What's on Your Non-Toxic Bed?

This week we're talking about sheets and bedding with natural fibers and plant-based dyes.

Organic sheets from Aizome.

Last week we talked about mattresses, so this week we’ll share recommendations for bedding!

This purchase is one of the most important textile choices you’ll make. You’re spending (hopefully) more than 49 hours a week wrapped in sheets, your face pressed on the pillow, inhaling any volatile organic compounds that are wafting off of them.

I honestly don’t understand how anyone could ever sleep in synthetic sheets. If you’re a little space heater like me, you’re sweating in them year round. And research shows that sweat can leach hazardous chemicals out of plastic materials. Synthetics like polyester are also more likely to retain body odor, even after you run them through the wash. Finally, synthetic fabrics such as polyester use disperse dyes, which are common skin sensitizers. As in, they’ll make you itchy and may even cause a skin reaction!

So what should you look for in sheets and bedding? As always, I recommend natural fabrics. Look for cotton, linen, and hemp, as well as bamboo lyocell and Tencel. While organic cotton is a great place to start, traceable cotton is a more sustainable option that can support regenerative farming.

But natural fibers can also be toxic if you buy them from ultra-cheap, sketchy places. Anecdotally, a woman who attended one of my talks told me she ordered silk pillowcases off of Amazon, and she woke up with a rash on her face. (This is one reason of many why I tell people to stop. shopping. on. Amazon.)

Choose sheets with an Oeko-Tex or a bluesign label, and avoid performance qualities such as no-iron, easy-care, or stain resistance, which often involve formaldehyde-based chemistry or perfluorinated chemistry, both of which have been linked to cancer and other illnesses.

Natural Colored Bed Sheets by American Blossom Linens.

Our Recommendations

If you suffer from any skin ailments, then the best choice is AIZOME, which uses organic cotton, medicinal herbs for dyes, and absolutely zero synthetic dyes, finishes, threads or other materials. I’ve spent time with the passionate team of AIZOME, who call it a healthcare company that makes bedding. Aizome sheets are registered with the FDA as Class 1 medical devices intended to mitigate and alleviate skin problems, and as such, it’s big in the eczema community.

Another good one for summer sheets is American Blossom Linens, which uses fully traceable, American-grown cotton, including Foxfibre naturally-colored cotton—so no dyes at all!

Deep Pocket Organic Cotton Sheets by Avocado.

If you’re the kind of person who has a guest bedroom or three to kit out with luxurious bedding, then go for Coyuchi. It has the most comprehensive collection of home textiles out of the bunch, including sheets, towels, pillows, duvets, quilts, rugs, robes, shower curtains, and now—as a reader pointed out last week—a mattress. Everything is made with 100% organic fibers and a fully traceable supply chain.

If you have a tiny budget, you can find basic but cute Oeko-Tex-certified cotton sheets at Target.

Other non-toxic bedding options we recommend include SOL Organics, the artisan choice The Citizenry, the affordable but eco-friendly Under the Canopy, linen sheets from Baloo Living, and if you’re already ordering a mattress, you can throw in sheets from Avocado.

The Lightweight Down Duvet Insert by Coyuchi.

Are You Down for Down?

Personally, I prefer natural materials in my bedding, and that extends to feather down in my duvets. It also works a little bit better to regulate temperatures, which makes a real difference when you’re talking about a drafty old Vermont farmhouse!

Most down these days comes from geese that are raised to be eaten in North America, Europe, and China, which provides 80% of the world’s down. You can think of natural goose down like cow leather: a byproduct of meat farming that would be thrown away if it weren’t used in fashion and home goods. Much like cows are not raised for leather, “Birds are not raised for plumage,” a New York-based down processor told Backpacker magazine in 1995. At the time, down contributed about 10 to 20% of the total revenue of raising a goose, at least in the U.S. It’s just a side stream of income for farmers.

Where that ethical calculation diverges from cow leather, however, is in live-plucking. That’s exactly what it sounds like. While it’s banned in the U.S. and several European countries, it’s apparently still practiced in some Eastern European countries and in China.

A goose can be live-plucked several times in a year up to the time it’s slaughtered, and yes, it is extremely painful. (More painful than getting a Brazilian? The jury is out on that philosophical question.)

A 2009 Swedish documentary claimed that between 50% and 80% of the world’s supply of down comes from live-plucked geese, though that figure was disputed by several industry groups, who said live-plucking makes up only 2% of the global supply. Live-plucked down is ill-suited for outdoor gear, so you’re more likely to find it in expensive bedding.

If this bothers you, Under the Canopy uses recycled synthetic fill, while Parachute and Coyuchi are part of the Responsible Down Standard to ensure no live plucking and good animal welfare in their supply chain.

Have you tried any of these brands? Let us know your favorites, or any we missed!