Just how often should you change your bed sheets?
The Kenyan practise of changing bed sheets and pillow cases once a week is unhygienic. Turns out the shorter the duration in between the washes, the better for your health.
Research has so far has established that human beings naturally produce 98.4 litres of sweat in bed every year.
The amount can arguably be more in countries like Kenya that experience warm weather round theyear
In a recent study that assessed the level of fungal contamination in bedding, researchers found that a test sample of feather and synthetic pillows that were one and a half to 20 years old contained as many as 16 species of fungus each.
INFECTIONS
New York University microbiologist Philip Tierno says all the gunk can lead to one becoming allergic or contracting infections.
“Unclean bedding still exposes you to materials that can trigger the sniffing and sneezing, since the microbes are so close to your mouth and nose that you’re almost forced to breathe them in. Even if you don’t have allergies per se, you can have an allergic response,” Tierno told British newspaper The Independent.
“The same thing happens with mattresses and pillows: Gravity brings down all this debris and it settles in the core of the pillow and the mattress. And you’re inhaling that debris 8 hours a day,” he added.
The best practise will be to change the bed sheets as often as possible without restricting yourself to the weekly schedule.
Nairobians have slowly started adopting the vacuuming of their mattresses and dry cleaning of pillows and duvets.
As you clean your bed sheets as often as you can, remember to vacuum the mattress at least once a year and dry clean fiber pillows and duvets at least once in six months.