Michael Crider
Summer is quickly approaching, and unless your air conditioning unit has the power of a semi truck, you might be in store for some uncomfortably hot nights. A great way to reduce sweating in your bed is to get some new sheets specifically designed to sleep cool.
Keeping cool while bundled up is a bit of an oxymoron, but many people get so used to a full set of sheets that they find it hard to sleep without them, even if it’s too hot. Luckily there are plenty of sheets designed with hot climates and hot sleepers in mind, across a wide range of budgets. There are also a few ancillary products you can try to keep yourself cool as well. Check them out below.
Note that the prices on our selections are for queen-sized mattresses: bigger or smaller beds will be more or less expensive, respectively.
The Best Overall Cool Sheets: Peachskin ($100)
Peachskin’s fitted sheets are designed to regulate a sleeper’s temperature, forming a happy medium between pricey “performance” bedding and inexpensive open weave fabrics. Peachskin’s proprietary blend is synthetic, not cotton, but a super-high thread count keeps it extremely comfy. It’s designed to be breathable and moisture-wicking, quickly dealing with sweat and keeping you dry.
When you wash the sheets—and you’ll need to more frequently if you’re in a hotter area or your air conditioning is unreliable—they’ll be ready in under half an hour on a “medium” dryer cycle. Despite their synthetic build, they’re amazingly soft and smooth.
The Best Premium Cool Sheets: Sheex ($189)
For those who live in particularly hot environments, or who are just naturally hot like a human furnace, you might want to step up to something more capable. Sheex sheet sets are more than twice as expensive as our more general pick, but they make up for it with a material that’s similar to performance athletic wear with an 87-13% polyester-spandex blend. (It’s kind of like sleeping in a fancy golf polo.)
People love the breathable and temperature-controlling sheet sets, ideal for anyone who finds normal cotton sheets excessively toasty. Sheex sets come in a variety of colors to match your decor, and all include clips to keep the fitted sheets secured to your mattress.
The Best Budget Cool Sheets: Linen Home Cotton Percale ($43)
If our selections above are outside of your price range, then you’ll need to look for more general fare in traditional cotton. Percale sheets are much better than the more popular “jersey” fabric at allowing heat and moisture through, and the 200-thread-count selection from Linen Home are more naturally breathable than expensive high-thread sheets.
To be clear, they’re not as cozy as more expensive options—”crisp” is an adjective often applied at this thread count, so those with especially sensitive skin may not like them. The crispness is part of the cooling magic though. Super soft sheets tend to drape closely to the body but stiffer sheets “tent” more and allow for more air movement—if you hate the feeling of your sheets clinging to you, give Percale weave sheets a shot. Not only that but at just $43 for a full fitted sheet set, flat sheet, and two pillowcases, it’s a solution for hot summer sleeping that won’t break the bank.
The Best Cool Comforter or Duvet Cover: Easeland
You can strip off the top layer of your bedding if you’re getting too hot, but a lot of sleepers prefer the extra weight for the sake of comfort. That sets up a tug-of-war between heat retention and all-night comfort, handily solved by the Easeland comforter. The synthetic fill (instead of goose down) makes the comforter amazingly lightweight while still giving enough volume to keep the sheets underneath secure. Note that this is probably too light to use during the wintertime if you dial your thermostat back.
$59.90 
Honorable Gadget Mention: BedJet V2 ($400+)
If you live in a hot area and no amount of fussing with your AC or picking premium sheets is making a difference, you might want to check out the BedJet system. It’s a heating and cooling system for your bed. It’s crazy expensive—$400 for the standard model, $900 for the one that offers dual-zones for partners sharing a bed—but fans of the gadget with limited cooling options think it’s worth every penny.
You control it by remote or, if you have the premium model, a new smartphone app. The premium version even rocks a pretty neat feature: you can use the smartphone app to control the temperature over time and use temperature shifts to help you fall asleep better and wake up automatically.
