I sleep on sheets for a living, and bamboo sheets have become the fabric I can’t stop recommending to everyone. They’re incredibly soft, cool to the touch, and a great pick for just about every kind of sleeper.
If you’re wondering how a bamboo plant turns into a bedsheet, whether or not bamboo is actually cooling, or which sets are worth buying, this is the guide for you. After a year and a half of testing more than 20 different sets of bamboo and bamboo-adjacent bedding, there are a few sets that stand out against the pack. My current favorite is Bearaby’s Second Skin Sheets ($247), which manages to be silky-soft and still cozy at the same time, and even boasts antibacterial benefits. If you’re looking for cooling sheets, nothing’s cooler than Ettitude’s Signature Bamboo Sheet Set ($355), nor does anything else come with as many ethical and eco-conscious certifications. Looking to spend a little less but still want Oeko-Tex certified bamboo that comes with ethical sourcing? Try Aeptom’s Bamboo Sateen Sheet Set ($152).
Read on to learn everything you ever wanted to know about bamboo sheets, plus more about our picks and everything we’ve slept on to write this guide. While you’re here, check out our guides to the Best Mattresses, Best Mattresses for Back Pain, Best Sheets, Best Cooling Sheets, Best Bed Frames, and Best Down Comforters. You can also catch our advice on how to clean everything on your bed, how to arrange your bedroom for better sleep, and whether thread count matters.
How Does Bamboo Become Bedding?
Bamboo, obviously, isn’t a fiber naturally the way cotton and linen are. Bamboo has to go through an intensive chemical process to break it down and form it into a fiber that then becomes bedding. There are multiple processes you can use, and each one creates a slightly different type of bamboo bedding. Checking what kind of bamboo is listed as the material (e.g., does it say bamboo rayon or bamboo viscose?) will tell you about the process used.
What Types of Bamboo Fibers Are There?
There are a few different terms you might see when describing the bamboo fibers that make up a set of bamboo sheets. Each name lets you know what kind of chemical process was used and what kind of chemicals (and chemical off-put) were involved.
Bamboo rayon and bamboo viscose are sometimes used interchangeably, though they shouldn’t be, since they aren’t exactly the same. Rayon is likely a term you’ve seen before, since it’s a general term used for fabric made from regenerated cellulose. Bamboo rayon usually suggests that it’s semi-synthetic and might not be 100 percent bamboo. Meanwhile, bamboo viscose also uses bamboo cellulose as its base, though it has a slightly different process. Viscose is another type that isn’t limited to bamboo. Just about every sheet I’ve tested claims to be 100 percent bamboo viscose.
Bamboo lyocell is the best of the three, because lyocell has a closed-loop process, which means that almost all of the chemicals used to make more lyocell get reused rather than dumped. Lyocell is a quality fabric that makes for a great cooling sheet, so it’s a term to look for if you want to stay cool while you sleep.
Is Bamboo Bedding Really Cooling?
While bamboo is cool to the touch when you first climb into bed, I often find that bamboo sheets can warm up quite a bit throughout the night. Some companies claim that the bamboo fibers help regulate your temperature and wick away moisture. As a hot sleeper, I haven’t found this true with every set of bamboo sheets. Some have a weave that’s too heavy to keep me cool on hot nights, since no amount of promised moisture-wicking can replace good airflow to keep you cool.
There are a few sets of bamboo bed sheets I recommend that keep me cooler than others, but I recommend visiting our guide to the Best Cooling Sheets if you want to consider all kinds of bed sheets that could keep you cool, from bamboo to cotton percale and even sheets with phase-change material (or PCM) blended in.
What About Eucalyptus Bedding?
Eucalyptus bedding is similar to bamboo in the sense that both are a type of wood broken down with chemicals to become a fiber. Eucalyptus is usually only made through the closed-loop lyocell process; we don’t see eucalyptus rayon or viscose the way we do for bamboo. If you want to guarantee it’s made with a lyocell process, then eucalyptus is the way to go.
Since both are plant fibers that have gone through a similar process, you’ll see similar promises between the two. Both types of sheet feel silky to the touch and promise cooling benefits, but as I said for bamboo above, I think the cooling benefits can vary based on how heavy the sheet is and how breathable the weave is. The fiber itself can only fix so much—if the airflow is bad, you’re going to get hot. Either way, both eucalyptus and bamboo are a great choice if you’re looking for a silky-soft sheet.
How to Navigate Shopping for Bamboo Bedding
Confused by the terms used to describe bamboo bedding? Here’s a quick breakdown.
Bamboo type: You’ll see bamboo rayon, viscose, or lyocell listed for the bamboo, which explains what method was used for turning the bamboo into fibers that could become sheets. Rayon is the cheapest, while viscose is a slightly better production process, and lyocell is the best process (but still not a perfect one, and usually the most expensive).
Certifications: Some companies will label bamboo sheets as organic, using certifications like Oeko-Tex. You can learn more about organic certification terms here to understand what they each mean, and our thoughts on organic bamboo in our FAQs below. You might also see FSC-certified, which means it was sourced through sustainable forests certified by the Forest Stewardship Council.
Our Favorite Bamboo Sheets
Out of all the bamboo bedding we’ve tested, here’s the sheet sets I love the most.
