Down Comforters

The bedding industry has become notorious for touting high thread count as a measure of quality, but those stats can be more than a little misleading. If you’ve shopped for sheets or mattress pads in the last few years, you may have noticed that thread counts have skyrocketed – at least according to advertising materials and in-store displays. Most of the time, you’re actually better off paying attention to the length of the cotton fiber itself.

Egyptian cotton is often considered to be superior to its domestic counterpart because the fibers are longer. Short fibers are prickly, while long fibers are soft and gentle. You could compare this principle to that of a beard – long hair is fluffy while short stubble is rough and scratchy. An Egyptian cotton mattress pad might feature thread counts in the 300 range, but they actually feel softer than a 1000-thread count cover.