subject: The Best Material For Bedding [print this page] Bedding is made from a variety of different materials, but which characteristics do these materials have respectively.
2010-08-04 www.easy2bid.com
The kind of bedding people choose can have a great deal of influence on how well they sleep. Of course choose what kind of bedding to buy is a matter of personal taste and perhaps money. But, to make an informed choice one must know a little bit about the different kinds of materials used for bedding. I shall concentrate on three such materials, cotton, silk, and polyester.
Silk is widely used for bedding. There are two kinds of silk, mulberry silk and tussah, both produced in China by China manufacturers. Especially in the area around Suzhou, there are a lot of China manufacturers and China suppliers of silk products. Mulberry is the best quality of silk found. It comes from silk larvas being raised in captivity. The larvas are being fed chopped mulberry leaves and they produce mulberry silk which is soft and white, and the most expensive kind of silk. The other kind of silk, tussah, comes from larvas that eat whatever they can find in nature. It is also known as wild silk. This kind of silk is harder and rougher than mulberry silk. The advantages of silk, besides looking and feeling good, are that silk is substantially stronger than other materials. It is 10 times as strong as cotton, and 2-3 times as strong as wool. Silk is furthermore fire-resistant, and unlike cotton it doesnt dust because it is made from many small fibers. This is one of the reasons why silk products are good for people with allergies.
Cotton comes from the cotton plant. After being harvested it is subjected to a lengthy process before it ends up as the finished material. Cotton is very durable, even more so when it gets wet. It isnt damaged much when exposed to direct sunlight. It is good at absorbing fluids, such as sweat. Cotton furthermore feels pleasant against the skin. On the down side cotton shrinks when being washed, and it wrinkles easily. Also it tends to become dirty fairly quickly.
Polyester is a water-resistant, synthetic material. It is very durable and has a good tolerance for direct sunlight. It is less sensitive to sunlight than other synthetic fibers. It doesnt wrinkle easily, so it is hardly ever necessary to iron it. It is however quite sensitive to heat, so if it must be ironed the iron must be set at low intensity. Polyester is often mixed with cotton or viscose.
There are other materials being used for bedding, but the three I have described accounts for a very large part of the production. Obviously there are many things to consider before buying bedding but I hope these few simple facts can help.
