How Often Should You Wash Your Sheets and Why

How often should you wash your sheets​? Did you guys know that the average American waits about 25 days before changing their bedsheets? If you’re single, you wait about 37 days, and single men wait about 10 days more than women. WHAT?

This sounds insane! But why is this a big deal?

Well, whether you’d like to admit it or not, you lose fluids every night when you sleep. Through sweat, oil from your skin, saliva, tears, and if you have a cold, a runny nose.✓

These get into your sheets and pillowcases.

You might wake up feeling dry, BUT you weren’t dry all night, and your sheets are accumulating all these fluids, making it the perfect breeding ground for dust mites and bacteria alike.✓

How often should you wash your sheets​ and Why?

Dust mites are teeny tiny bugs that you’re naked eye cannot see. These bugs don’t sound that bad… I mean, we have microscopic bacteria ON our skin as our first line of defense against pathogens anyway… BUT these dust mites can affect your health, especially if you suffer from allergies, eczema, and asthma.

These dust mites feed on the dead skin flakes you shed. 

According to the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America (AAFA), people shed about 1.5grams of skin daily, and this can feed up to 1 million dust mites! Ugh! Gross and Freaky!

Now, much like cockroaches are a source of allergic reaction in people, these dust mites themselves can also cause allergies, but it’s not just these tiny critters. Their feces too! Yuck!

How often should you wash your bed sheets​?

ONCE A WEEK 

So why bother with washing your sheets or changing them weekly? Are there any real health concerns here? The answer is YES there are!

1. Allergies

If you have allergies, then you know the recommendations to avoid having pets in the house if you can, or remove any carpets from the room, or make sure you wash and change your sheets and vacuum the mattress? If not…well, then these are a few things you should think about doing to help with your allergies.

2. Eczema

Dry and itchy skin after contact with allergens or irritants is not only irritating and annoying but can put you at risk of skin infections. Why? Well, the scratching can break your skin, allowing other bacteria, viruses, and fungi in.

3. Asthma

Like allergies and eczema, dust mites can induce asthma attacks, whether it’s during the day or at night. Recommended that those with asthma reduce their exposure to triggers to help manage their condition. No pets, no carpets, vacuuming, cleaning your sheets, cleaning your vents. These are all recommended.. and now you know why!

4. Acne

By far, maybe the least known health effect of not changing your sheets. There’s something referred to as acne mechanic. It relates to acne caused by pressure or friction on the skin from clothing or anything else. Hmm, like pillowcases? Maybe

Under your skin, you have glands that produce oil – sebum.

These glands are connected to your pores, which open to the surface of your skin by follicles. These same follicles are where hairs grow. The oil from the glands helps bring old skin cells to the surface. Sometimes the hair, dead skin, and fat clump together and get trapped under the skin.

Bacteria can also get trapped and produces inflammation leading to acne.

Now, if you’re sleeping on bacteria-infested, oily pillowcases and you apply pressure and friction on your face or even back and chest from the sheets.. you might get acne.

There is more to changing your sheets than you thought. So what if you’re not asthmatic, not allergic, and have no acne or eczema? Why should you still change your sheets?

Healthwise, no Reason, I Guess. Allergies Asthma Acne Eczema

Maybe no reason other than to stay clean.

But the above questions… you might answer with: We’ll I wore them. Right… well, you laid in your sheets and on your pillows all night for SEVEN days…

I think if you wash your clothes daily, why not wash your sheets weekly?

You tell me.✓