Honorable Mentions
We’ve tested dozens of cooling sheets. Here are a few others we like but not as much as the options above.
Bedsure Bamboo Cooling Sheet Set for $60: These bamboo sheets are some of the best affordable sheets we’ve found, though not as cooling as our top picks.
Brooklinen Classic Percale Core Sheet Set for $189: These are a great set of cooling percale sheets that have that super crisp feel to them. I prefer softer sets that keep you just as cool, but these are a great option if you like a crisper touch.
Brooklinen Washed Linen Core Sheet Set for $359: These sheets are fine linen, but they start out rougher than other linen we recommend, and I felt cooler sleeping on the picks above. There’s an updated version of this sheet available, which I’m currently testing, and will update this story soon with my notes.
Cariloha Classic Bamboo Sheet Set for $239: This is a good bamboo sheet set, and fine for cooling properties as well as everything else we love about bamboo. The sets above are lighter, but these are a safe purchase as well. Cariloha’s Retreat Sheets ($339) also come with a securing strap if you have a tall mattress.
The Citizenry Stonewashed Linen Sheet Set for $299: These linen sheets from The Citizenry are my absolute favorite linen. They’re breathable and among the softest linen sheets I’ve tried. They have a slightly heavier feel than Pottery Barn’s sheets, even though they both have a weight of 160 grams per square meter.
Coop Comphy Percale Sheet Set for $179: Like Brooklinen, these are great percale sheets with a more classic, crisp feel—which makes sense, since Coop designs its linens to feel like hotel linens. They’re great to sleep on, but you’ll have fewer color options than you do with Brooklinen.
Cozy Earth Bamboo Sheet Set for $330: These sheets are insanely soft and feel ice cold when you climb into bed, which I love. But these are thicker than Ettitude, above, and they warmed up more after lying in them for more than 10 minutes. These are sheets I’d use year-round, but I still like Ettitude and Nuzzie better for hotter nights.
Luxome Bamboo Luxury Sheet Set for $185: These bamboo sheets are soft and cooling, but are a little heavier than we’d like compared to the rest of our picks. They’re still a great bamboo set for the price, though.
My Sheets Rock the Regulator Sheets for $199: These bamboo sheets are cool and silky to the touch. I didn’t wake up sweaty, but I didn’t wake up as cool as I expected.
Naturepedic Organic Linen Sheet Set for $549: These sheets have a heavier weight while still staying cool and breathable, but they’re a big investment and aren’t quite as soft as our other recommendations.
Parachute Percale Sheet Set for $269: This is another nice percale set, but a little pricey compared to others we’ve tried and loved. WIRED reviewer Julian Chokkattu says they’ve held up well against his dog, which is a nice bonus, but other WIRED staffers have said newer sets of the sheets haven’t lasted.
Pom Pom at Home Bamboo Sateen Sheet Set for $368: These bamboo sheets are nice and not too heavy, but cost more than the most cooling sets I tried.
Pure Parima Ultra Percale Sheet Set for $230: These Egyptian cotton percale sheets are softer than most other percale, and they are breathable and super comfortable to sleep on. They’re more of a splurge, but not the most expensive percale out there.
Quince Bamboo Sheet Set for $130: These sheets feel much nicer than the price suggests, and they are silky and cool, with a nice weight to them. Not quite as breathable as our top picks, but still excellent.
Rest Evercool Cooling Sheet Set for $299: These sheets were super silky and chilly to the touch, but the top sheet ended up leaving me feeling hot in the middle of the night, even while testing in spring. You can skip the top sheet and save $90, though, if the cooling and antimicrobial technology in these sheets sound up your alley.
Riley Percale Sheet Set for $260: These percale sheets are nice and crisp, but expensive. They’re good sheets, but we were happier with the cheaper options we recommend, or the Pure Parima sheets above.
Saatva Percale Sheet Set for $205: This set is a little more expensive but has only a 200 thread count, making these an extra-light percale set. Even with such a light sheet, it’s still soft and comfortable to sleep on.
Sheets to Skip
When you test so many sheets, there are bound to be duds. Avoid these cooling sheets.
Casper Hyperlite Sheet Set for $139: These sheets are made with Tencel lyocell, making them cool to the touch. They’re super thin too, allowing for good airflow. They are cool to sleep on, but they lost the softness after a couple washes, and they feel too thin to last much longer.
Coop CoolSpa Sheet Set for $179: These nylon sheets are super soft to the touch, but my husband and I both woke up hot when sleeping on these.
Thuma Linen Sheet Set for $315: These linen sheets are incredibly lightweight, but one of the pillowcases split at the seams after just a few washes, so I wouldn’t splurge on these.
Anything with a high thread count: A lot of folks think higher thread count means better sheets, full stop. But that isn’t the full story. A higher thread count makes for heavier, less breathable sheets, so you’ll want to skip the thread counting if you’re running warm. I tend to prefer sheets with a 300 thread count when I want to stay cool at night, and 400 is the highest I’ll usually go. Not all sheets include a thread count, but a missing thread count often means it isn’t high enough to brag about (but in this case, that’s a good thing!)
FAQs
What Makes Sheets Cooling?
There’s a lot of terminology thrown around in the world of cooling sheets and cooling mattresses. Temperature regulating! Airflow! Moisture wicking! Phase-change material! Most of the time, these features come back to how breathable the sheets are. Breathability means moisture can better evaporate, and “temperature-regulating” usually means the sheets are breathable enough to release the heat and moisture from your body.
What makes sheets breathable? Cotton, flax linen, and bamboo have great breathability, but not all sheets are made equally, so material alone isn’t a guarantee. Weave, as in percale’s one-over-one threads versus sateen’s three-over-one, and weight (including thread count) of the bedding comes into play. Higher thread counts are less breathable, and tighter weaves will be less breathable too. The yarn within the fabric is also important, as well as how twisted it is—a higher twist makes for a smoother, cooler feel to the fabric, while a loose twist isn’t as smooth and can trap heat.
Some companies treat sheets with something called phase-change materials, or PCMs, which are substances that absorb and release energy to either heat or cool an area. “PCMs create a microclimate,” says Karen Leonas, a professor of textile sciences at the Wilson College of Textiles at North Carolina State University. Excess body heat is absorbed by these materials and then released to the body when it’s cool.
These treatments can raise the price of cooling sheets, but they’re not super popular yet, and it’s hard to determine how well incorporated it is into the fabric. “PCMs go through thermal cyclic testing and have shown to last a long time,” Leonas says. “If this is a surface treatment, there is the possibility that some of the microcapsules will be lost due to abrasion.” Parima Ijaz, CEO of Pure Parima, agrees and says these treatments sometimes only last up to 10 washes. There are only a handful of sheets on the market that tout their use of PCMs, and our guide focuses on breathable materials and weaves rather than these treatments. It’s worth noting that PCMs will last much longer on a foam mattress, according to Leonas. If you’re still sweating at night after switching to cooling sheets, try a cooling mattress.
I Got Cooling Sheets. Why Am I Still Hot at Night?
If you’ve purchased cooling sheets and are still waking up sweating, here are a few things to consider:
- Check your other layers: How hot is your comforter or any other blankets you have on your bed? I prefer to sleep with a cooling comforter like Buffy’s Cloud Comforter ($195) to stay cool at night, or will sometimes skip a comforter or blanket entirely.
- Check your mattress: If your mattress is retaining a lot of heat, there’s only so much a set of sheets can fix that for you. Foam mattresses in particular can retain a lot of heat, especially memory foam ones. I really like my organic, breathable mattress from Plank, but we’ve also got an entire guide to cooling mattresses. You can also explore devices like the Eight Sleep Pod 3 (7/10, WIRED Recommends) to help regulate the temperature around your mattress, or add a mattress topper with cooling properties.
- Check the airflow and temperature in your bedroom: Airflow is an important and powerful thing for staying cool. You might find you need to add a fan to your bedroom, or add a temperature sensor to your bedroom to alert a smart thermostat like the Nest Learning Thermostat (9/10, WIRED Recommends) to turn on and cool your bedroom off. (Bonus: the Nest actually comes with both a thermostat and a temperature sensor to pair it with.)
How I Test Cooling Sheets
I’m sure you can guess it: I test sheets by sleeping on them. But I do more than just sleep, of course. I did side-by-side comparisons of different sets to compare weight and breathability. I also spent time sitting in bed awake. It’s not the same as when you sleep, since your body temperature drops at night, and I wanted to see how much the sheets would warm up if you weren’t fully asleep. I did all my testing with either Buffy’s Cloud Comforter ($200) or Cozy Earth’s Bamboo Comforter ($425) over the top sheet, and all of the recommended sets above stayed cool and breathable. All sheets are tested for a minimum of three nights of sleep, usually closer to a week, and are washed a minimum of two times before included in my guide to check for any quality issues.
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