One Blanket to Rule Them All

I'd never contemplated this question or issue until about a month ago; when sleeping with a partner, is it better to use one shared blanket or two separate? From my research, I found positives and negatives for both, but they almost always come out even. That being said, I suppose it depends on the couple and should be tackled on a case-by-case basis. That being said, in the case of my boyfriend and I, I would have to say the pros for sharing a blanket far outweigh the cons.

When we first moved in together, separate blankets was our chosen method, or rather the most convenient one. This was because when we moved in we both already had our own comforters from home and rather liked them. In discussing the matter briefly, we both agreed that it was better to have one for each of us instead of sharing because we are both blanket hogs. We both tend to wrap ourselves in our blankets like little burritos, and would not be able to do so with one blanket. And thus, the trend of separate blankets stuck.

After our first year living together in Florida where we both grew up, he got a job offer in Colorado. After weeks of deliberating, he finally got an offer, and we were on our way to our new home! Upon arriving at our apartment, we did not have all our belongings yet; including 90 percent of our bedding — our blankets and pillows were in his car that was being transported and our bed in the POD to be delivered in just under a week. Being that we could not sleep on the floor for a week, we bought a crappy air mattress and slept with thick-crocheted blanket my father made. As clever as I am, I made sure to pack some sort of blanket in our luggage to be used when we arrived. The blanket was big — don't get me wrong, it could cover our queen size bed — but we were used to each having our own.

We spent five nights on that horribly uncomfortable air mattress, under a single blanket in November Colorado weather, with a heater that didn't work correctly. Needless to say, we were cuddled up a lot, and I liked it. In the middle of the night, he would turn and cuddle next to me — take my arm or lean against my back and wrap his arm around me. Mind you, he has never slept with me like that before. He never had a reason to. But I loved having him so close! I cherished it because I knew that when our bed came in the POD and his car with the rest of the bedding, I was going to lose this closeness with him.

Alas, the first night we had our bed back and every night since then, I have been oceans away from him in our queen-sized bed. He had spoken briefly of a king-sized bed a year ago but I quickly shot it down saying, “I don't need to be any further from you in bed than I already am.”

I learned there are cons to sharing a blanket, such as having to worry about how much of the blanket you are using throughout the night. But then, can't that be solved simply by getting a gigantic blanket? Have a queen-sized bed? Get a king-sized blanket. Problem solved!

As I mentioned before, this decision should be dealt with on a case-by-case basis, but I have a thing about being close to him. I don't just like it, I need it. I'm what you might call a “touchy feelie” person, and I like to feel that my loved one is close. He, on the other hand, is not in tune with physical affection. In fact, it's been an issue between us for some years now. Perhaps switching to a single blanket would help solve that?