The right pajamas and bedding can make the difference between getting a good night's sleep and tossing and turning in a puddle of sweat all night. In your search for a set of cool and comfortable PJs, you may be wondering which fabrics are best for keeping you fresh and dry while you sleep. Here is an honest look at the main options, including what each one is genuinely good at and where it falls down.
Natural and plant-based fabrics
Natural fabrics are soft, familiar and comfortable, and they are hypoallergenic and gentle on sensitive skin. So is a well-made performance knit: what irritates skin is a coarse, heavily finished fabric, not the fibre it started as.
The most classic choice is cotton. Cotton is breathable and pleasant against the skin on a mild night. What it does not do is wick. Cotton absorbs moisture into the fibre and holds it, and it dries slowly, so once you sweat properly it sits damp against you and can leave you chilled when it finally evaporates. Absorbing and wicking are opposites, and cotton is firmly on the absorbing side.
Viscose made from bamboo is another popular option, and several of our sheets are made from it. It feels soft, smooth and luxurious, and it is genuinely lovely to sleep on. It is worth being clear about what it is, though: bamboo viscose is a regenerated cellulose fibre, chemically the same family as rayon, and it is highly absorbent. That makes it comfortable and breathable, and it also means it holds moisture rather than moving it, so it suits comfort more than heavy night sweats.
Engineered moisture-wicking microfiber
If your problem is genuine night sweats rather than mild warmth, the fabric class built for the job is an engineered performance knit.
Our NightCool sleepwear uses Kottinu, a technical synthetic first developed for firefighter base layers and medical scrubs, now made for hot sleepers. It is an engineered polyester microfiber knitted at 159 g/m², a light construction from very fine filaments. Because it absorbs almost no water into the fibre itself, it moves sweat to the surface of the fabric and lets it go, so it dries faster and you wake up dry rather than damp. It feels as soft and light as a favourite cotton nightgown and behaves nothing like one.
Which one should you choose?
It depends on your nights, not on which fibre sounds nicer.
- Warm room, stuffy, not really sweating: any light, open, low-weight fabric will help. Cotton and bamboo viscose are both comfortable here.
- Sweating through your nightclothes: you want wicking and fast drying, which is what an engineered performance knit is built for.
- Slightly damp and clammy: a more absorbent fabric may actually suit you better, because it takes up moisture before it becomes liquid on your skin.
Ready to feel the difference? Explore our NightCool moisture-wicking sleepwear, or the men's NightCool collection.
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