back to: how can this duvet feel so warm and cool at the same time? It’s just perfect for my needs.
Breathability
As for the breathability of the material, it certainly seems to be living up to its marketing claims. I don’t wake feeling clammy or sweaty. Who knew that you can wake up feeling fresh? This is a revelation.
Weight
I’ve always preferred a heavier duvet. I have friends who swear by their weighted blankets which they claim make them feel more secure in bed and help them get to sleep faster.
This is a very light duvet. Much lighter than I am used to, but it in no way appears to have offered me a disadvantage. If anything, this duvet has helped me get to sleep much faster, and stay asleep for longer.
Quality and durability
Obviously, time will tell about this duvet’s longer term quality and durability. But after three days, this feels like a quality product.
It is square stitched which means that the filling doesn’t clump or end up at one end (like my parents’ old down duvet). The stitching looks solid and for something that normally gets hidden beneath a duvet cover, it looks like a beautiful product.
Washability
My last duvet was a nightmare to clean. It was too heavy for my washing machine. I would be interested to see if I can get this one into my new Indesit.
Simba claims that this is machine washable at 40°C with a mild detergent. Further care instructions are:
- Do not bleach
- Tumble dry on a low heat
- Do not iron
- Do not dry clean
Temperature range
I like to sleep with my window open, even in the winter. (Something about growing up in a house from 1871 where the upstairs bedroom windows didn’t properly close and I would wake in the morning with frost on the inside of the windows.)
Over the last few nights, where the BBC Weather app has eroneously reported outside winds around 18,000 mph, my indoor thermometer has recorded temperatures around 16°C.
This duvet has kept me much warmer than my last one, where I would often have to resort to throwing a lambswool blanket over the top of my duvet.
I will be interested to see how this copes with the heat in the summer as my south-west bedroom window faces the sun for most of the day. It gets hot!
Allergies and sensitivity
While I didn’t read anything specific about allergies on the Simba product page, I expect that as this uses cotton and synthetic fibres that this duvet should cope well with folks with allergies and sensitivies; maybe this is something that Simba could address in future website updates.
That the duvet is meant to be easily machine washable should also help in this respect.
Odour
Ah! Take a deep breath. The lovely smell of a new duvet.
This smelt of ‘new’. And once it was buried in my aging duvet cover, it just smelt of laundry detergent and fabric softener.
Taste
Isaac (13) suggested that I also review this on taste.
It tastes of new duvet.
Sound
This is a crinkly-sounding duvet. It’s definitely a little noisier than my old duvet, I suspect due to the recycled plastic bottle filling, but it is not distractingly noisy.
While moving around in bed does generate some gentle rustling, it’s not enough to become annoying.
Appearance
The duvet itself looks new and crisp and neat. I do like the square-stitched look, especially once it is wrapped in a cover. It gives my bed a neat look, with square dimples. It’s like the bed equivalent of a well-mown lawn.
And it’s really easy to make the bed with. It’s light enough to lift easily, and with a waft or two, it’s covering the whole bed—bed made. Easy!
Conclusion
To be honest, I am staggered at how much this new duvet has transformed the quality of my sleep in only three nights.
Having struggled for years to sleep well, this warm but cool duvet has helped me reach the right temperature quickly to fall asleep fast and (crucially) stay asleep.
I can’t thank Jack from The Prophets and Simba enough for allowing me to try this new sleep technology and once again experience a good night of sleep.
Maybe I should also start using their Simba Sleep Coach app.
This experience has made me think that I maybe need to consider upgrading my mattress and pillows next to achieve even greater levels of comfort for my twice-herniated spine and damaged-at-birth neck. But for now, I will absolutely enjoy the depth of sleep that I have experienced with this magnificent King Hybrid® Duvet from Simba.
Check out all the whole Simba range of beds, mattresses, pillows, duvets, bedding and slippers at simbasleep.com.
Disclaimer
I have not been paid to write this review. I was offered a free Simba Hybrid® duvet in exchange for an honest review.
