Bamboo vs Cotton Sheets: Feel, Cooling, Durability

Brooklinen's Classic Percale is 100% long staple cotton in a 270 thread count plain weave, certified to OEKO-TEX Standard 100. The queen set is a flat sheet, a fitted sheet and two pillowcases. Brooklinen sells it to people who run warm, and that is the right audience. A plain weave of cotton staple breathes well and wicks moisture, and the Sleep Foundation names cotton percale its choice for hot sleepers for exactly those reasons.

Cotton is a staple fiber: short lengths spun into yarn, which is why percale feels faintly textured rather than slippery. The long staple grade here means fewer fiber ends on the surface, so it softens with washing instead of fuzzing. It takes a warm wash and a proper dryer, which no bamboo viscose here does.

Skip it if you want a bed that feels smooth and heavy the first night. Percale is crisp when new and wrinkles freely. That is the trade for the cooling and the long life.

Cozy Earth's set is 100% viscose from bamboo, which is the label the FTC requires and the one Cozy Earth uses. The queen set is a flat sheet, a fitted sheet and two pillowcases, cut generously, with a fitted sheet that fits mattresses up to 20 inches deep. The cloth is what people mean when they say bamboo sheets: smooth and slippery, with a heavy drape that settles over the body, and cool against the skin when you first get in.

Viscose is a regenerated cellulose, so it behaves differently from cotton in the wash. It is weaker wet, which is why Cozy Earth says to wash cold with a gentle detergent, skip softener and bleach, shake out wrinkles between washer and dryer, and pull the sheets while still slightly damp. Cozy Earth backs the set with a 10 year warranty against pilling, abnormal rips and tears, and workmanship defects, and a 100 night trial, which is unusual for a sheet and worth something at this price.

Skip it if you sleep hot and expect it to be cooler than cotton all night. The Sleep Foundation reports that many sleepers find bamboo does not sleep as cool as cotton despite the cool first touch. Skip it too if your laundry habit is hot water and a high dryer.

Cariloha has sold bamboo viscose bedding and towels for years, and Aloha Soft is its entry line, originally made for Costco. The set is 100% viscose from bamboo, a flat sheet, a fitted sheet with 16 inch pockets and two pillowcases, certified to OEKO-TEX Standard 100. It has the smooth, cool, drapey hand that defines the category.

The maker's claim that it is softer than 1,000 thread count Egyptian cotton is marketing and not a measurement, and thread count does not transfer between a spun cotton and a filament viscose in any case. What is true is that at about $119 it is the cheapest route here to the bamboo feel from a brand that sells it on Amazon itself.

Skip it if you want white: this listing is the Natural color, and the line's colors change. Wash cold, dry low, no bleach or softener, same as any viscose.

Lyocell is the other regenerated cellulose. Where viscose dissolves pulp with carbon disulfide, lyocell dissolves it in an amine oxide solvent that is recovered and reused, about 99% of it according to the process literature. The cloth it makes is silky, cool to the touch and drapey, much like bamboo viscose, and it is generally stronger when wet. Tencel is Lenzing's branded lyocell, here made from Austrian eucalyptus.

Buffy's set is 100% Tencel lyocell: a fitted sheet with a 15 inch pocket and four extra corner bands, a flat sheet and two pillowcases, dyed with plant based dyes and OEKO-TEX tested. It is machine washable and dryable, and Buffy says it is made for everyday use. If you like what bamboo sheets feel like but not what the viscose process involves, this is the answer, and ettitude makes the same thing from bamboo pulp at a higher price.

Skip it if you want white. Buffy's plant dyes run to soft colors and the palette changes. Lyocell also clings and wrinkles more than sateen cotton.

Most people who want bamboo sheets want them for the smooth, soft, slightly glossy hand. Cotton can do that too, by weaving it as sateen, where each thread floats over several before going under one. Brooklinen's Luxe Sateen is the same long staple cotton as its percale, woven as a 480 thread count sateen, certified to OEKO-TEX Standard 100, and made in Portugal according to Brooklinen's site. It is soft from the first night, warmer than percale, and drapes and wrinkles less.

Against bamboo viscose it is a little less slippery, a little warmer to the touch, and a good deal easier to live with in the laundry, since it is still cotton. The fitted sheet goes to 16 inches.

Skip it if you sleep hot. Sateen holds more warmth than percale, and the floats that make it smooth pill sooner. Wash cold, dry low and skip the softener.