What lurks in your bed

There’s nothing better than climbing into a warm bed at the end of a long day and laying your head on a plumped up pillow or two ... but if you knew what else was sharing your pillow and mattress, you might be less keen to get cosy and up close to them.

Unless your pillow and mattress are encased in special protectors, they will build up a collection of dirt, grime and bugs over time. Over a period of around two years, an unprotected pillow could gain as much as half a kilo of this muck!

So, are you brave enough to know what you’re pressing your face into each night?

Where there are dust mites, there are bound to be masses of your own dead skin cells and dander from your pets too, a dust mite’s favourite meal.

To dead skin cells, add sweat. Every night, the average adult loses up to half a litre of fluid through sweating and the inevitable dribbling, part of which is soaked up by your pillow.

Dust mites are microscopic bugs, living in vast colonies in your couches, curtains, carpets and, yes … your mattress and pillows. Each night, you’re breathing in mites – living and dead – and their faeces, which is a major cause of asthma, eczema and rhinitis. Research shows a good 10 per cent of a two-year-old pillow’s weight is made up of this allergy-inducing grossness.

All that night-time drooling and sweating creates an ideal environment for mildew and mould spores, exacerbating symptoms in allergy sufferers.

Skin and hair oils, greasy body products, residue from hair products, make-up … all this also works its way into an unprotected pillow, aggravating skin conditions and leaving pillows stained and unhygienic

How do you solve the problem?

bed-tips
Back to top button