Types of Slide Sheets, Including a Slide Sheet for Home

A slide sheet is a slippery layer that makes turning or shifting in bed easier. Most are made for a caregiver to move someone else, but a slide sheet for home, like the Snoozle, stays on your bed all night so you can turn yourself.

What is a slide sheet?

Put a layer of smooth fabric between your body and the mattress and you glide instead of dragging. That's the whole idea of a slide sheet. Most work by letting one layer slide over another, either two separate sheets or the two sides of a tube, so there's less friction to push against when you turn over or move up the bed. You'll also see them called slip sheets or glide sheets.

What sets one kind apart from another is who does the moving. In hospitals and care facilities, a nurse or caregiver uses a slide sheet to move someone else. A slide sheet for home is the one you lie on yourself, so you can shift without help.

What types of slide sheets are there?

Two questions sort slide sheets into types: who moves whom, and whether the sheet stays on the bed afterward. The answers give three types. The first two are used in hospitals and care facilities. The third, the slide sheet for home, gets its own section further down.

Slide sheets a caregiver uses to move someone else

These are the ones most people picture. A nurse or caregiver (a carer, in the UK) uses one to move a person up the bed or onto their side. They come in lots of shapes and sizes, flat or tubular, and they're usually a slippery nylon-type fabric. Many have handles so the caregiver can get a good grip. Afterward the sheet is usually taken out from under the person. They're made for moving someone, and they do that well.

Base sheet and draw sheet systems

Some care settings use two layers instead. A base sheet is fitted to the mattress, and a draw sheet lies on top of it. The set stays on the bed, and a caregiver uses the draw sheet to help the person change position. The Snoozle isn't a base sheet or a draw sheet. It's a single tube, and the next section describes it.

What is a slide sheet for home?

A slide sheet for home is made for the person lying in the bed. You sleep on it all night and turn yourself whenever you need to.

The Snoozle is one. It's a single tube of specially manufactured polyester with satin edges, 68 x 74 cm (about 27 x 29 in). The slippery layer is inside the tube, so the outside feels soft against your skin. The outside stays put on your regular bottom sheet and only the inside glides, so when you turn, you slide instead of lifting yourself. It glides in four directions, up and down as well as side to side, so you can shift up the bed too.

It lies on top of your regular bottom sheet, on your side of the bed, with the openings at the top and bottom. It's silent, with no crinkling or rustling, which matters more than you'd think at three in the morning. It has no handles or straps. It's made for one person, so your partner sleeps on the normal sheet next to you.

Lilja Thorsteinsdottir designed the Snoozle in Iceland. During her pregnancy in 2002, a midwife showed her hospital slide sheets, and she wanted a version she could sleep on. The company behind it is Nordic Dynamic ehf. in Kópavogur, Iceland. The Snoozle launched in 2013, and more than 50,000 have been sold since.

How is a slide sheet for home different from a hospital slide sheet?

A hospital slide sheet is a tool nurses and caregivers use to move a patient. It's usually a nylon-type fabric. Many have handles so the caregiver can get a grip, and the sheet is usually taken out from under the person afterward.

A slide sheet for home is made for the person in the bed, so it has to be something you can sleep on, and it has to stay where you put it. That's why the Snoozle is a polyester tube with the slippery layer inside and a soft outside that stays put on your bottom sheet. Nobody else is doing the moving, so there are no handles or straps.

How do you choose a slide sheet?

Start with who will be doing the moving. If someone else moves you, ask your nurse which sheet suits you. If you turn yourself and want something you can sleep on at home, look at a slide sheet for home.

Plenty of people end up with one for plain reasons. Turning over takes effort, and every roll wakes you up: you lift your hips, push with your arms and drag yourself across a sheet that grips you. Late in pregnancy, each roll means lifting your whole weight off the mattress. As you get older, turning can take more effort than it used to, and a sheet that glides takes some of that effort out. If you share a bed, the sheet is silent and made for one person, so your partner keeps the normal sheet. And some people just want to manage their nights on their own.

Whichever one you pick, check four things. You want to be able to sleep on it all night, because a sheet made for a single move is usually taken out afterward. The outside has to stay where you put it on your bottom sheet. It helps if it's quiet enough to use next to someone who's asleep. And the size has to suit your side of the bed: the Snoozle is 68 x 74 cm (about 27 x 29 in).

How do you use a slide sheet for home?

You can use a slide sheet for home by yourself. That's what it's made for.

1. Lay it on your side of the bed, on top of your regular bottom sheet, with the openings at the top and bottom.
2. Lie on your back on it.
3. To change sides, slide over first, then roll.
4. Smooth the sheet out under you again after each turn.
5. Keep it away from the edge of the bed, with your regular bottom sheet under it.

Give it a few nights to get used to. Wash it at 86 °F (30 °C) and keep it out of the dryer. For more detail, read how to use a slide sheet.

You'll find the Snoozle slide sheet for home on its product page.

The Snoozle is not a medical device.