One downside to all natural duvet fillings, including feather and down, is that you shouldn’t wash them at home as they can lose their filling more easily and are difficult to get completely dry afterwards. If they are cared for properly and professionally laundered, feather and down duvets can last more than twice as long as synthetic alternatives. Wool duvets: pros and cons In that case, it can even be suitable for autumn. If you have central heating and plan to use this duvet, we advise you to reduce the heating in the bedroom. Anyway, it is healthier to sleep in a colder room. The cooling effect definitely works. During a run of hot nights I sweated less, woke up less and slept better. It’s expensive, but I’ve yet to find a comparably cooling duvet.

Buy it if: you're looking for the very best duvet for a great night's sleep. This wool-filled duvet is an investment, but we've tried and tested some of the best winter duvets on the market, and in our opinion, this is the cream of the crop. It's the warmest we've come across, keeping our testers warm and toasty throughout the night without any of the overheating or night sweats that occurred with other high tog options. That's thanks to the naturally thermoregulating properties of wool that allow moisture to escape whilst still providing insulation. Handmade in Yorkshire using 100% traceable British Cheviot wool and certified organic cotton this is also a great eco-friendly option, with wool completely biodegradable. We asked duvet owners whether they felt buying one helped. One third felt their anti-allergic or hypoallergenic duvet had made a fair difference to allergy symptoms and around one in five felt it helped just a little. Don't buy it if: you truly want to splash out on the best duvet for your boudoir. This option is very good for its price, but the higher feather mix does mean it feels more 'clumpy' than the 90% down alternatives on our list. That said, this is still a great buy, and the addition of feathers does make the duvet a little more breathable than a duvet with a higher down percentage, albeit not quite as warm. Buy it if: you want an affordable winter duvet that still feels both warm and luxurious. This recycled polyester fill duvet has 10% silk mixed in, and whilst the proportion doesn't sound huge, it really makes a difference to the way this duvet feels, with a more luxurious touch and really nice drape on the bed, whilst still being lightweight. Even better it's a relatively budget buy, and made from certified recycled polyester from waste (like plastic bottles or manufacturing off-cuts) which helps the movement towards a more circular economy by reducing waste going to landfill. Compared with virgin polyester, recycled polyester helps conserve crude oil reserves during fibre production. Buy it if: you want the luxury of Hungarian goose-down combined with plenty of weight options. As well as individual 2.5, 4.5 and 9 tog duvets, Scooms also offers a host of all-season combination duvets, with a 7 tog (the 2.5 tog duvet plus a 4.5 tog), 11 tog (the 2.5 plus 9 tog combo), and 13.5 tog (4.5 plus 9 tog). Each all-seasons option comes with press studs to fasten the two duvets together. Personally, we'd opt for the 13.5 tog for year-round versatility.

Wool is a less common choice of duvet filling. It's similarly priced to feather and down, and excellent at retaining warm air, keeping you warm when cold and removing heat and moisture when you’re warm. Unlike feather and down, it’s naturally hypoallergenic and resistant to dust mites.

If you are allergic to feathers, you may want to opt for a synthetic duvet. These are usually filled with microfibre (a fine polyester yarn) or hollowfibre (which is very similar, but slightly warmer), but you may see them called, ‘soft as down’ or ‘down alternative.’ Emily Attwood, founder of sleep-brand scooms agrees, ''We’d always advise a 9 tog to 13.5 tog for the winter months as this is ideal and will keep you warm. If your house is always on the warmer side, then a 9 tog duvet would probably suit you better throughout the winter months, and you wouldn’t want to go any higher. This will prevent you from overheating which can disrupt your sleep.' Excludes post codes starting with BFPO, BT, FK, G83, GG, GY, HS, IM, IV, JE, KW, PA(20-78), PH(18-42), ZE These all correspond to different mattress sizes. If you tend to feel cold in bed, go for the next size up from your mattress size (for example, if you have a double bed, use a king-size duvet), so that the duvet flows over the edges to keep warm air in and any draughts out. If you want natural instead of polyester filling, Snuggledown offers you the option to choose a blend of 85% goose feather and 15% goose down. This blend is very warm and you will not be cold in any period of winter. It has an internal box construction, so that the filling always stays in the right place, without any cold spots.

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Cashmere guard hair is the outer coat of the cashmere goat. It can’t be used for weaving because it’s straight, but it’s still light, fine and remarkably warming (they live in the Himalayas, after all) – the perfect material for a winter duvet. Scotland’s Ava Innes blends it with Yorkshire wool to create these extremely indulgent comforters, which have S-shaped stitching to keep the precious filling evenly distributed. Although it will mean spending a little more, and may depend on your bed frame height and style, we'd generally advise sizing up with your duvet, especially if you sleep with a partner. I’d been on the hunt for a light summer duvet for a while when I came across this Silentnight number. I’m the kind of person who would rather sleep under something and be hot than sleep under nothing. To help you get to grips with the basics, we've broken down the pros and cons of most common duvet fillings below. Obviously, it isn't always convenient to have a different duvet for each season, so the middle ground of the 10.5 tog duvet is one of the most popular options.