If you have a woven-cotton rug at home, you might also try laying it over a sticky mat to see if you like the feel. I did find it pleasant to sit on the mat and do gentle floor stretches and twists.

When you buy organic cotton, it’s easy to assume that you’re getting a better, more eco-friendly product. But it’s not necessarily that simple.

You can see why cotton and linen behave differently when you put their fibers under a microscope, said Larissa Marie Shepherd, an assistant professor of fiber science at Cornell University.

Their creation worked much like modern cotton-candy machines today. At the top of the head, a heater melts the sugar, reducing it to syrup. At the same time, centrifugal force generated by the ...