Our Favorite Linen Sheets to Upgrade Your Sleep

Linen is a woven fabric made from flax plants. It’s a highly breathable material that doesn’t trap heat, so it keeps you cool during warmer nights. It’s great for people who sleep hot. It’s rougher at first than a simple cotton sheet set, but it should soften up the more it’s washed. Linen is often more expensive than other sheets, but it’s generally more durable than percale or other cotton weaves, so a good sheet set should last a long time.

It’s not for everyone, but if you love linen apparel, you’ll probably love linen sheets. If you’re unsure, start with a single piece (like a duvet or flat sheet) and see what you think. Most of the options we recommend come in a linen set, but you can also buy many of these pieces separately, allowing you to try a linen pillowcase or fitted sheet before wading into a full-on linen bed.

You’ll often see terms like “Belgian flax” and “European linen” used to describe various linens. Some of these are in the name, some aren’t—Pottery Barn’s sheets are named Belgian flax, while The Citizenry’s sheets mention that they’re French flax but sustainably made in Portugal. So what does it all mean? Which is best?

Europe has a long history of growing flax and making linen. It’s a preferred source, particularly Belgium and France, which is why some sheets will call out those countries specifically. But according to World Linen, there isn’t a huge difference among European countries—it’s mostly a marketing tactic. You’ll likely be just as happy with any European source of linen, and there is a European Linen certification sheets can receive to confirm that’s where they’re sourced from.

Having Europe in the name doesn’t necessarily mean it was made there, though. After the flax is grown, it needs to be processed, spun, and woven into sheets, which may or may not happen in Europe. Some companies use the term “Belgian flax” or “European flax” to signify that the flax is from that area, but it wasn’t processed there. Some companies make sheets in other European countries, like The Citizenry’s Portugal-made sheets, while other makers might do production outside of Europe, like Quince, which processes its sheets in China and India.

You won’t usually see thread counts listed for linen sheets, or even if you do, there’s another term you’ll find along side it: GSM, or a phrase like “woven to 160 GSM.” This describes the weight of the fabric. (“GSM” stands for grams per square meter.) It’s similar to silk, which is also described in weight rather than thread count to give you a more accurate idea of how heavy the sheets will be. The rule of thumb with linen is that under 150 GSM is light, between 150 and 300 is medium, and anything over 300 is heavy.

Weight is also something that shouldn’t change about linen: It’ll get softer over time, but it won’t get lighter. If you have a preference for a certain weight of sheets, you can see whether these details are included to find out exactly what you’re buying.

If you want your linen to last for years, you have to take care of it. Our preferred way is to wash with cold water and mild detergent. Line-drying is recommended for getting the longest life. Be sure to check the tag, since some makers might have specific washing instructions. You should wash any sheets you buy before you sleep on them, and washing linen will start to soften them up—remember, it takes a while for softening to happen!

I actually break one of these rules. Since I don’t have space for a drying line, I tumble dry all of my linen, and I’ve done so for years with fine results. But if you use a dryer, expect to clean up a lot of lint. With every set I’ve tried, the lint tray gets super full, and some sheets like Quince’s filled the lint trap so much that it started to overflow.

We test sheets by—you guessed it—sleeping on them. We test all bed sheets for a minimum of two nights, often ending up closer to seven nights or more for our top picks. We look for breathability and airflow, the weight of the sheets, and we research where each maker sources their linen from and where it’s produced (which can impact both the quality and the price point). We’ve tested a little over a dozen different linen sheets so far for this guide.

While the best way to care for linen is to line dry it, we wash and dry linen sheets in regular machines to see how it holds up (and if it overflows the lint tray!) and wash it a couple of times before including it in a guide.