Tencel vs Bamboo Sheets: Lyocell, Viscose and Feel

Sijo makes most of its bedding from Tencel lyocell, and the AiryWeight set is the plain version: 100 percent lyocell derived from eucalyptus grown in Austria, sourced from Lenzing's Tencel and PEFC certified forests. The queen set is a fitted sheet with a 16 inch pocket, a flat sheet and two pillowcases. The cloth weighs 130 grams per square meter, which is light for a sheet, and that lightness is the point. It is cool to the touch and stays cool, and Sijo's figure for moisture absorption is 70 percent more than cotton.

The set is certified to OEKO-TEX Standard 100 Class 1, the class written for products meant for babies, and carries the Asthma and Allergy Friendly mark. Sijo says it is free from bleach and dyes in the Snow color. The maker's claim that it keeps its smoothness without pilling after 2,000 abrasion revolutions is a lab figure, but it fits what lyocell does: unlike viscose, it keeps most of its strength when wet, so it tolerates an ordinary gentle cycle.

Skip it if you want weight. The heavy, pooling drape that people love about bamboo viscose is not what this is. Skip it too if you want a deep pocket beyond 16 inches.

Cozy Earth's set is 100 percent viscose from bamboo, 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 oversized, with a fitted sheet that stretches to mattresses 20 inches deep. The cloth is what people picture when they say bamboo sheets: slippery smooth, with a heavy drape that settles over the body and a cool first touch. Cozy Earth's site lists OEKO-TEX Standard 100 for the fabric.

Viscose is weaker wet than lyocell, which is why the care instructions are stricter. Cozy Earth says machine wash cold with a gentle detergent, no fabric softener or bleach, shake out the wrinkles between washer and dryer, and remove the sheets while slightly damp. Do that and the warranty is the best in the category: 10 years on bedding, covering pilling, abnormal rips and tears and workmanship defects, resolved with a replacement rather than a refund.

Skip it if your laundry habit is hot water and a high dryer; this is the fiber that punishes it. Skip it if you want the cleaner solvent story, which is what the Tencel and the Cariloha Retreat are for.

If the Tencel versus bamboo question feels like a false choice, this is the proof. Cariloha's Retreat is 100 percent bamboo lyocell, meaning bamboo pulp dissolved by the lyocell process rather than the viscose one, then woven as a sateen. It has the fluid drape and sheen of the Cozy Earth set with the wet strength and cleaner solvent chemistry of the Sijo. The fitted sheet has 18 inch pockets with corner bands and a labeled border so it goes on the right way first time, and the set is OEKO-TEX Standard 100 certified.

Cariloha has sold bamboo viscose bedding for years and calls Retreat its most refined line. The price reflects that: at about $339 it is the most expensive set on this page, and the colors run to coastal grays and blues rather than plain white.

Skip it if you want white, or if you simply want the bamboo drape at a sane price, in which case Cariloha's own Aloha Soft viscose line is a fraction of the cost. This is the pick for someone who wants the fiber argument settled in one set.

Both Tencel and bamboo viscose feel cool because a smooth filament pulls heat from the skin on contact. Over a whole night, many hot sleepers do better with cotton percale, a plain weave of spun cotton that lets air through and does not cling. Brooklinen's Classic Percale is 100 percent long staple cotton woven at 270 threads per inch, certified to OEKO-TEX Standard 100, and sold on Amazon by Brooklinen itself.

Percale is crisp and matte where lyocell and viscose are silky and lustrous, and it softens over the first dozen washes rather than arriving soft. The practical advantage is the wash: warm or hot water, a normal dryer, no special handling, for years.

Skip it if what you want is the slippery drape. Percale will never give you that, and it wrinkles more than either regenerated fiber.

Cotton can be smooth too. Weave it as a sateen, with each thread floating over several before passing under one, and the surface turns soft and faintly lustrous. Brooklinen's Luxe Sateen is 100 percent long staple cotton at a 480 thread count, OEKO-TEX Standard 100 certified, and made in Portugal according to Brooklinen's site. It is soft from the first night and drapes more than percale.

Against the two regenerated fibers it is a little less slippery, a little warmer in the hand, and far easier to live with in the laundry, because it is still cotton. Brooklinen asks for cold water and a low dryer to keep the surface smooth, but a mistake will not ruin it.

Skip it if you sleep very hot. Sateen holds more warmth than percale, and the floats that make it smooth are what pill first.