The Citizenry’s linen not only feels fantastic to sleep on but comes in lots of colors to go with any color scheme your bedroom might have. Parts of the sheet set (just the top sheet, pillowcases, etc.) can be purchased individually if something happens to one of your pieces.
More Linen We Love
- Extra soft and splurge-worthy linen: Cultiver Linen Sheet Set ($480) is so soft you might not realize it’s linen. My husband didn’t, and he’s a certified linen hater. This set is a splurge, but worth it if you want the benefits of linen and a much softer feel. They’re borderline silky, which feels almost wrong to say when describing linen.
- Best breathable linen: Pottery Barn Belgian Flax Linen Sheet Set ($299) has the most breathable weave I’ve slept on. The airflow is great, keeping me cool even in the hottest times of year. These sheets are a little thinner than the Citizenry’s but not quite as soft.
- Best heavyweight linen: Rough Linen’s Orkney Sheet Set ($540) is perfect for serious linen lovers who wish for heavier linen. These are the heaviest our team has tested, with about 260 gsm (grams per square meter) of linen—most others we’ve tested and recommend are around 160 gsm.
Looking for more linen? Read about every set of linen we’ve tested and our shopping advice in our guide to the best linen sheets.
The Best Silk Sheets (and Pillowcases)
Silk stays cool and slick when you need it, so you shouldn’t heat up and stick to your bed in the middle of the night. But it also is capable of insulating you decently well to keep you warm in the winter months. Silk is also better for your beauty rest and the reason why silk scarves, bonnets, and pillowcases are so popular. It absorbs less moisture from your hair and skin, so you stay hydrated and don’t lose all your expensive beauty products to your pillow. It also causes less friction, pulling less at your skin during the night. If you’re a side or stomach sleeper where your face makes direct contact with your pillow, silk is a great option to consider. You’ll also find that silk is graded not by thread count, but by weight and density, using the term “momme.” A higher number equals more threads, a higher density, and more durability—and a higher price tag.
Our favorite silk bedding is these pieces from Lilysilk. They’re soft and smooth without being freezing cold. Lilysilk is the only brand of full silk sheets we’ve tested, and it’s very expensive to get a full set—you’re looking at just over $500 for one flat sheet, one fitted sheet, and two pillowcases—but the brand offers each piece individually. Former WIRED reviewer Medea Giordano tried the fitted sheet with a percale top sheet and found it cooling and comfortable. If you can spend a little more, Lilysilk has 22- and 25-momme sets available. They’re a little more durable, but 19 is still very high quality.
Other Silk Bedding We Love
- Our favorite silk pillowcase: The Quince Silk Mulberry Pillowcase ($45) is a great value at $40, and it has a better weight for that price than other brands. Quince’s silk pillowcase is 22-momme, where others usually have a 19-momme for that price, and that heavier weight makes it slightly thicker and softer to the touch. It has a zipper enclosure, which I liked since it kept the pillowcase looking polished, and I didn’t have to worry about my pillow wiggling its way out of the case while I tossed and turned in the night.
- A zipper-free silk pillowcase: LilySilk’s 19-Momme Silk Pillowcase ($45) is the same price as the Quince pillowcase, but a lighter weight, though it’s barely noticeable side by side. If you prefer no zipper, though, this is the silk pillowcase for you. It does have a few colors and prints that Quince doesn’t, so you might want to peruse the two brands and choose based on your color preference.
- A budget option: Kitsch’s Satin Pillowcase ($19) is satin, not silk, but former WIRED reviewer Medea Giordano said it’s better than similarly priced silk options. If you’re not looking to spend more than $20 to $25, she says to choose this one over the cheaper silk pillowcases you’ll find on Amazon.
The Best Flannel Sheets
Flannel bedding is made of cotton, but the cotton fibers are brushed out to create a fuzzy texture. Those fluffed-out fibers also are what make flannel so warm and cozy to sleep on—the teased layers of cotton do a better job of retaining heat than other styles of cotton sheets, so you’ll stay much warmer sleeping on these than other sheet styles. They’re great for cooler climates and seasons.
These flannel sheets have a long name, but it’s an accurate one. This set from Lands’ End really is comfy and super soft and was the perfect combination of cozy without being too heavy. I love that these are so soft and warm without making me sweaty—a tall task for a hot sleeper in San Diego, though I did test them during the coldest time of year. I also like that it’s easy to buy Lands’ End as a set or purchase just a top sheet or pillowcases individually if something needs to be replaced.
More Flannel We Love
- If you want brushed cotton instead: Riley’s Brushed Cotton Sheet Set ($160) is soft without being as heavy or hot as full flannel, since brushed cotton only brushes out the cotton on one side of the sheet instead of both sides for regular flannel. This set is a great cozy option for hot sleepers. The queen size is sold out with a flat sheet, but you can purchase a set without one.
- Splurge-worthy, organic flannel: The Boll & Branch Cozy Flannel Sheet Set ($299) lives up to its name with its extra-soft bedding. Not only is it the softest flannel set I tried, but it’s organic, too. It also runs a little warmer, so it’s great for colder homes and climates.
- The popular choice: L.L. Bean’s UltraSoft Flannel Sheets ($139) are definitely soft, but not as soft as our top flannel pick, and they feel lighter too. They’re almost like a warm jersey rather than a flannel. If you’re looking for a light but still soft bedding set, this is a good choice.
Looking for more cozy flannel? Check our guide to the Best Flannel Sheets.
The Best Organic Sheets
If you’re buying an organic mattress, you probably want to pair it with organic bedding. Otherwise, nonorganic sheets can bring the chemicals and materials you avoided—including anything from formaldehyde and TCEP (a flame retardant) to phthalates—right back into your life. Even if you have a regular mattress, you can still benefit from choosing sheets that are made of natural, organic materials. Just about any kind of organic sheet can be organic, but it depends on how its materials are sourced and what kind of chemicals the fabric is exposed to.
WIRED reviewer Scott Gilbertson tests organic mattresses, and these are his favorite organic sheets to pair with them. They’re soft but not overly silky, which is a feeling he doesn’t care for. I’ve also found the organic percale is just a touch softer than Brooklinen’s regular percale. The Brooklinen organic cotton sheets are made from Global Organic Textile Standard (GOTS)-certified organic cotton and are Oeko-Tex certified. They also have a 300 thread count.
Other Great Organic Sheets
- Softer, organic percale: The Citizenry’s Organic Stonewashed Percale Sheets ($179) has everything I like in a softer percale, using long-staple cotton to make it soft while keeping it ultra soft.
- The best organic linen: The Citizenry also makes Organic Stonewashed Linen ($299), which is our favorite set of linen sheets that are organic to boot. These are lightweight and breathable, but still a little softer than your usual set of starter linen.
- Affordable, organic bamboo: Quince’s Bamboo Sheet Set ($130) uses organic bamboo, and has a nice weight to it. It’s not as breathable as other sets I’ve tried, but it was really silky and available for a great price.
The Best Cooling Sheets
This is another category where it’s not limited to a certain fabric type or weave, but rather is a general category for any set of bedding that feels breathable and will keep you cool during the night. I’ve found that the best contenders for staying cool at night are percale, linen, and bamboo sheets, but not every set is made equally.
This set, however, is none of those. SlumberCloud’s Performance Tencel Sheet Set uses Tencel, a brand of lyocell fabric, plus Slumber Cloud’s patented Outlast fiber, which uses phase change material (PCM) gel to absorb heat. These sheets are a sateen weave with a four-over-one thread structure, but they feel like a lightweight silky percale. I was amazed how cooling and breathable these sheets are, even with that type of weave, and so soft at the same time. As a hot sleeper sleeping on the third floor in Southern California, I was so impressed by how cool and comfortable I stayed on these sheets.
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