What Lurks Inside Your Week-Old Bed Sheets

It turns out the majority of us don’t wash our bed sheets as often as we should. A survey conducted by a textile company in 2017 revealed that 11 percent of Americans wash their bed sheets once per season, while 44 percent wash them once or twice a month.

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There’s also five percent who only do it once or twice per year. Which is way below the recommended standard.

But why is this so concerning?

Your body on average sheds 500 million skin cells per day. And if you’re not washing your bedsheets twice a month at minimum, you’re allowing pretty gross things to grow in your bed.

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FULL TRANSCRIPT

Dan Skorbach:

Did you know that after a week of sleeping on your pillow, one bedding company found that you could have 17,000 more bacterial colonies than you have on your toilet seat?

It’s all thanks to the dead skin cells that you shed throughout the night, including the sweat, the saliva and other bodily deposits–all these make your bed a fertile garden for germs to thrive.

And that can contribute to a number of health problems.

Acne

A big one, especially if you have teenage children, is acne. The bacteria along with dead skin cells and dirt in the pillowcase can contribute to outbreaks and clog your pores. So folks with acne should be changing their pillowcase every two to three days.

Germs

Here’s another one people don’t usually think about. If you or your kids are sick, the viruses can linger in your sheets for a few hours. Other germs can stay there for weeks.

Now, could you actually get sick from them?

Well, if it’s yeast and fungus for example, it’s very possible for these organisms to live on bedsheets and infect other family members. So if someone’s got an athlete’s foot, you should wash sheets at least once a week.

And then there are bacterial colonies. And they’re just part of life. But they can also cause problems if left unchecked.

For example, this same bedding company found that about twenty three percent of the bacteria found on pillowcases and bed sheets is the type that can give people food poisoning.

Another bacterium that lives in your bed is called staphylococcus aureus. It’s commonly found on the skin and in the nose. And in healthy people, it usually causes few problems. Maybe a minor skin infection if you’re scratching in your sleep and your bed sheets are dirty.

But it can be different for patients in hospitals and for people with weakened immune systems, or those with chronic conditions like diabetes and lung disease, or for folks who have medical devices.

These are people who could be at risk of more serious staph infections like pneumonia or sepsis if there’s surgery involved.

So you want to make sure you’re sleeping on clean sheets in these scenarios.

Dust Mites

Moving on, in a different category, we have dust mites. Remember the hundreds of millions of skins cells that you shed per day? That’s dinner for dust mites. They digest dead skin and excrete droppings.

And for some people these droppings can cause allergies, trigger asthma or an eczema outbreak.

Eventually a dust mite allergy can even lead to rhinitis, a condition where the nose is always stuffed and runny.

Cat and dog hair and their dead skin are dinner for dust mites as well.

Pets

And while we’re on the topic of pets, watch out if they have a ringworm infection. This fungus can live on bedsheets for months.

So if your dog or cat has this infection right now, and you’re letting them sleep in your bed, you want to be changing your sheets every two days.

But what is the best way to keep your bed clean?

Air Out the Bed

The first step is to not make your bed when you get up.

If you make the bed right away, it traps the heat and the moisture, and the dust mites, the bacteria, fungus and yeast, they all love this environment.

So if you have the time, let the bed air out while you brush your teeth and have your breakfast.

Bed Protectors

Try to invest in breathable, waterproof mattress and pillow protectors that are easy to wash. These extra layers prevent body fluids from penetrating deeper into your mattress. So there’s less incentive there for organisms to grow.

Shower Before Bed

Showering or bathing before bed reduces the dirt and other contaminants from entering your bed. Especially when it comes to kids.

An extra step for grownups is to exfoliate their skin once a week. That helps to reduce the dead skin cells and the dust that builds up in the house.

Give Fluffy a Separate Blanket

For pets that do sleep in your bed, train them to sleep on their own blanket. That way they don’t come into contact with your sheets. And make sure to wash that blanket once a week as well.

Change Bedding After Illness

And If you or your family get the flu or some other bug, make sure to change the bed sheets the moment you feel better. That reduces the risk of reinfection.

Wash Bedding on Highest Recommended Temperature

Now when it comes to actually washing your bed sheets, the higher the temperatures, the better.

One study has found that domestic washing machines running on a 104 degree cycle greatly reduces the amount of bacteria like the staphylococcus aureus we mentioned before.

Dust mites, fungus and yeast need higher temperatures, around 140 degrees.

But that doesn’t always kill off the germs entirely.

What truly destroys the organisms is the heat from tumble-drying or ironing.

Line Drying in the Sun

And if you really have delicate bedding that can’t be washed or dried on high heat, just use what God gave us—the sun.

Drying your laundry outside on a sunny day exposes it to ultraviolet radiation. And that’s a great way to kill off germs. In fact UV is so effective that some water treatment plants use it to disinfect tap water.

So go outside and hang laundry with your kids. Do it with the grandkids. Get those teens off their phones. Turn it into a ritual the whole family enjoys.

And at the end of the day however you do it, clean bed sheets will help you relax and have a good night’s rest. And good sleep is an important foundation to your well being.

So what do you think? Does it make sense to change your bed sheets once a week? Or do you have a better cleaning routine?

Share it with us in the comments below.

And please, show this video to your teenage kids next time they don’t want to change their bedsheets.

This is Frontline Health, I’m Dan Skorbach. Stay healthy, America.

This trascript has been edited for brevity and clarity by Anna Varavva.

? Watch our Cured Series:
Episode 2: UNVAXXED Patient: How I Was Rescued From Hospital Death
Episode 1: Band of Doctors Defy CDC’s Protocols to Save Americans

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