The Best Sleepwear Fabrics for Summer

Velrose® Cotton Batiste Full Slip

Struggling to sleep comfortably in summer? You might be wearing the wrong fabric to bed. It’s not enough to just choose a nightgown or pajama set with a relaxed, unrestrictive fit and soft touch feeling. Those are great, but it also needs to be breathable, and that means paying attention to the fabric.

Breathable sleepwear allows air to flow and moisture to evaporate away, ensuring your skin can breathe and aiding your body’s temperature regulation so that you don’t wake up in a puddle of sweat. Read on to discover the best sleepwear fabric options – for year-round comfort, but especially these hotter months.

Understanding Fabric Type vs. Fiber Content

A quick note: when we say “the best fabric”, what we actually mean is the combination of fabric type and the fiber it’s made from. Both are important to bear in mind.

Many natural fibers, such as cotton, are inherently breathable, but can still be made into a cozy, heat-retaining fabric as well as a light and airy one – just think about winter PJs in fuzzy cotton flannel, or jeans in thick cotton denim, versus a much thinner material such as woven cotton batiste or cotton muslin. A finer yarn or lower-density knit or weave leads to more gaps for air to get through, maximizing breathability.

Velrose® Woven Cotton Full Slip

Natural Fiber Sleepwear

Assuming they are made into a lighter-weight fabric, natural fibers that make for some of the most highly-breathable sleepwear include cotton, linen, silk, bamboo and hemp. One natural fiber to avoid however is wool, which is highly insulating, meaning good at trapping heat against your body! That’s fantastic for winter warmth, not so much for staying cool in sweltering summer temperatures.

Although they were originally designed to be worn below clothing during the day, many customers tell us that they wear our cotton Velrose® slips (the Woven Cotton Full Slip and Cotton Batiste Full Slip) as comfortable nightgowns. The cotton batiste one is particularly lightweight and perfectly suited to summer.

Shadowline® Silhouette Lace Cap Sleeve Pajama Set

Can Synthetic Fabrics Be Breathable Too?

Don’t assume that synthetic fibers can’t also be an excellent summer option. Again, a fabric’s breathability is as much about how it’s made as it is about what’s it’s made from. In fact, the majority of sportswear is made from synthetic fabrics with excellent moisture-wicking capabilities, chosen to keep you dry while exercising.

At Shadowline Lingerie, we offer an extensive nylon sleepwear collection that customers prize both for its silky-smooth feeling and its breathability. We have two exclusive nylon sleepwear fabrics: Opacitrique® and Satintrique®. You can read more about the differences between them here, but the key thing to know is that Satintrique® is a finer-weight fabric.

Our Silhouette collection, made from Satintrique® nylon, offers an array of nightgowns, pajamas and robes which all feel wonderfully airy and light on the body. All of our nylon sleepwear is breathable, but Silhouette is our #1 recommendation for those hottest of summer nights – especially the short, sweet and floaty babydoll nightie!

Shadowline® Silhouette Lace Vintage Babydoll Nightie

What’s the Best Sleepwear Fabric for Me?

All of the sleepwear fabrics mentioned in this article have their pros and cons. Many natural fibers will keep you cool, but linen becomes easily crumpled, cotton can retain moisture, and silk is expensive and trickier to care for. Nylon isn’t a natural fiber, but it is wrinkle-resistant, exceptionally durable, and easy to launder.

There’s no single best sleepwear fabric – it all depends on what your priorities are, including how much time you’re willing to invest in doing the laundry and ironing your sleepwear (if you care about looking neat and elegant).

Why not browse our sleepwear collection to see what catches your eye?