Do silk sheets help you sleep better? Yes! Silk sheets can absolutely help you get a better night's sleep! This article discusses how silk bedding and sheets keep you sleeping soundly.
Inside this Article:
Why Silk Sheets Are Your Key to A Better Night's Sleep
Anyone familiar with silk pillowcases and sheets knows that pure silk bedding delivers big beauty benefits to hair and skin. And that is reason alone to sleep on silk. But beauty sleep isn't everything when it comes to pure momme silk: sleeping on silk sheets from Mulberry Park Silks can actually help you get a better, more restful, higher quality night's sleep.
How Silk Sheets Can Help Prevent Overheating
One of the most essential properties of silk sheets and bedding is their ability to regulate body temperature to promote a comfortable night's sleep. Silk is a protein-based, breathable, natural fiber with a unique structure. Silk cocoons are made to insulate and protect a developing silkworm; this property translates into silk sheets and bedding offering wonderful thermoregulation:
- Silk sheets naturally regulate body temperature, keeping you cool in summer and warm in winter
- Silk sheets are uniquely beneficial to anyone who “sleeps hot” by naturally cooling them during the night. This prevents sleep disruption due to overheating.
- A silk pillowcase and sheet set will wick away moisture to keep skin cool and dry (very important for anyone with night sweats). In contrast, cotton sheets—even high-quality Egyptian cotton—absorb moisture and stay damp. Silk fabric is a much better option for a cooling sheet.
Dermatologists agree that silk is helpful in temperature regulation. "No matter the season, the moisture-repelling properties and natural, breathable fibers will help avoid sleeping hot and remain cool and dry -- both factors that contribute to regulating body temperature during sleep," said Dr. Ana Chacon, a board-certified dermatologist.
More Ways Silk Sheets Can Help You Sleep Better
Along with helping to regulate body temperature, mulberry silk fabric contains many other properties that can foster a good night's sleep.
"No matter the season, the moisture-repelling properties and natural, breathable fibers will help avoid sleeping hot and remain cool and dry -- both factors that contribute to regulating body temperature during sleep," said Dr. Ana Chacon, a board-certified dermatologist.
Hypoallergenic and soothing to skin
As we mentioned earlier, a silk fiber comes from the cocoon of a silkworm, which is a protective environment. Silk is hypoallergenic and non-irritating to even the most sensitive skin. Dermatologists often recommend sleeping on a silk pillowcase and bed sheets to their patients with acne, eczema, or other skin conditions. Silk is even recommended as a gentle, soothing bedding for babies! At Mulberry Park Silks, we've even taken the additional step of being certified STANDARD 100 by OEKO-TEX.® This means all of our silk products have been independently tested for a variety of harmful substances; you can learn more about this certification here.
Resistant to mold and dust mites
Pure mulberry silk is naturally resistant to mold, dust, and mites. (Once again, this is due to the protective environment of the silkworm's cocoon). Anyone who suffers from environmental allergies can minimize sleep disruption by sleeping on a silk pillowcase or sheets.
Promotes freedom of movement
Along with feeling soft and luxurious to the touch, the smooth charmeuse weave of Mulberry Park Silks sheets helps promote freedom of movement. This makes silk a wonderful option for anyone who has movement disorders that tend to wake them during the night.
| On a personal note, a member of our Mulberry Park Silks team was recently struggling with a hip injury due to overuse. She had trouble getting comfortable on her cotton sheets. She would also wake up during the night both from hip pain and the friction caused by tossing and turning to find a restful sleeping position. Switching to silk made all the difference; the friction-free environment allowed our colleague to sleep comfortably, move more freely on her delicate hip and -- most importantly -- enjoy uninterrupted sleep! |
Other Benefits to Sleeping on Silk
Of course, no discussion of silk pillowcases and sheets would be complete without mentioning the wonderful beauty benefits silk bedding provides. The soft, sleek environment of a pure mulberry silk pillowcase is wonderful for your hair. Silk minimizes friction and naturally conditions your hair with fibroin as you sleep. This helps minimize tangles and bedhead, tame frizz, and retain your hair's natural moisture. In fact, many salon and spa products for skin and hair care contain silk protein!
Silk bedding delivers similar benefits for your skin. The friction-free surface of a silk pillowcase helps your face glide across the surface, which prevents sleep crease formation that can lead to wrinkles. As with your hair, silk also helps your skin stay hydrated and moisturized; in contrast, your cotton pillowcase can actually pull vital moisture away and cause further damage to dry skin.
Silk Bedding is Easy to Care For
With all the sleep and beauty benefits and its reputation for comfort and luxury, silk is surprisingly easy to care for. Mulberry Park Silk bedding can easily be washed at home in your machine with a just a few simple considerations:
- Wash your silk sheets and bedding at the same intervals you'd wash any other sheets
- Launder your silk sheets separately in a silk-only load
- Wash silk sheets separately in a 'silk-only' load
- Turn the silk pillowcases inside out
- Use mesh laundry bags when washing your silk bedding to prevent snags and tears inside the machine
- Set your machine to a gentle or "silk" cycle in cool water
- Never use fabric softener or bleach on genuine silk
- Hang your silk to dry indoors or outside away from direct sunlight (sun can cause silk to fade). Don't put silk sheets in the dryer
- Ironing silk bedding isn't necessary; the wrinkles in your silk sheets will naturally release within a day or two of being placed back on your bed. If you do iron, proceed with caution and follow these directions for ironing silk bedding without damaging it.
Also, we recommend using a detergent specifically made for washing silk, such as Heritage Park Silk and Wool Laundry Detergent. This pH-neutral formula is made to effectively clean protein-based fabrics without damaging the delicate fiber. It is also enzyme-free, which is quite important; laundry enzymes are designed to dissolve protein-based stains but they can actually cause damage to protein-based fabrics like silk, wool, or cashmere.
How to Choose the Best Silk Pillowcase and Bedding
With the growing popularity of silk, there are a lot more options in the marketplace to choose from. Of course, we would love to welcome you to the Mulberry Park Silks family as a customer. More importantly, however, we want to help you understand why our silk bedding is the absolute best value available. The fact is this: many unscrupulous manufacturers attempt to pass off lower-quality silk or even artificial satin as pure silk. Only genuine mulberry silk delivers the unique health and wellness benefits we've described above.
We invite you to read our blog, which offers extensive advice on such topics as how to tell genuine silk from artificial imitation silk, what to look for when purchasing a real silk pillowcase or sheet set, what momme means for silk, and much more.
We also cannot stress this enough: purchase your silk from a reputable manufacturer like Mulberry Park Silks. We sell only the highest quality pure silk products, and we welcome the chance to clarify what makes our products the best. There are five main characteristics to consider when purchasing a silk pillowcase or a set of silk sheets: the weave, the grade, the type, and the weight of silk, as well as whether the silk is certified as tested for harmful chemicals.
We use the helpful acronym "CHARMS" to explain:
