Why Buy

The Benefits of Switching to Organic Cotton Bedding

Crafting a bedroom with quality natural bedding is essential to restful sleep. With the average American spending 2,370 hours sleeping every year, choosing bedding that is comfortable, cool to the touch, and non-toxic can help lay the foundation for a bedroom to be inviting and healthy. But with so many bedding options available, how can you distinguish which products help improve sleep and which can be toxic to your health?

One way to distinguish products that offer added benefits is by checking the packaging and labeling to ensure that the textiles are made with natural fibers like organic cotton. There are many benefits of using organic cotton bedding over conventional chemically treated cotton some of which can be detected right away such as the smell of chemicals.

Why Should You Sleep on Organic Cotton vs. Chemically Treated Cotton?

The most important elements to consider when crafting a natural bedroom is your bedding and mattress. These essentials in the bedroom can make the difference between poor disruptive sleep and restful energizing sleep. But why is the use of organic cotton in a mattress or sheet set better than conventional cotton? The big difference can be traced back to the cotton growing and treatment process.

Bedding made out of organic cotton is sourced and harvested in a nutrient rich soil that eliminates the use of toxic pesticides, fertilizers, and herbicides. This growing method allows cotton plants to flourish naturally, leaving cotton flowers to remain plush and soft to the touch. This method is important to help cotton retain the natural benefits when used in organic bedding and mattresses. Once the organic cotton is grown and processed, it is then sent to textile manufacturers where it is prepared using non-toxic treatments, and woven into layers or fillers that are incorporated in our organic cotton products like bedding and mattresses. This natural growing method and textile treatment provides the following benefits of naturally grown organic cotton:

  • Wicks away excess moisture.
  • Provides a breathable layer that keeps the body cool at night.
  • Naturally expands and molds to the body.
  • Adds a layer of softness to bedding and mattresses.
  • Provides a hypoallergenic surface for sensitive skin.

In contrast, treated cotton is grown using pesticides and treated in textile manufacturing using a toxic chemical cocktail that can remain in bedding and mattresses through the lifetime of the product. Among some of the most common pesticides used in non-organic cotton harvests in the U.S. include: cyanide, dicofol, naled, propargite, and trifluralin. What’s particularly troubling about these chemicals is that they are labeled by the U.S. EPA as category I and II chemicals that are the most toxic to the environment and are carcinogens to the body.

After cotton is grown and processed, textile makers process the fibers using even more chemicals that are used as finishing agents in sheets, quilts, duvet covers, mattresses, and pillows. These chemical treatments give cotton and other fibers like wool added color, sheen, and anti-wrinkle finishes. The problem with finishing agents, however, is that they often irritate skin, and can enter the body through repeated contact while sleeping. Some of the most common skin irritating chemical substances used in conventional bedding and mattresses include:

  • Dyes and pigments 

  • Anti-wrinkle agents 

  • Anti-shrinking agents 

  • Oil, soil and water repellents
  • Plasticizers for cotton blends
  • Flame retardants 

  • Biocides for bacteria 

  • Stabilizers
  • Stiffening agents 



Why is an Organic Cotton Mattress and Bedding Better for the Environment?

Natural Healthy Bedroom values the protection of your family’s health and the environment. If you are still doubtful about why switching to organic cotton is better for your health, consider the effects that bedding products have on the environment. Purchasing bedding made out of chemically treated cotton not only seeps into your skin, but the soil and groundwater systems as well. Environmental exposure to these toxic pesticides and textile chemical treatments occurs when you wash or throw away bedding such as sheets, covers, and mattresses. Every time you wash your chemically treated sheets and other bedding, chemicals run off into water treatment facilities where they can be difficult to remove from municipal drinking water.

Natural Healthy Bedroom believes that the protection of human health and natural resources are the top reasons why buying organic cotton mattresses and bedding products is a superior choice over chemically treated cotton.


Order Your Organic Bedding from Natural Healthy Bedroom Today

Start sleeping in a healthy bedroom by making the switch to all natural bedding today. Place an order for your organic bedding online and if you have any unanswered questions about why you should buy an organic mattress and other natural bedding products then send us an email at sales@dolphinblue.com or call us at 800-932-7715 to speak to one of our Natural Healthy Bedroom customer service representatives.