How to choose bed linen

• Measure up: Know exactly what size you're looking for. Measure the length, width and depth of your mattress. Modern mattresses have added depth from 'pillow-tops' - so to avoid sheets popping off the corners, make sure you get a good fit.
  
  
• Fibre: Natural fibres are best because they breathe. Cotton is the obvious choice: good-quality cotton sheets will get softer with wash and wear. But if you like your sheets wrinkle-free and hate ironing, a polyester-cotton blend may suit you better ... or look for cotton sheets with a non-iron finish.
  
  
• Feel: If there is no sample on display, take the sheets out of their packaging and see how they feel. Go with what feels best to you, remembering that fabrics feel different once they've been through the wash a few times.
  
  
• Fabric finishing: High-quality bed linen has usually been singed and mercerised. Singeing (burning the tiny fuzz from the surface of the fabric) prevents pilling. Mercerising (using caustic soda to swell then shrink the fibres) increases the lustre and strength of the fabric.
  
  If the packaging doesn't state whether the fabric has been mercerised, ask before you buy. And if you don't like the thought of sleeping between chemically-treated sheets look for organic cotton.
  
  
• Construction details: Check the seams on the wide hem of the top sheet and on the pillowcases. Stitches should be neat, tight and fairly small.
  
  
• You get what you pay for: Generally, best-quality bed linen comes at a price. A sheet with a sky-high thread count at a rock-bottom price is likely to be too good to be true. Aspects such as fibre quality and construction may have been sacrificed to achieve the bargain price.
  
  
• Sleep on it before you spend up: If you are looking at making a serious investment but you're not quite sure which linen is right for you, buy the pillowcases first and see how you like them.

The touch test

Different fabrics feel good to different people. We bought pillowcases in three different fabrics: inexpensive 250 thread count single-ply polyester-cotton blend, affordable 300 thread count single-ply cotton, and pricey 680 thread count two-ply Egyptian cotton.

Fourteen Consumer staff members ranked the fabrics in order of preference based solely on feel. We found each fabric was rated the best by at least a couple of people. The cheap polycotton blend was the favourite, closely followed by the expensive Egyptian cotton.

The three fabrics we selected are only a very small sample of what's available and our trial was by no means a scientific assessment. But we think it shows how important it is to touch before you buy.