Have you ever wondered, how often should you wash your sheets? That’s the question that at some point pops up in your head when you start living alone. Those sheets will not get changed on their own. Your mom made you change your sheets weekly but is that really necessary? Was your mom right about it? Or, your mom changed the sheets for you and you don’t really remember how often. No need to call your mom, we have the correct answer ready for you.
We all know that there’s nothing as comfortable as a warm, big, cozy and clean bed. The smell of clean sheets can be pretty comforting and they can help you fall asleep easier and faster.
However, often we can go through a few loads of laundry without remembering to wash the sheets and replace them with clean and fresh ones. According to microbiologists, we should not forget to wash sheets regularly.
Wash Your Sheets Once a Week
We all know that washing bedsheets can be a pain and if we don’t have a habit of changing sheets often, we might simply forget. Still, we should be doing it more often than we probably already do. According to Philip Tierno from New York University, we should wash sheets once a week to prevent your bed from becoming a “garden” of fungus and bacteria. You might think that’s excessive but think again. Your bed can be a place where bacteria and fungi are all over the place and it can come straight from your body, your body’s sweat and other body fluids, will get back in your body again. Your body produces a lot of sweat that stays on your bed and becomes a haven for fungus. Beds can also be hosts for microbes such as pollen, lint, feces, animal dander, soil and dust-mite debris. Only your pillow can host as many as 16 species of different fungus. That’s not appealing at all. You might think that’s the scariest and most disgusting thing you read today. But, it’s true and you should acknowledge that you are not changing and washing your sheets as often as you should.
How often should you wash your sheets to avoid this? As we mentioned above, once a week is the only correct answer. This might be shocking for you and you’re not alone. According to CNN, the majority of people strip the bedsheets and wash the sheets every 10 to 14 days. Many even wait three to four weeks to wash the sheets. Some completely forget about it and wait for a month. According to microbiologists, you should wash your sheets every week by using hot water at 130 to 150 degrees and a hot dryer cycle in order to kill all germs.
What if you don’t wash your bedsheets once a week? What if you read this and forget about it completely? All the junk that lives in your bed can become significant grime in one week only. If you go more than a week without changing bedsheets it can lead to some real health symptoms. If you wake up with the scratch in your throat the main culprit can be your bedsheets if you haven’t washed them in a couple of weeks.
Allergens living in your pillows and sheets live near your mouth and nose. That’s pretty graphic for some of us but it’s true. That’s the main reason why you should wash your bedsheets regularly. Even if you don’t have allergies, this can trigger sneezing and sniffing. To stay on a safe side, you should remember striping your bedsheets and cleaning them once a week.
