9 Non-Toxic Bedroom Essentials, From the Mattress Up

It is the biggest thing in the room, and you lie on it with your whole body for eight hours. In 2014, researchers at the University of Texas at Austin tested twenty crib mattresses for volatile organic compounds, the gases that evaporate off a material. Every mattress released them. Warming the mattress from room temperature to body temperature more than doubled the rate. New mattresses released more than used ones, and polyurethane foam released a wider mix of chemicals than polyester foam. In the air where a baby would breathe, levels ran about twice as high as in the rest of the room. Those were crib mattresses and the study measured emissions, not illness. The physics still applies to yours: a warm body on foam, with your face right there.

Then there are flame retardants, added to some foam beds to help them pass the burn test. The National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences lists mattresses among the products that contain them. They escape into the air and settle in household dust, and the agency names hormone and thyroid disruption among their possible effects.

The Parachute Eco Mattress removes both questions. Pocketed steel coils, New Zealand wool and an organic cotton cover, tufted together, with no foam, no latex and no adhesives. The wool does the job of the flame barrier. At $2,650 it is the expensive swap, so if you already sleep on foam, keep it for now. Older beds release less than new ones, and all the bedding below costs less.

If you would rather sleep on latex, the other beds here use natural or organic latex in place of polyurethane foam, from $1,014 to $4,199. Latex is the one to skip if you are sensitive to it. Our mattress guide covers what each certification actually certifies.

Bedding is the cheaper win, and it is where most polyester hides: in the fill of a comforter, the blend of a sheet, the satin of a pillowcase. A natural fiber is the start of the question. Dye and finish still count, and the wrinkle-free resin on an easy-care sheet is the one to walk away from. OEKO-TEX STANDARD 100 helps here, because it tests the finished textile against more than 1,000 harmful substances.

For sheets, Brooklinen's washed set is 100% European flax linen, which moves moisture off you and softens with every wash. Parachute's duvet cover is the same fiber. Inside it, Sijo's comforter is 100% TENCEL lyocell, shell and fill, with no polyester anywhere. Lyocell is a semi-synthetic made from wood pulp, and it scores 88. Boll & Branch's bed blanket is 100% merino, the splurge here, and it keeps the bed dry through the night.

Your face gets its own two pieces. Sleep With Clementine's pillowcase is 100% organic mulberry silk, and the Birch pillow under it has an organic cotton cover over organic latex and wool, with no polyurethane foam. It does contain latex, so skip it if you are sensitive, and it is spot clean only.

Light is the part of this with the cleanest experiment and the lowest price. In a 2022 Northwestern University study published in PNAS, healthy adults slept one night with moderate light in the room, about 100 lux, and were compared with adults in near darkness. With the light on, their heart rates ran higher overnight and their bodies handled insulin worse the next morning. That was a single night.

Blackout curtains and a dark room are the free version. A mask does the rest, and Sleep With Clementine's is oversized and foam-free, filled with more organic silk so it actually blocks the light. Their pajama set, shown here in Clementine Peach, is 100% GOTS-certified organic silk, and pajamas get more hours against your skin than anything else you own. If silk is not for you, Desmond & Dempsey's pointelle set is 100% cotton. We wrote the whole case for that in The Sunday Reset.