Cool, comfortable sleep is something many sleepers struggle with. A Gallup study in 2023 discovered that more than one out of five people attributed a poor night’s sleep to being too hot. When you sleep too warm, it not only affects your sleep quality with discomfort and sweaty nights, but it also leads to restlessness, dehydration, and fatigue. Beyond lifestyle and environment changes, a quick upgrade of bedding is the quickest and easiest way to improve your sleep temperature. 

Why Do I Need Cooling Bedding? 

Experts often debate the exact temperature that is recommended for sleep, but it typically ranges between 62-67°F. While adjusting your thermostat, turning on a fan, and avoiding hot activities before bed can all help to keep your body temperature lower as you sleep, tackling the heat at the source is a great way to achieve cooler, more comfortable sleep. 

Throughout the years, we have developed and perfected several fibers and fabrics that are specifically designed to help keep your body cooler as you sleep. Incorporating cooling fabrics into your bedding can provide benefits, such as a cool-touch sleep surface that helps you comfortably fall asleep and lasting cooling that keeps the heat away from your body throughout the night. But a quick online search for “cooling bedding” brings up more results than you could ever imagine. Which of these fabrics is best for your sleep needs? And which fabrics are actually proven to keep you cool?   

Let’s take a look at three different types of fabrics to help you decide which is best for your specific sleep heat needs: naturally thermoregulating fabrics, fabrics that are instantly cooling with cool-touch properties, and cooling technology that stays cool throughout the entire night. 

What Do Naturally Thermoregulating Fabrics Do?

Thermoregulation is a benefit that helps keep the body temperature stable even if the temperature of the environment changes. While thermoregulating materials can be man-made, there are also naturally occurring thermoregulating fabrics, such as hemp, that can provide thermoregulating benefits as you sleep. 

Naturally thermoregulating fabrics work to maintain your body temperature, whether it’s hot or cold in the room around you. If the air gets too warm, the fabric provides lightweight breathability to keep you cooler. If the air gets too cool, the fabric offers insulation that keeps you warm. Fabrics that include naturally thermoregulating properties are great for year-round coverage, but if you’re an especially warm sleeper, using fabrics that include specific cooling properties may be a better fit. 

What Are Common Cool-Touch Fabrics?

As we fall asleep, our bodies naturally tend to drop a couple of degrees to keep us comfortable without expending too much energy. Cool-touch bedding gives us a head start on cool comfort. These fabrics are often synthetics or semi-synthetics that provide instant cooling support, often with additional breathability and moisture-wicking benefits. Let’s explore two very different, but common, types of cool-touch fabrics: polyethylene and TENCEL™ Lyocell. 

How Polyethylene Creates a Cool-Touch Sleep Surface 

You may be familiar with the term polyethylene, or PE, as a common plastic polymer used in many daily-use objects, but you may not be familiar with how it is used in fabrics. When blended with other fibers, polyethylene can create a smooth, almost silky feel that is cool to the touch. 

Polyethylene is ideal for cooling fabrics as it is known for offering breathability and moisture-wicking properties. The lightweight fibers allow for heat to easily pass through, instead of trapping it inside and producing additional warmth. And although the fibers are known for being lightweight, they are also extremely durable, for lasting comfort and relief. 

How TENCEL™ Lyocell Keeps You Cool

TENCEL™ Lyocell has become an extremely popular semi-synthetic fabric over the last couple of decades. Lyocell is a light, silky-smooth fabric that is best known for its breathable, moisture-wicking benefits. In fact, Lyocell is often used in clothing, especially athletic wear, due to its moisture-wicking ability that keeps you cool and dry. Bedding made with TENCEL™ Lyocell often brings a refreshing, cool-to-the-touch feel that’s gentle on skin. You can learn more about the many benefits of TENCEL™ Lyocell on our blog, “What is Lyocell?”

Not only can you experience this cool-touch comfort in our best-selling Refreshing TENCEL™ Lyocell Sheet Sets, but it is also found in our Refreshing Protectors as well as our Cooling Duvet Inserts and Duvet Covers. Additionally, the covers on many of our premium cooling pillows include a luxurious blend of TENCEL™ Lyocell and our special FRÍO® fibers for added cooling. 

What Bedding Fabrics Stay Cool Throughout the Night?

While cool-touch and thermoregulating fabrics are great for achieving that cooler temperature as you’re falling asleep, some especially warm sleepers may crave a cooling technology that works throughout the entire night to offer relief from sleep heat. That’s where our rapid-chill, clinically-proven cooling fabrics come in. 

How Does Cooling Technology Work? 

To bring you a rapid-chill sleep surface that lasts throughout the night, Purecare has developed an exclusive cooling fiber that we call FRÍO®. These mineral-infused fibers not only feel cool to the touch for immediate cooling relief, but they also bring lasting cooling power by tunneling heat away from your body throughout the night. 

This is achieved through the power of three cooling techniques working together: nanotechnology, mica-infused fibers, and nylon fabric. Using nanotechnology during the manufacturing process to infuse mica minerals into yarn threads, the fibers can take on the benefits and features of mica itself. This enhances nylon’s already moisture-wicking, cooling properties with the added thermal resistance of mica. And one of the best parts about infusing the mica directly into the nylon fibers is that it won’t change or wash out over time, ensuring cool sleep night after night. 

Our cooling FRÍO® fabric is clinically proven to cool five times faster than traditional polyester, providing you with a cooler sleep surface and better sleep. You can enjoy the enhanced cooling power of FRÍO® in our Cooling Mattress & Pillow Protectors, as well as FRÍO® combined with silky TENCEL™ Lyocell in our Cooling Duvet Insert, Cooling Duvet Cover, and premium cooling pillows. 

What are Phase Change Materials? 

Phase change materials (PCMs) are fabrics with molecules that can change phases of matter depending on the temperature and environment. When these molecules heat up or get too warm, they turn into a liquid that absorbs the heat, keeping you cool. Phase change materials work throughout the night to rapidly absorb your heat energy and keep you at an ideal sleep temperature. 

While PCMs are powerful on their own, we’ve combined them with our FRÍO® covers in our Shattered Ice line of pillows. This combination cools ten times more than untreated fabrics of its kind, resulting in our coolest sleep surface yet.

Which Cooling Fabrics Are Best for Me?

Now that you better understand different types of cooling fabrics, you can choose for yourself which is better for your sleep situation. If you’re a hot, sweaty sleeper, you may want extra cooling from our FRÍO® or PCM-treated bedding. Or, if you just want the feel of cool, comfortable fabric, our cool-touch or thermoregulating bedding might do the trick. 

You can always mix and match your bedding fabrics to find what works best for you. Enjoy our mix, match, and save deal to save up to 40% when you buy 5 or more items to upgrade your bedding for cooler sleep.