DESIGN Sleeping Beauties

WE SPEND AT LEAST ONE-THIRD OF OUR LIVES IN BED. PERHAPS THAT accounts for the attention we lavish on dressing the bed, a preoccupation never more acute than in the cocooning, stay-at-home ’90s.

We enfold ourselves in luxury fibers, from cashmere and lambswool to linen and the softest of cottons. A bed piled high with feather ticks and comforters-reminiscent of The Princess and the Pea-draws us ineluctably to its enveloping warmth and protection.

When shopping for bedding, it’s just as important to read the labels as it is when shopping for groceries. Reading the label, however, is only half the battle. Interpreting it can be baffling. Exactly what are thread count, fill power, and loft, anyway?

Thread count indicates how many threads per square inch are in a sheeting fabric. A high thread count-say, 320-equates with luxury and is usually found in sheets of Egyptian cotton imported from Italy, France, Switzerland, and Germany. Most American-made sheets offer a thread count of 200 to 250, although technology has provided processes that can give a lower count a more luxurious feel.

Fill power and loft apply CO the duvet, a down- and feather-filled comforter. Europeans have enjoyed down products for centuries, but their popularity in the United States is relatively recent.

Down insulates while being virtually light as a cloud. Experts agree the best down comes from the bellies of white Hungarian geese that have been raised for their down, not their meat. (Relax. The birds are live-plucked and released to grow more down.)

According to man ufacturers of luxury down goods, it is a mistake to measure down by the weight of a finished product, Look on the label for how much loft or fill power it offers. Loft indicates down’s ability to trap insulated air. The higher the fill power, the warmer (but still lightweight) a comforter will be.

The duvet’s construction is important. Baffles or box-stitching keeps the down from shifting, providing uniform warmth.

Dallas retailers usually don’t stock duvets above a fill power of 650. Our climate is too mild. If the label doesn’t give a fill power, ask a sales clerk. If he or she can’t tell you, pass the product by. A high-quality duvet should last at least 20 years, which explains its investment-level price tag, In Europe, they are handed down from generation to generation.

Duvet covers are essential to protect the duvet. The covers are meant to be laundered, not dry-cleaned, as repeated washings soften cotton. Even though you may have paid a pretty penny for the duvet, don’t handle it with kid gloves. It needs a good shake every morning. An occasional airing in the bright sun makes the down almost frothy, besides infusing the duvet with a sweet fragrance money can’t buy.

Another bedding accessory common to our forebears and coming back into use today is the feather tick, or feather bed as it is now called. A soft cushion the size of a mattress can be placed under the bottom sheet or encased in a cotton feather bed cover.

Shop carefully for a feather bed, since quality runs the gamut. Some are stuffed with nothing but chopped-up feathers-quills and all- which one manufacturer likens to sleeping in a torture chamber.

Whether it’s a tiny luxury such as dusting the sheets with scented talc before you slip between them or splurging on a Hungarian goose-down duvet, it’s money well spent. As Goldie Craycroft, owner of The Linen Gallery, puts it, “You spend so much of your life in bed, you might as well enjoy it. “