A Greener Night’s Sleep

Environmentally conscious consumers can sleep peacefully this year between organic and natural sheets. Organic linen designers and manufacturers say their products not only avoid toxic chemicals and improve soil fertility but also are softer, more luxurious sheets. That, they say, translates into a better sleep and virtually no harm to the environment.

“There’s still not a huge variety of organic goods out there, but you can pretty much walk into any neighborhood grocery store and find at least a handful of organic (beddings) now,” says Marisa Kula Mercer, co-founder of Plover Organic in Portland, Ore.

Among those companies that are leading the way in creating these new environmentally friendly bed linens is Plover, which uses a hydrogen peroxide bleaching process and only low-impact, fiber reactive dyes that form a strong bond with the cotton fiber. The company’s process uses less water than conventional dyeing, and all dye material is reclaimed. None of it is released into the environment.

New to the Plover catalogue is its Blue Wave line that comes with its own special signature pattern. The cotton comes from non-genetically engineered seeds grown in soil that is free of pesticides, herbicides or other cytotoxins.

Penny Murphy, owner of the upscale Pioneer Linens in West Palm Beach, Fla., says many of the organic sheets come in subtle colors. “Classics never go out of style for a reason,” she says. Other new organic lines include:

Nautica, one of the most popular bed linen manufacturers, has rolled out its first organic cotton offering. Called Nautica Naturals, it’s a 510-count, 100-percent organic cotton sheet that comes in spa tones and is packaged in self-contained organic cotton bags.

Bamboo Ecowear of Palm Springs, Calif., is now offering 100-percent bamboo sheets. The company touts the lightweight fabric as being perfect for both warm and cold nights. The fabric lifts moisture off the body so that it dries quickly and doesn’t hold odors. In cooler temperatures, it’s as warming as it is cooling in the heat.

Pottery Barn is now selling its new Organic Hemstitch sheet set and Sunflower Organic quilt and sham. Woven in Portugal, the sheets have twin rows of openwork stitching that give them delicate texture, and a simple hemstitching trims the edges. Made of 100-percent organic cotton fibers, the sheets are woven to a 200-thread-count.

For the most demanding consumers, Dallas-based retailer Anna Sova Luxury Linens offers the Sensualé, a 600-thread-count organic cotton bed sheet. These luxurious sheets are milled in Switzerland with 100-percent U.S. organic pima cotton and finished in Italy using eco-safe cotton bleaching, dyeing and finishing processes. The sheets come in white, champagne and espresso.