Feeling the weight of the world on your shoulders as you drift off to dreamland? By making sustainable choices when it comes to your sheets and bedding, you can create a cozy sleep and help save the planet. Read on to learn about sustainable bedding and fabrics, like TENCEL™ sheets, bamboo charcoal and organic cotton, and why sustainable bedding fabrics are a healthier choice for you and the planet. Plus, we’ll share exactly what to look for when shopping for sustainable bedding, including our favourite eco-friendly, luxury bedding line QE Home (and bonus: it’s Canadian!).
Sustainable Fabrics and Eco-Friendly Bedding
You might have heard about the importance of buying sustainable bedding, but navigating the world of organic, eco-friendly fabrics can be as tricky as folding a fitted sheet! Learning a few, key fabrics will help you focus your search.
Organic Cotton
Cotton bedding is a popular choice for its comfort, durability and price point, but if sustainability is a priority, ensure you’re buying organic cotton sheets, meaning the cotton has been farmed without the use of toxic chemicals or genetic modification practices. It’s also typically grown on a smaller scale. Avoiding chemicals during production is better for the Earth, the people working on the farm, the communities around the farm, and the consumer sleeping on the bedding. Look for the GOTS-certified logo on the packaging, which stands for Global Organic Textile Standard.
Bamboo Cotton
Bamboo and cotton are both natural and biodegradable fabrics, and, as a blend, is softer, more breathable, and cooler thanks to bamboo’s moisture-wicking properties. It’s also more sustainable because the blend is longer lasting than 100% bamboo. You’ll enjoy it for years!
QE Home’s Bamboo Cotton with Activated Charcoal
If health and wellness are a priority along with sustainability, QE Home’s Canadian-designed Bamboo Cotton with Activated Charcoal bedding is an ideal choice. This innovative fabric is infused with activated charcoal that has been formed by heating sustainably grown bamboo to 800°C. The result is incredibly smooth and comfortable bedding with a gorgeous silver-heathered appearance. The activated charcoal is a natural approach to absorbing moisture and bacteria, and eliminating odour, so you can rest easy knowing your bed is as clean and cozy as can be. Pro-tip: This also means you can do laundry less often, which is also better for the environment!
Find QE Home’s Bamboo Cotton with Activated Charcoal online or in-store, where their Sleep Stylists can help customize your bedding to suit you to a Zzzz.
Linen
One hundred percent linen sheets are biodegradable, and a popular choice for shoppers who prefer sustainable bedding. Linen comes from the flax plant which uses far less water than cotton and requires little to no herbicides or pesticides. One of the oldest fibers known to humans, Linen is also durable and gets softer the longer you use it. Plus, by leaning into the relaxed look of linen, you can enjoy the benefits of fuss-free bedmaking.
Related: Zen Bedroom Ideas That’ll Help You De-Stress
QE Home’s Eucalyptus Luxe
QE Home’s Eucalyptus Luxe bedding is a 500 thread count blend of 65% TENCEL™ Lyocell and 35% Cotton. TENCEL™ is a popular, sustainable alternative to silk, thanks to its buttery texture. It’s made from sustainably grown and harvested eucalyptus wood from FSC certified forests using environmentally responsible methods and a closed loop production process. The Eucalyptus Luxe is a go-to choice for sustainable bedding thanks to its supremely soft texture, thermoregulating and breathable fibres and carbon neutral footprint–this is truly the future of bedding.
Find QE Home’s Eucalyptus Luxe bedding online or in-store, where their Sleep Stylists can help you create a dreamy, hotel-worthy bed (but making it each morning is still on you).
Why is Sustainable Bedding a Healthier Choice?
Creating a healthier world shouldn’t be the stuff of dreams, but thanks to sustainable bedding, it is. Sustainable fabrics are farmed and created in ways that ensure a reduced impact on the environment, healthier working conditions for farmers and labourers, and safer sleep for you. Sleeping on bed sheets with fibres that have been treated with chemicals can reduce our quality of sleep, and impact our overall health by triggering allergies, rashes, and impacting our breathing. With so many affordable sustainable options in luxurious designs and textures, there’s really no reason not to invest in sustainable bedding.
Related: The 20 Best Bedroom Plants to Help You Get a Better Sleep
What to Look for When Shopping for Sustainable Bedding
Look for 100% natural fibres and try to avoid synthetic fibres. There are, however, bedding options that contain recycled polyester, which is made from post-consumer polyester and use 43% less fossil-based resources and produces 23% less carbon emissions than newly made polyester. If you prefer synthetic fibres, this is a great way to incorporate sustainability into your purchase.
Steer clear of chemically treated sheets and bedding labelled “wrinkle-free” or “anti-static,” which generally means chemically treated or synthetic. And if a company hasn’t begun transitioning to more environmentally conscious packaging, this could be a sign they’ve not made sustainability a priority.
Look for companies that make sustainability a key value of their business. Signs to look for are a commitment to offsetting the carbon emissions associated with the products they produce, and providing transparency on their production process and costs. Partnering with companies like Green Story, which aims to inspire and assist Canadian businesses adopt carbon neutral footprints, is a clear indication that a company is serious about sustainability.
Buy Sustainable Bedding (Without Sacrificing Style)
Buying sustainable bedding made from eco-friendly fibres is a simple and affordable way to make a meaningful choice for the health of the planet and yourself. And with so many great Canadian-designed options like QE Home, you can enjoy the same luxurious look and feel, without a worry in the world. (Now that’s the stuff of sweet dreams!)
Images courtesy of QE Home.
