Best Pajama Fabrics for Night Sweats

Fabric by fabric

Roughly ordered by how well each handles being slept in while damp.

• Merino wool (lightweight) — the best sweat-then-chill fabric: moves moisture, stays warm when damp, resists odour. Expensive, needs gentle washing.
• Bamboo viscose / modal — smooth, cool to the touch, good drape and wicking, easy to wash; less durable over many washes.
• Lightweight cotton (jersey, percale-woven, gauze) — breathable, cheap, endlessly washable; holds moisture longer than viscose or merino.
• Silk — cool, light and lovely against skin, absorbs a moderate amount, and demands careful laundering.
• Linen — very breathable and quick-drying, though the texture is not to everyone's taste as sleepwear.
• Polyester, fleece, satin polyester — traps moisture against the skin and holds odour; the main fabric to avoid.

Sleeping in nothing, or in a change of clothes

Sleeping without sleepwear is a legitimate option, and for some people it solves the problem entirely. The trade-off is that sweat goes straight into the sheets rather than into a garment you can change, so it shifts the laundry rather than removing it.

The middle path that works for a lot of people: light sleepwear plus a dry set and a towel within reach. Changing takes twenty seconds and prevents the long awake stretch of lying in something wet.

• Keep a spare set folded on the nightstand, not in a drawer across the room.
• A flat towel over your side of the sheet can be swapped faster than the bedding.
• Pair sleepwear choice with breathable sheets — one damp layer undoes the other.

What about "cooling" sleepwear?

Sleepwear marketed as cooling is usually a viscose or modal blend, sometimes with a cool-touch finish. The blend is genuinely useful; the finish mostly affects the first moments of contact and does not survive many washes.

Judge the product by its fibre composition on the label, which is the part that is regulated, rather than by the cooling language on the front of the packaging.

Limits

Sleepwear changes how wet you feel and how quickly you dry. It does not change how often night sweats occur or what is causing them. Persistent or new night sweats, particularly with fever or weight loss, are a reason to speak with a clinician.