Love Your Sleep: Five Key Benefits of European Linen Bedding

Celebrate Valentine’s Day with better sleep! Find out why European linen is the perfect choice for soft, sustainable bedding—the ideal Valentine’s Day gift for that special person in your life.

1. It’s Soft

Contrary to popular perception, linen is a beautifully soft, comfortable fabric to sleep on—and it only gets softer over time, making it the perfect textile under which to snuggle up with a loved one. The misconception of linen as a “scratchy” fabric is based on “short-fiber” linen—the coarse linen used for industrial purposes such as sacking, upholstery, and dollar bills.

After linen fibers are extracted from the flax plants in the field, they are sorted into long and short fibers using a mechanical method called scutching. Unlike short fibers, long-fiber linen is fine and soft, perfect for comfortable clothing and bedding.

That said, some of the pectin—the natural compound partly responsible for the creasing in linen—remains. Pectin, however, is water soluble, meaning that it dissolves with washing. More and more of the pectin dissolves with each wash, so your linen sheets become softer and softer as time goes by.

Some fabric manufacturers will try to speed up this process by adding artificial softeners—however, this can clog the natural pores of linen, making it less breathable. At The Modern Dane, we garment-wash our European linen sheets using enzymes. This is similar to home washing but on an industrial scale, which softens the sheets while preserving their natural properties.

When buying organic linen bedding, there’s no need to pay too much attention to thread count. Linen threads are thicker and have a looser weave than cotton, making thread count meaningless. Instead, look out for certifications—more on that below.

2. It’s Durable

Linen is a bast fiber from the same family as industrial fibers like jute, hemp, and ramie (though unlike these, linen is fine enough to be comfortable to sleep on!). To make linen, the “bast”—the strong inner part of the flax stem—is extracted using a process called retting, where the flax plants are laid down in the field and the softer outer casing naturally decays over several weeks. It’s important to look for organic linen bedding; non-organic flax is usually retted in tanks full of chemicals, which harm the environment and damage the linen fibers.

Unlike cotton, which is made from single-celled fibers twisted together, bast fibers comprise many tightly packed cells. Thus, linen doesn’t pill or rip easily and will last for years. In fact, linen is the world’s oldest fabric—scraps of linen have been found that are tens of thousands of years old, and it was used to wrap and preserve Egyptian mummies which survive in surprisingly good condition in modern museums.

Given the strength and longevity of our organic linen sheets, giving them as a gift would be a great way to make a romantic statement. They’re perfect for newlyweds, for a traditional four-year “linen” anniversary, or at any time in your relationship.

3. It Supports Healthy Sleep

A good night’s sleep is key to sustaining a happy, harmonious partnership. Quality sleep keeps you on an even keel—flushing out neurotoxins, consolidating memories, and helping us to maintain our body temperature, mood, and energy levels. Lack of sleep, on the other hand, can cause relationship problems as you can’t think clearly and tend to interpret things in a negative light.

It’s well-known that linen helps you to sleep in summer: just as linen clothing is ideal for hot, sunny days, linen bedding keeps you cool, dry, and comfortable during sultry nights. Linen naturally has thousands of tiny pores along its length, which wick away moisture and allow heat to escape.

What’s less well-known, however, is that European linen is also an excellent winter bedding fabric. Those same pores, in cold conditions, will trap warm air, creating an insulating layer over the body. This natural property—of keeping you cool in summer and warm in winter—is known as thermoregulation.

4. It’s Free From Harmful Chemicals

The production process of traditional cotton bedding uses a shocking amount of harmful chemicals, which can cause health issues such as cancer and breathing problems. These are used for multiple reasons—to increase yield, control pests, or artificially soften fibers—but they all achieve the same end: profit. Chemicals used in cotton production include the herbicide 2,4-Dichloroprnoxyacetic acid (one of two ingredients used in Agent Orange), formaldehyde, and heavy metals such as lead.

European linen bedding, on the other hand, is free from harmful chemicals. All flax farmers in France, Belgium, and the Netherlands—from where The Modern Dane’s linen is sourced—must sign the European Flax Charter, which certifies that the flax in their fields has been grown without chemical intervention or artificial irrigation.

As if that wasn’t enough, we also hold OEKO-TEX certification. The Standard by OEKO-TEX is an independent certification system that tests for the presence of harmful chemicals: all of those mentioned above and many more. Our organic linen bedding is certified Class 1: the strictest class and the only one suitable for babies. It’s safe for you, and safe for the rest of the family.

5. It’s Sustainable

Living sustainably is a big concern for many couples today—but choosing organic European linen bedding gives you one less thing to worry about. Unlike water-guzzling, pesticide-hungry cotton, organic linen has a positive effect on the environment. The big flax fields of northern Europe are as beneficial as they are beautiful, sequestering more carbon dioxide from the air than is emitted through the production of linen. Plus, when you order Scandi-style bedding from our online store, we’ll offset the carbon emissions from shipping through our partnership with Planet. So, you can sleep soundly knowing that your bedding is helping the earth.

What do you love about linen? Would you gift European linen bedding for Valentine’s Day?

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