This article is a part of CNN Underscored’s Guide to Sleep, a weeklong focus on everything you need to sleep better. We’ll be featuring new products, tips and exclusive deals all week, so check in every morning to see what’s new.
The best cotton sheets we tested:
Best cotton sheets: L.L.Bean 280-Thread-Count Pima Cotton Percale Sheet Set
Best cooling percale sheets: Casper Percale Sheets
Best gauzy percale sheets: Brooklinen Classic Core Sheet Set
Best luxury sateen sheets: Boll & Branch Signature Hemmed Sheet Set
Best budget cotton sheets: JCPenney Wrinkle Guard 400TC Cotton Sheet Set
A set of great sheets is an essential part of a good night’s sleep. The best cotton options are breathable, capable of keeping you cool on sweltering summer nights while insulating you through the winter. Sheets touch your skin more than almost any other type of sleep accessory — so a good sheet set is crucial to sleeping well and general wellness.
To find the best cotton sheet sets, we tested 10 options, evaluating them for quality, fit on the bed and variety of size and color options. After extensive testing, we found five sets that are well-made and gave us excellent rest.
The L.L.Bean 280-Thread-Count Pima Cotton Percale Sheet Set is the nicest-feeling sheet set we tried. Breathable and crisp, they’re great at regulating your temperature throughout the night. And the eyelet hem along the top sheet and pillowcases made these sheets feel straight out of a hotel.
The crispest set we tested, the Casper Percale Sheets are the best we tried for hot sleepers. They are light and airy while wicking away sweat, and feel ultra-smooth to slip into at night.
The Brooklinen Classic Core Sheet Set’s gauzy percale material manages to be softer than others we tried while still effectively cooling. Available in more fun patterns and colors than any other set we tested, they’re ideal for people tired of neutrals or wanting to take their bedroom decor up a notch.
Our hotel-ready recommendation for sateen lovers, the Boll & Branch Signature Hemmed Sheet Set is silky and sumptuous. The sheets are soft to slip into at night, and impart a sense of luxury we didn’t get from others we tested. Only available in a broad array of tasteful neturals, the Boll & Branch sheets are chic and guaranteed to impress.
JCPenney’s Wrinkle Guard cotton sheets are the silkiest sateen we tested. They always look crisp but don’t require ironing, coming out of the laundry completely smooth each time we washed them. With the queen size we tested coming under $150, the JCPenney sheets offer serious quality for the price.
Best cotton sheets: L.L.Bean 280-Thread-Count Pima Cotton Percale Sheet Set
$169 at L.L.Bean
For many years, L.L.Bean has been making the best cotton sheets you can buy online. We’ve bought, tested and used the L.L.Bean 280-Thread-Count Pima Cotton Percale Sheet Set repeatedly since 2014. And in the intervening years, despite many competitors trying to outshine them, these sheets have remained refined, with a luxury that betrays their affordable price. The L.L.Bean percale sheets are crisp and cool — a delight to slip into on the warmest summer nights. These sheets are also soft out of the bag, and only continue to soften with use. They are largely wrinkle-resistant, remaining one of the crispest sheets out of the wash of any we tested, and they fit well on beds with both deep and narrow profiles.
Sleeping on the L.L.Bean sheets is like visiting a high-end hotel. This bedding is crisp, sleek and cool. It also has a sweet eyelet design along the cuffed decorative edge of the flat sheet that lends an element of refinement to a made bed. While the sheets are light, with a weightlessness on the body, their fabric is substantial and feels notably luxurious, unlike the paper-thin feeling of other sheets from younger companies.
These sheets fit well on a variety of beds, too. Overall, the L.L.Bean’s fitted sheet pocket is deep, measuring 15 inches. This means it fits well on thicker mattresses, upwards of 14 inches. But we had no issues getting a taut fit on a slim-profile, 10-inch mattress either. The flat sheet had ample drape over the side of our bed, lending itself nicely to crisp hospital corners. These also shrank less than any other cotton sheet set we tested upon first washing. With OEKO-TEX Standard 100 certification, and a one-year return warranty, there’s hardly anything to dislike about this sheet set.
L.L.Bean offers these in a range of colors, with nine solid colors as well as two prints and two checked styles. The sheets come in five sizes from which to choose (twin, full, queen, king and California king). LL.Bean also offers a duvet cover and individual fitted and flat sheets. If you like the fabric of these sheets, then there are plenty of options to mix and match with for a complete bedding set.
Our only issue with L.L.Bean is that their color selection isn’t very modern. These sheets come in an array of pastels and other somewhat dated colors. Nonetheless, if the color offerings are an issue for you, then they sell standard white and ivory options, which will suit any decor.
Best cooling percale sheets: Casper Percale Sheets
$139 $111 at Casper
For sheets that feel lighter and cooler than others, the Casper Percale Sheets are the best choice. These sheets are super-breathable, with crisp, cool percale that wicked sweat away from our bodies on warmer nights. They hardly wrinkled in the laundry, and looked fresh and ready for our bed directly out of the dryer. With a wider-than-average elastic band around the edge of the fitted sheet, these Casper sheets have a more snug fit on the bed than other sheets we tested.
The Casper Percale Sheets are great for people who sleep warm or for those who want crisp percale. Sleeping with these sheets was a slightly less smooth experience than with the L.L.Bean sheets, and their fabric is a bit lighter and airier. The effect is that the Casper sheets feel cooler to the touch and crisper. While the fabric should soften over time, we did find these sheets a bit noisy as a result of their slightly-less-supple fabric.
These sheets had one of the best fits on our bed of any we tested, thanks to the wide elastic band that runs the circumference of its fitted sheet. Although the Casper sheets have a deep 18-inch pocket (one of the deepest we tested), they were still a secure fit on our slim, 10-inch mattress due to the tension of the strong elastic band around the fitted sheet. The flat sheet was also amply sized and easily tucked in on three sides of our bed.
These sheets are available in four colors and six sizes (twin, twin xl, full, queen, king and California king), with matching options including a duvet cover and sham set. They offer versatile styling options for any bed. For the price, they’re an equally great choice for the primary bedroom, a child’s bedroom or a guest bedroom.
Best gauzy percale sheets: Brooklinen Classic Core Sheet Set
$179 $152 at Brooklinen
If you’re looking for gauzy sheets in fun, trendy patterns, then the Brooklinen Classic Core Sheet Set is your best choice. Like the Casper Percale Sheets, these sheets are also great for hot sleepers. Their light, airy fabric didn’t trap heat, and kept our body’s heat well-regulated night after night. We never felt sweaty sleeping with these the way we did with some sateen options. This Brooklinen set’s percale is smooth and soft, falling somewhere between the L.L.Bean 280-Thread-Count Pima Cotton Percale Sheet Set and the Casper Percale Sheets in terms of crispness. Our only complaint is that, while the Brooklinen sheets are gauzy, we could, at times, see our mattress and pillows through the white sheet set we tested.
Brooklinen has options for every style and taste, with sheets available in nine “essential” solid colors and two patterns, plus four “limited edition” colors and patterns. The sheets are super affordable and available in six sizes (twin, twin xl, full, queen, king and California king.
Best luxury sateen sheets: Boll & Branch Signature Hemmed Sheet Set
$279 at Boll & Branch
Next to our L.L.Bean top pick, the Boll & Branch Signature Hemmed Sheet Set was the the most luxurious we tested. Although a bit less satiny than our JCPenney pick, the Boll & Branch sheets were dreamy to slip into after a long day. The sateen weave of the Boll & Branch sheets is smooth and soft, with a sumptuous feel. Sleeping in these was reminiscent of staying at a 5-star hotel, and they are a set that we will continue to reach for to elevate our bedding experience. These sheets also have a substantial, luxury feel in hand.
The Boll & Branch sheets are well-made, with high-quality stitch work and an attractive but simple decorative cuff adorning the flat sheet and pillowcases. The fitted sheet has 17-inch deep pockets — ample space for most mattresses — and the top sheet had plenty of drape over the sides of our mattress for tucking in hospital corners. Although these sheets shrank more in the laundry than others we tested, they are also much larger, resulting in a top sheet that still has greater area than most other brands, regardless of shrinkage.
Despite the price tag, the Boll & Branch sheets offer a surprising amount of flexibility. They’re available in eight sizes (twin, twin xl, full, queen, king, king with standard pillowcases, California king and split king). The colors, however, are subdued, with a palette consisting of 12 solid colors and four patterns.
Best budget cotton sheets: JCPenney Wrinkle Guard 400TC Cotton Sheet Set
$140 $90 at JCPenney
For around $140 (and frequently on sale for less), the JCPenney Wrinkle Guard 400TC Cotton Sheet Set is a total steal. The sheets offer a bit less flexibility than others we recommend as far as sizes and colors go, but are otherwise an excellent budget option. The JCPenney Wrinkle Guard sheets live up to their name, coming out of the wash looking as if they had been freshly ironed. The sateen is silky smooth but still feels like it’s made from 100% natural cotton fibers — a feat for such shiny fabric.
Getting into a bed made from the JCPenney sheets was like butter. We slipped right in, enveloped by the satiny fabric surrounding us. For people who sleep warm, sateen sheets can run hot, and these would not be the sheet choice for you.
The JCPenney sheets stand up to all of our technical criteria too. With an 18-inch deep pocket, they fit our bed relatively well, if a bit big for our slim mattress. Available in seven colors, they aren’t the most modern-looking option we recommend, but JCPenney hits all the right notes with a handful of tasteful neutral tones from which to choose . Over the years of reviewing these sheets, we’ve noticed that JCPenney tends to cycle out some of their bolder colors relatively frequently so, if you don’t see the color you’re looking for now, just try back later. These sheets do not come in twin size, but they are available in five other sizes (full, queen, king, California king and split king).
Choosing sateen versus percale
The two most common fabrics for cotton sheets are sateen (or stain weave) and percale (or plain weave). There is little difference in quality between the two; the choice between sateen and percale largely comes down to personal preference.
Percale sheets are sewn with a straightforward lattice weave (imagine the lattice on top of a pie) with individual threads alternating in an over-and-under pattern. Sateen sheets are sewn such that weft (horizontal) threads “float” or skip over multiple warp (vertical) threads.
Percale sheets, with their one-by-one weave, are lightweight and more breathable than their sateen counterparts. The lattice weave gives percale sheets more texture and less of a satiny feel than their sateen counterparts too. Also, since percale fabric can be tightly woven, they generally have lower thread counts and are lighter than sateen. This leads to a more breathable fabric that hot sleepers tend to prefer.
Sateen sheets, with their floating weave, let more light bounce off the threads, adding that satiny shine that people look for. Having so many floating threads does make sateen sheets susceptible to snagging, and so these sheets are often more tightly woven, with more threads per square inch than their percale counterparts. This makes sateen sheets both stronger and smoother than percale, but also makes them warmer and less breathable.
How we tested
After selecting 10 popular sheet sets to test, we slept with each for multiple nights, comparing performance, quality and durability, as well as the overall buying options. We considered cotton sheet sets across a broad price range, starting from $50 up to $300. Both sateen and percale sheet sets were equally represented in our tests, and we brought in five options of each style. Throughout our extensive testing, we evaluated each sheet set on the following criteria to find the best options:
Performance
- Sleep feel: We noted how each sheet set felt while sleeping, and whether the fabric was soft and breathable or stiff and crinkly. We found sheets across the spectrum of comfort levels.
- Fit: Although all the sheets we tried were queen-sized, each had slightly different dimensions. We evaluated how well the top sheets fit, if they had sufficient drape over our mattress to tuck into the sides and if the fitted sheets had any issues with bagginess (or the opposite).
Quality/durability
- Durability: After washing each sheet set, we assessed for any wear and tear. One set we tested developed holes after only a single wash and was disqualified. Most others fared well in these tests though.
- Quality: We assessed the quality of each sheet set, checking each for stitch quality, whether they had any pulls or snags and how durable the elastic in each fitted sheet seemed.
- Shrinkage: All sheets will shrink in their first wash after purchase. We calculated the rate of shrinkage for each set’s flat sheet, and similarly noted whether the flat sheet was still large enough to sufficiently fit onto our mattress during fit tests.
Options
- Size options: We preferred sets with a broad range of size options.
- Color options: We noted how many colors and style choices there were for each model.
Other cotton sheets we tested
The Company Store Classic Cool Cotton Percale Bed Sheet Set
$149 at The Company Store
The Company Store Classic Cool Cotton Percale Bed Sheet Set is well-constructed and attractive. During testing, the sheets had minimal shrinkage in the washer and barely wrinkled in the dryer. Unfortunately, the flat sheet was small and barely fit over the edges of our 10-inch-thick mattress. We worry these would not fit on mattresses that are any thicker.
Target Threshold 400-Thread-Count Solid Performance Sheet Set
$50 at Target
Although the Target Threshold 400-Thread-Count Solid Performance Sheet Set had great potential as a solid budget set, they had a number of issues during testing. We aren’t keen on the unattractive addition of extra elastic in the center of each corner pocket on this fitted sheet; it seems unnecessary based on the way most fitted sheets are made, and it looks unattractive. Worse yet, this set developed a hole in the corner seam of its fitted sheet after one cycle through the laundry, and it had shoddy sewing work throughout.
Brooklinen Luxe Sateen Core Sheet Set
From $159 at Brooklinen
We like the Brooklinen Luxe Sateen Core Sheet Set a lot. There is technically nothing wrong with the the set, but we preferred the gauzy percale option from Brooklinen a bit more. The luxe sateen sheets were not as crisp and didn’t feel quite as elegant to the touch. But if you prefer sateen over percale and are brand-loyal to Brooklinen, then the luxe sateen sheets are a solid choice.
Parachute Sateen Sheet Set
From $169 at Parachute
The Parachute Sateen Sheet Set has a pleasant, silky weave, but its construction cuts corners that are a dealbreaker for a sheet set at this price. The main issue is the way the Parachute flat sheet is sewn: Instead of the typical, folded-over decorative cuff at the top of the sheet, Parachute’s decorative cuff is made from two pieces of fabric serged together across the top hem. Not only is this a cost-cutting measure (no need to spend the time pressing and folding during the manufacturing process), but the serged raw edge was incredibly unpleasant next to our face, where it was rough and rubbed uncomfortably.
Kassatex Bamboo Sateen Sheet Set
Currently unavailable at Kassatex
The Kassatex Bamboo Sateen Sheet Set is a great value for the price. They make a decent budget alternative if the JCPenney Wrinkle Guard 400TC Cotton Sheet Set is too silky, or the Boll & Branch Signature Hemmed Sheet Set is too expensive.