The Best Cotton Sheets
People spend up to a third of their lives sleeping, so it’s important to choose great bedsheets that are comfortable and durable. We know—we’ve spent more than 600 hours researching, testing, and sleeping on 51 different sets. For the sixth straight year, we think L.L.Bean’s Pima Cotton Percale Sheet Set and Wrinkle Guard 400 Thread Count Sheet Set will give you the best night’s sleep.
Percale sheets tend to be cool and crisp, and of the dozens of sets we’ve tried, L.L.Bean’s 280-Thread-Count Pima Cotton Percale Sheet Set are our favorite. They’re soft and breathable, yet more durable than others we’ve tested. We’ve been recommending them since 2014, and while they aren’t the smoothest percale—our upgrade pick from Riley feels a bit silkier—they’re crisp and softer than most percales we’ve slept on. They’re beautifully made, get softer with every wash, and come with a generous one-year return policy.
Sateen sheets are more silky than percale, with a heavier drape. For the price, we don’t think you can do better than the sateen Wrinkle Guard 400 Thread Count Sheet Set. They’ve also been our top pick since 2014 (formerly under the Royal Velvet and JCP brand names), and in our tests they’ve consistently outperformed pricier sets in softness, construction, and durability. They’re one of the few sets we’ve tried that are virtually wrinkle-free, making them lower maintenance than percale sheets. They are warmer than percale sheets, though, so if you overheat, they may not be for you.
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If you prefer percale and don’t mind paying a little more, Riley’s Percale Sheet Set feels like a high-quality shirt and is a little more luxurious than the L.L.Bean sheets. As of spring 2022, a standard queen set from Riley only comes with a fitted sheet and two pillowcases ($135), with an option to add a queen flat sheet ($85) if you want it, bringing the total price for a complete queen set to $220. The colors and prints are also more modern. Unlike the L.L.Bean sheets, the Riley sheet set comes in twin XL sizes for dorms. We’ve heard some complaints about customer service and delayed shipping from readers (possibly pandemic related), but after talking to the company in November 2020 we think they have resolved the issues.
Of the sateen sheets we’ve tried, the Cuddledown 400 Thread Count Sateen Sheet Set is our absolute favorite. They’ve even outperformed luxury Italian sateen sheets that cost five times the price. In appearance and comfort, these sheets are hard to distinguish from the Wrinkle Guard sateen sheets, but after several washes they kept their ultrasoft feel a little better, wrinkled even less, and felt more lightweight. They are available in California king as well as twin XL. Cuddledown is our only pick to offer an unconditional guarantee—you can return the sheets at any time. However, as of April 2022 several colors and sizes are backordered, and we’re also looking into some customer service issues readers have had.
In six years of testing, we haven’t found a more affordable set of sheets that feels as comfortable as the Threshold 400 Thread Count Performance Sheet Set (also available in prints). Most inexpensive sets we’ve tried felt too rough to sleep on or showed signs of severe wear after a wash or two, but these sateen sheets from Target are soft and durable (if a little warmer than our other sateen picks). We think they’re an exceptional value.
