Home » Dorm Room Bedding - Are Twin XL Sheets Really Necessary?

Almost every college lists twin XL sheets as a requirement for incoming college freshman. If you are anything like I was my freshman year, you’ve looked high and low trying to find twin XL sheets in the right color but haven’t had any luck so far. So, you’re probably asking yourself, are twin XL sheets really necessary or can I get away with twin regulars? From my experience as a recent college graduate, my answer to that question is as follows: twin XL sheets aren’t necessary.

Here’s why:

Twin regular sheets fit most any twin XL mattress you will find. During my freshman year, I played it safe and found a pair of twin XL sheets that sort of worked with the color scheme I was going for. As I could only find them in the bedding section of Macy’s, they were extremely expensive, or at least from a college student’s standpoint. The second pair of sheets I brought I had purchased at Target for under a third of the price of my twin XL’s. Truth be told, both pairs of sheets fit the bed fine, and I preferred the color of my target sheets better than the ones I had purchased at Macy’s.

By purchasing stretchy twin regular sheets, you can be sure that your sheets will fit almost any twin XL mattress. This is a good way to play it safe if you can’t find any twin XL’s you have to own. Jersey knit sheets are a good stretchy sheet option. They are extremely versatile and fit almost any mattress size you could image. Plus, they’re the most comfortable sheets I’ve ever felt.

If jersey knit is not your thing, almost all regular length twin sheets will do the trick. But if you want to be sure that they will fit, make sure that the fitted sheet is roughly as long as the twin XL mattress you will be sleeping on. In general, twin fitted sheets run 175 to 178 inches in length, and twin XL mattresses are about 180 inches.

However, if you can’t find any twin XL’s to fit your mattress, take my word that twin regulars should fit just fine.