How Bamboo is Temperature Regulating

The warm and humid Summer air is here in Canada, which can mean a warm, uncomfortable sleep. Or does it? Maybe it’s just time to switch your bedding from cotton to bamboo sheets! Bamboo fabrics have many benefits - from their silky, ultra-soft texture to their antibacterial properties, bamboo fabric is truly unique. Bamboo also has the ability to keep you cool all night - even during a heat wave! To understand bamboo’s unique features, firstly let’s compare them to traditional cotton fabrics.

Bamboo vs. Cotton

Bamboo fabric has many unique features. It’s durable, long-lasting, and comfortable for every season. It is gentle on the skin, insulating and breathable. Cotton is a widely used fabric for clothing, and although labeled as sweat absorbing and breathable, it is actually less so than bamboo. Cotton also tends to have a coarser, rougher feel to it than bamboo fabrics.

Now that we know the key differences between bamboo and cotton, let’s look into the ways bamboo helps to regulate body temperature, even in the warmest of months!

1. Breathability

Bamboo fabrics are airy, silky soft, and light-weight. Bamboo fibres are hollow with micro gaps and holes. These gaps allow for the ability of the fabric to wick away moisture and keep hot air out with its great ventilation capabilities. These abilities work to keep clothing and bedding from sticking to the skin in the heat and keeping the body feeling cool (source: Fibre2Fashion)

2. Moisture-wicking

These fabrics work to pull moisture away from the body and, in turn, cool the skin. At Terrera, we make a bamboo french terry fabric that has loops on the inside. These loops add to the ability for the bamboo fabric to wick away moisture from the body. Another bonus of bamboo fabrics is that it is quick-drying! This also aides in the ability to be temperature regulating by drying any moisture gathered on the clothes - keeping you both warm in the Winter and cool in the Summer.

3. Micro-Gaps

Bamboo fabrics have micro-gaps in them for ventilation. During the warmer Summer months, bamboo fabrics work to pull heat away from the body by trapping cool air in its fibres. In the Winter months, it does the opposite, by trapping the heat in the fabric to keep your body warm. Bamboo helps to regulate your body temperature across all seasons!

Sources:

https://www.fibre2fashion.com/industry-article/1970/properties-of-bamboo-fibre