Cotton is a staple fabric spun from the fibers of cotton plants. People around the world have been cultivating it for thousands of years. One of the earliest bits of cotton is at least 7,000 years old and was found in Mexico. In Egypt and Pakistan, people were weaving cotton thread into clothing in 3,000 BC. And in the 18th century, the British first found a way to spin cotton into textile with machinery.

The quality of bed sheets is often conveyed by the thread count—the number of threads per square inch of material. In general, the higher the thread count, the softer the sheet, but the weave and type of thread may affect the hand of the material so that a sheet with a lower thread count may actually be softer than one with a higher count. Yarn quality also plays a part in the look and feel of sheets, as finer yarns tend to create a finer sheet fabric. The ply also plays a role in how heavy the sheet feels. Ply represents how many fibers are twisted together as the sheet is being created. A 2 ply 300 thread count sheet will feel heavier than a single ply 600 thread count sheet.