What is viscose fabric? The rayon behind your bamboo sheets

Written by Derek Fontaine
Research and Development Scientist at Sleep Research Institute of the Rockies · Last updated: September 2026

Viscose fabric is spun from wood pulp that has been dissolved in chemicals and reformed into fiber. It is semi-synthetic: plant material at the start, heavily processed by the end. In the United States it is legally called rayon, and almost every fabric sold as bamboo is this same fiber under a friendlier name. Viscose drapes beautifully and feels smooth when new, which is why it fills both the fast-fashion racks and the budget bedding aisle. It is also weak when wet, and that single property explains most of what people complain about after a few months.

The distinction worth holding onto is this. Viscose is the oldest and roughest member of a fiber family called regenerated cellulose. Lyocell is the newest member, made with a different solvent in a closed loop, and it behaves almost nothing like its older cousin. CloudThera™, the eucalyptus lyocell behind Dreamey bedding, sits at that far end of the family. Here are the 8 questions worth answering before you sleep on any of it.

In this article

• 1. What is viscose fabric, exactly?
• 2. What is viscose made from, and how is it made?
• 3. Is viscose natural, synthetic, or plastic?
• 4. Viscose, rayon, and bamboo: 3 names, 1 fiber
• 5. Is viscose breathable, and how does it compare to cotton?
• 6. Does viscose shrink, wrinkle, or pill?
• 7. Is viscose good for your skin and hair?
• 8. Is viscose a good choice for bed sheets?
• Frequently asked questions

1. What is viscose fabric, exactly?

Viscose is a regenerated cellulose fiber. Cellulose is the structural material in plant cell walls, and viscose production takes it out of wood, dissolves it into a thick amber liquid, and forces that liquid through a plate of microscopic nozzles to form filaments. The name comes from that liquid stage: the solution is viscous.

Because the fiber is rebuilt rather than harvested, its properties are decided in the factory rather than the field. A manufacturer chooses the filament thickness, the staple length, the sheen, the finish. That is why viscose can be made to imitate silk, cotton, or wool, and why a viscose blouse and a viscose sheet can feel like unrelated materials.

It also means viscose is a category, not a quality grade. Two fabrics can both be labeled 100% viscose and perform nothing alike. What tells you which one you are holding is never the fiber name. It is the specification behind it, and most viscose is sold without one.

2. What is viscose made from, and how is it made?

Viscose starts as wood pulp, most often beech, pine, spruce, eucalyptus, or bamboo. The plant only supplies the cellulose. Everything that gives the finished fabric its character happens in four chemical steps.

• Steeping. Pulp is soaked in sodium hydroxide, or caustic soda, to strip it back to usable cellulose.
• Xanthation. The alkali cellulose is treated with carbon disulfide, converting it into a compound that will dissolve.
• Ripening. That compound is dissolved into the honey-thick solution the process is named for, then filtered and aged.
• Spinning. The solution is extruded through a spinneret into an acid bath, which regenerates the cellulose as solid filament.

The chemistry is the part worth knowing, because carbon disulfide is a recognized occupational hazard and the classic viscose process is not closed-loop by default. The Federal Trade Commission stated it plainly in a 2022 enforcement action: "the rayon manufacturing process uses toxic chemicals and results in the emission of hazardous pollutants."

That is a statement about the factory, not about the sheet on your bed. A finished, properly washed viscose fabric is not a hazard to sleep on. But it is precisely why the newer lyocell route was developed.

3. Is viscose natural, synthetic, or plastic?

Neither, strictly. Viscose is semi-synthetic, which is a genuine third category rather than a hedge. It is not a natural fiber in the way cotton, linen, and wool are, because the plant never produced a spinnable fiber. It is not a synthetic in the way polyester is either, because no petroleum is involved and the molecule at the end is still cellulose.

So viscose is not plastic. That matters for one reason in particular: it biodegrades, and it does not shed the persistent plastic microfibers that polyester releases with every wash. On that specific measure, viscose beats every synthetic in the aisle. If a label claims viscose is a natural fiber, though, the label is wrong, and a US label is required to call it rayon for exactly that reason.

4. Viscose, rayon, and bamboo: 3 names, 1 fiber

This is where most shoppers get lost, and the confusion is doing real work in the market.

Rayon is the generic fiber name required on US labels. Viscose is the specific manufacturing process, and it is the dominant one, so in practice the two words point at the same cloth. Bamboo names the plant the pulp came from and nothing else. Fabric marketed as bamboo is nearly always viscose made from bamboo pulp, produced with the same carbon disulfide chemistry as any other viscose.

Regulators have been unusually direct about this. In 2015 four national retailers paid $1.3 million in civil penalties for labeling rayon textiles as bamboo, after ignoring warning letters sent in 2010. In 2022 two more paid $5.5 million combined, the largest civil penalty the FTC had sought for bamboo marketing, over products the agency said were "actually made of rayon derived from bamboo, which was not disclosed to consumers."

The practical takeaway is short. The word bamboo on a label tells you the plant. It tells you nothing about the process, and the process is what decides how the fabric behaves against your skin for the 8 hours you are lying on it.

5. Is viscose breathable, and how does it compare to cotton?

Viscose is absorbent, and absorbency gets mistaken for breathability constantly. They are different properties, and for bedding the difference is the whole argument.

Absorbency is how much moisture a fabric can take up and hold. Breathability is how fast that moisture leaves as vapor, measured as moisture vapor transmission rate, or MVTR, in grams per square meter per hour. A fabric can be highly absorbent and still leave a damp layer sitting against your skin all night, because it took the sweat up and then held onto it. That is the failure mode cotton is known for, and standard viscose shares it.

Engineered eucalyptus lyocell moves moisture through the fiber and releases it as vapor instead. CloudThera transmits 570 g/m²/h against premium cotton's 425, which is 34% greater moisture vapor transmission, per independent textile laboratory testing. In practice that is the difference between waking up warm and damp and waking up dry. It is also why the honest word here is temperature-regulating rather than anything more dramatic.

CloudThera figures from independent laboratory testing, textile surface metrology, and Lenzing AG fiber specifications. "Not published" means exactly that: commodity viscose is sold without these measurements.

6. Does viscose shrink, wrinkle, or pill?

Yes to all three, and one property explains all three. Viscose loses much of its strength when wet, which is exactly the moment a sheet spends 40 minutes being agitated in a washing machine.

Shrinking shows up on the first wash and worsens with heat, which is why so many viscose care labels ask for cold water and no dryer. Wrinkling is structural: viscose creases readily and holds the crease. Pilling is the complaint that dominates the reviews. Buyers of budget bamboo viscose sets report fuzz balls "after only a few washes" and sets that "stopped feeling soft" within months, and at least one seller recommends shaving the pills off.

The mechanism is not mysterious. Short staple lengths, loose spinning, and blended filler produce a fabric that feels identical in the store and looks worn out in a month. This is the practical reason to care about the process rather than the plant: a commodity bamboo or eucalyptus viscose set can pill by the second wash, while properly spun lyocell tests at 38 cN/tex tensile strength, centinewtons per tex being the textile industry's measure of fiber strength. That is 50% stronger than cotton per Lenzing AG specifications, and unlike viscose it keeps that strength wet, which also lets it stay fresh longer and changes how often you need to wash your sheets.

7. Is viscose good for your skin and hair?

Two variables decide what any surface does to your face and hair overnight: how smooth it is, and how quickly it moves moisture away from your skin. Viscose does reasonably on the first and poorly on the second, and it does not hold its position on either.

A new viscose pillowcase is genuinely smoother than cotton. That is real, and it is why the first two weeks feel like an upgrade. The problem is what comes next: once the surface pills, the face it presents to your cheek is rougher than the cotton you replaced. A fabric that only performs while new is not much use for something you sleep on 2,920 hours a year.

The measured picture is worth having in front of you. CloudThera holds 0.11 µm of surface roughness against premium cotton's 0.25 µm, which is 56% less friction pulling at your skin and hair, per textile surface metrology testing. Silk, for reference, sits at 0.15 µm. And because the fiber transports moisture away as vapor rather than parking it at the surface, it harbors 3x less surface bacteria than cotton, per Hohenstein Institute textile hygiene testing. No fabric treats a skin condition, and nothing here is a substitute for a dermatologist or your actives. What a better surface can do is stop adding friction and a damp layer to the problem.

8. Is viscose a good choice for bed sheets?

Here is the honest verdict. Viscose earns its place in a drapey blouse or a lining, where the drape is the point and the garment is worn occasionally and washed gently. It is a weak choice for the one textile you sweat into for 8 hours a night and put through a washing machine every week. The use case is the problem, not the fiber's reputation.

Which is where the family tree earns its keep. Lyocell can start from the same eucalyptus or bamboo pulp, but it is dissolved in NMMO, a biodegradable solvent, inside a system that recovers 99.5% of its water and solvents, independently verified in the EU BREF Report. Same plant, different chemistry, and a fiber that ends up 10 to 12 microns thick per Lenzing AG specifications, finer than cashmere. For the fiber itself in more depth, see our full guide to what lyocell is and how it is made, and our three-way comparison of eucalyptus, bamboo, and cotton sheets.

CloudThera is one specific engineered lyocell, finished with DermaWeave™, the proprietary finishing process that purifies and strengthens each fiber and produces the surface those roughness numbers describe. It is OEKO-TEX Standard 100 certified and PETA-recognized vegan. And this is the part that should decide your purchase rather than any adjective: a commodity bamboo or eucalyptus viscose set publishes no such numbers. No surface roughness, no MVTR, no tensile figure, because competing on measurements would end the conversation. We publish ours because they were measured, not marketed.

Frequently asked questions

Is viscose fabric toxic?

The finished fabric is not. Viscose production uses carbon disulfide, a genuine occupational and environmental hazard, and the FTC has described the rayon process as emitting hazardous pollutants. But the chemical is a processing agent, not an ingredient that stays in the cloth, and a properly finished and washed viscose garment is safe to wear. If residue is your concern, look for OEKO-TEX Standard 100 certification, which tests the finished textile for harmful substances.

Is viscose the same as lyocell?

No. Both are regenerated cellulose fibers made from wood pulp, so they are cousins, but they are made by different processes and behave differently. Viscose uses carbon disulfide in an open system. Lyocell uses NMMO, a biodegradable solvent, in a closed loop that recovers almost all of it. Lyocell is stronger when wet, resists pilling better, and carries a lower environmental footprint. Both can be made from bamboo or eucalyptus, so the plant on the label does not tell you which one you have.

Is viscose better than polyester?

For anything that touches your skin overnight, yes, on the measures that matter. Viscose is cellulose, so it absorbs moisture and biodegrades, and it does not shed plastic microfibers in the wash. Polyester is petroleum-based, repels moisture rather than absorbing it, and traps heat against the skin. Polyester's advantages are durability and wrinkle resistance, which is why it dominates cheap sheeting. Neither is the strongest option for a sleep surface.

How do you wash viscose so it does not shrink?

Cold water, gentle cycle, mild detergent, and no dryer. Heat and agitation are what shrink and distort viscose, because the fiber is at its weakest while wet. Hang or lay flat to dry rather than tumbling, skip the bleach and fabric softener, and wash it separately from towels and anything with a zipper. Some viscose garments are labeled dry clean or hand wash only, and on this fiber that instruction is worth taking literally.

Why do my bamboo viscose sheets pill?

Because viscose loses strength when wet, and short staple lengths and loose spinning make that worse. Fibers break at the surface under wash agitation and nightly friction, then tangle into pills. Hot water, a hot dryer, and heavy detergent accelerate it. It is a construction problem, so no washing routine fixes a set that was built this way. CloudThera™ eucalyptus lyocell tests at 38 cN/tex, 50% stronger than cotton per Lenzing AG specifications, and retains that strength wet, which is why it resists pilling where commodity viscose does not.

Is viscose or eucalyptus lyocell better for your skin?

Engineered eucalyptus lyocell, on every measure that has been published. A new viscose pillowcase is smoother than cotton, but it degrades, and a pilled surface is rougher than what you replaced. CloudThera™ measures 0.11 µm of surface roughness against premium cotton's 0.25 µm, which is 56% less friction on skin and hair per textile surface metrology testing, and harbors 3x less surface bacteria than cotton per Hohenstein Institute testing. Commodity viscose publishes no comparable figures, which is the most useful thing to know about it.