Part 3 - The ultimate guide to buying bed sheets you'll love

What are sheets made from?

Sheets are made from a variety of fibres, some natural and some human-made, and each affect temperature and feel differently.

In our experience, human-made fibres don't breathe like natural fibres. Often, when it's a hot night, human-made threads tend to make you hotter, and when it's cold at night they make you colder. Preference also play a part, some hate the slippery feel of synthetics, while others avoid synthetics just because. You know what you like but it's important to understand what different fibres are, how they feel, and how they affect temperature.

Bamboo, Eucalyptus, Tencel®, Lyocell

Depending on what you read, you'd be forgiven for thinking these kinds of sheets are natural. But they're a human-made fibre known as Rayon. Like all textbooks, Chapter 1 of 'Textiles and Design' categorises fibres into to two broad categories, natural and man-made. Rayon is found under man-made, categorised as a regenerated fibre, with Modal, Viscose, Lyocell and Tencel® all listed as various forms of Rayon.

Rayon starts with wood pulp (like bamboo or eucalyptus) which is chemically dissolved to such a degree that there's no bamboo left in the final sheet.

Bamboo is greenwashing's new low

In 2013, The US Federal Trade Commission warned the industry that advertising bamboo sheets as 'natural' misleads consumers and fined retailers USD 1.26 million. It's since prosecuted and fined many more retailers. As a result, bamboo sheets sold in the US, must state the type of Rayon used. e.g. Bamboo Viscose or Bamboo Lyocell etc. And this makes sense when you understand how the fibre is manufactured. 

However, we disagree the word bamboo should be included at all, because Rayon isn't a bamboo fibre, it's a human-made fibre that doesn't exist in nature. Rebranding Rayon as bamboo, is greenwashing in the extreme but like many rebrands, it's been hugely successful.

Common types of Rayon sheets

Modal and Viscose Rayon sheets are more cost-effective, usually $200-300ish NZD per set, depending on your size. A relatively new Rayon type, Lyocell Rayon, is more eco-friendly compared to other forms of Rayon as the chemicals used to dissolve the wood are more eco-friendly. The Tencel® brand is the trademarked version of Lyocell Rayon and one thing that makes Tencel® special, is the wood comes from sustainable sources. 

Sustainability

If sustainability is your main reason for choosing Rayon sheets, it's often safer to choose the Tencel® brand. If not shopping for Tencel®, be wary of sustainability claims when any form of Rayon (bamboo, lyocell, plant-based etc) comes from India or China. These countries don’t have great track-records for honesty in textiles. We hope this changes. 

The Tencel® trademark is owned by an Austrian company, Lenzing. We've talked to representatives face-to-face and they seem honest about what Tencel® is, and the fact that it isn't natural (even if some retailers aren't). Tencel® sheets are usually priced like high-end bedding ($400+ NZD) but you're guaranteed to get the most eco-friendly form of Rayon.

What is Rayon like to sleep in?

In our experience, Rayon sheets (we tested Tencel®) are very different from cotton or linen to sleep in. They're silky/slippery and never seem to have that fresh, crisp feeling like cotton (if you like that). They can also be difficult temperature-wise in our experience, making you feel cold when it's cold, and hot when it's hot - like a Rayon shirt.

Moisture-wicking?

Much is made of the moisture-wicking ability of Rayon sheets but in our experience, they left us clammy and sweaty - the moisture kind of stays on you. It might be that Rayon evaporates moisture into the air more effectively, while cotton removes more moisture from your body but tends to keep it in the sheet? Or that because Rayon isn't natural, you're hotter, so sweat more despite better moisture-wicking?

We're not sure how science is defining moisture-wicking for this claim, if you know, drop as an email. At any rate, our experience in a temperature controlled room set to 18°, was that Tencel® left us hotter and more sweaty than our cotton sheets.

BTW, if you've come to this page from a search, cotton can be woven to trap heat, or release it. When we say "our cotton sheets", we're talking about cotton sheets woven for temperature regulation.

Of course, heat and feel is subjective as everyone is different. So if you sleep in Rayon and love it, that's all that matters. Just be aware they're not natural and the good ones are as expensive as quality natural fibres like cotton and linen. And if you're a hot sleeper, you'll want to avoid them because in our experience, they’re much hotter than natural fibres. They are just Rayon after all!

Silk sheets

For around 5,000 years, humans have been making silk textiles from the mulberry silk moth. Unfortunately, cheap silk sheets are most likely regenerative fibre fakes made a bit like Rayon. 

We compared 8 "mulberry silk" pillowcases from retailers around the world with real, top-grade, mulberry silk pillowcases that retail for €400 per pillowcase. And compared to the real stuff, the cheaper ones (as high as $180 per pillowcase) were too shiny to be natural - just like bamboo Rayon. In addition to the shine, the slippery feel was also a dead giveaway. Natural fibres simply don't look or feel like this.

Again, if you have fake silk sheets and love them, enjoy them. However, if you're a hot sleeper, avoid cheap silk sheets (under $2000ish NZD per set) as cheap ones are most likely some form of regenerated, human-made fibre which will be much hotter than natural fibres.

Unfortunately, real silk sheets are so expensive and we don't have first-hand experience sleeping in them. Real silk is known for its coolness, smoothness and lightness so as soon as we sleep on real silk, we'll update this guide. If you have experience sleeping on real silk ($$$), drop us a note and we'd be happy to include your experiences.

Linen

Linen sheets are made from flax which is a natural fibre. Irish linen is legendary but linen sheets in general have seen a resurgence around the world. They breathe well because they’re woven using the same low thread-count Percale weave as our hotel sheets. Many say linen is cooler than cotton and while they’re definitely cooler than high thread count cotton but in our experience, they’re warmer than low thread count cotton. Remember, we've spent about 15 years sleep-testing sheets in a temperature controlled room.

However, if linen isn't pre-softened, it can take years to wear-in - so if you love cotton, linen might be a shock. Customers have also told us that modern linen doesn’t seem to last very long, with many at home shows telling us their bottom sheets didn’t last longer than a year. However, this completely depends on the cost/quality, resting after washing, linen rotation and rough heels, which is the same as all sheets. Your mileage may vary.

Sustainability

Linen is more eco-friendly to grow compared to cotton however, linen requires more processing afterwards. In fact, the less cotton-like a crop is, the more processing is require to turn it into a fibre that modern humans want to sleep in. Another example is hemp, which also requires more processing than cotton. And lets not forget bamboo, which needs to be chemically dissolved to the point there's no bamboo left in the sheet!

And the softer Linen sheets are, the more processing is required and so, the less eco-friendly. However, it’s hard finding environmental data on the full product life-cycle of bedding. Focusing in one aspect (the growing) but ignoring the processing or how long they last, is a silly way to judge environmental concerns in our opinion but it works with consumers hungry to tick that sustainability box.

What's linen like to sleep in?

Cards on the table, we're yet to find a set of linen sheets we liked, and have tried the expensive ones ($500+ NZD) as well as cheaper ones. At worst, we felt like we were sleeping in a sack and at best, we felt like we were sleeping in linen clothes. However, this is all subjective, so if you love the feel of linen sheets, enjoy!

Many also like the relaxed look of linen, and people tell us they don't feel pressure to iron them. Personally, we don't feel pressure to iron in general but everyone is different.

How hot is linen?

Preferences aside, who should buy them from a sleep comfort point of view? Well, because of their breathability, linen sheets are good for hotter sleepers but perhaps not great for super hot sleepers. We found them hotter than our cotton sheets, and so only use linen in winter now.

Cotton

Cotton is a popular natural fibre which feels beautiful close to the skin, and depending on the weave and thread count, breathes very well. However, unlike linen, cotton is an exceptionally thirsty crop and isn't as environmentally friendly. Moreover, cheap cotton sheets which are replaced every 1-2 years, consume enormous amounts of drinking water (and organic cotton is even worse, usually consuming more than twice as much water for the same yield).

The textile school at Otago University tell us that New Zealanders throw out an average of 37kg of home textiles per person, per year. And some consumers tell us they replace cheap sheets each year and couldn't care less about the amount of resources consumed - each to their own.

Cotton also comes in grades, short-staple, medium-staple and long-staple. Generally, the longer the staple, the stronger, finer and more amazing the sheets, especially over the long-term. However, country of origin also plays a huge role. For example, while China has cotton with the longest cotton staples, it's nowhere near as good as long-staple Egyptian, Supima (USA) or Pima cotton (Peru). Generally, the longer the cotton staple, the higher the price.

Long-staple Egyptian cotton is widely regarded as the best cotton, as is long-staple Supima or Pima cotton. However, all are super pricey. We could dedicate several pages to cotton but will revisit cotton grades when we discuss longevity and feel.

Temperature-wise, Cotton is a good all-around fibre for sheets because it can be woven hot or cool and serves as a good base layer for both hot and cold sleepers in the same bed.

Cold sleepers

• Bamboo or eucalyptus (rayon), synthetics or high thread count cotton

Hot sleepers

• Low thread count cotton, linen

Hot & Cold sleepers in the same bed

• Low thread count cotton, linen, then use layers so each person can find their Goldilocks temperature

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NEXT: PART 4 YARNS & WEAVES

 

Our sheets

• Most popular: The classic Hotel Sheet. Cool, crisp, open, fine but strong. The 100% cotton sheet used in European hotels. 
• Highest quality: The Egyptian Hotel Sheet. The same cool and crisp recipe as our Classic hotel sheet but made from ultra fine, ultra strong, long-staple Egyptian cotton. DNA tested to verify authenticity.
• Use and wash sheets for up to 60 nights and return if not happy. Returns are donated so must be washed, conditions apply.
• For a wider-range of opinions about our sheets, see reviews from genuine customers.