When our bedding is fresh and clean it makes us feel good - after all, there’s nothing quite like a good night’s sleep under freshly laundered sheets. Clean bedding also helps to ensure we’re not sharing our beds with an excess of dust mites and microbes. However, many of us do not wash our bedding or clean our mattresses and pillows as often as we should.
In this blog we’ll explain why unclean sheets can be a problem, and we’ll also advise you on how you can keep your bedding fresh.
Unclean Bed Sheets Can Be a Problem
On average, we each spend a third of our lifetime asleep. While we’re sleeping we’re also shedding skin and hair and releasing moisture and oils from our bodies. Although this is a completely natural process, it can cause problems if we don’t wash our sheets regularly.
An unclean bed provides the ideal environment for dust mites and microbes to thrive, as they feed on the skin and moisture that we leave behind every night. The dark, humid environment under your sheets speeds up the growth of microbes, which in turn can lead to the development of stains and odors. And while dust mites are harmless, their feces and body fragments can provoke skin irritation and allergies in some people.
Keep Your Bedding Free of Dust Mites and Harmful Microbes
In order to enjoy a good night’s sleep, free of dust mites and microbes, it’s important to keep your bedding hygienically clean. You can help to do this by:
- Washing your bedding every week on a wash of at least 140°F, then drying it in a hot dryer.
- Replacing your bedding regularly. After two years, 10% to 15% of your pillow’s weight may be from dust mite waste.
- Vacuuming or steaming your mattress every six months. It’s also a good idea to use a mattress topper that you can wash in your machine.
- Opening the window when you can to help prevent moisture building up in your bedroom.
The Power of Antimicrobial Bedding
Although washing our bed linen helps us manage the growth of microbes and dust mites, it doesn’t provide us with long-lasting protection. However, we can do more to protect ourselves from the potentially harmful effects of the microbes that multiply on our bedding by using bed linen that has antimicrobial protection built in.
Microban® antimicrobial textile technology provides long-lasting protection by inhibiting the growth of microbes, effectively reducing the potential for stain and odor-causing microbes to develop. As it cannot be washed out, the built-in protection will last the useful lifetime of the bedding. You can also wash the bedding hygienically at low temperatures.
While dust mites and microbes sharing our beds will remain an unpleasant fact of life, we can take action to protect ourselves from the harm they have the potential to cause. A few simple measures coupled with bedding that has antimicrobial protection built in will help our beds stay fresh and clean and leave us to enjoy a good night’s sleep.
