How Often Should You Wash Your Sheets?
Moving out of home, moving into a new home, or even just refreshing your decor, is one of the most exhilarating - albeit slightly stressful - undertakings a person can embark on.
But trust us when we say waking up to your new view with coffee in hand as the morning sun beats gently down, well, that makes it all worth it.
In the excitement though, a certain aspect of your new life can get forgotten and relegated to a chore for next week - and, if we’re honest, maybe even the week after.
That chore is the changing of the bedsheets.
We get that it’s a time-consuming, fiddly task; one fraught with myth and mystery. Indeed, we’re often asked, “how often should you wash your sheets?”.
That’s why we thought we’d create a guide, which breaks down everything you need to know about manchester, answering how often to wash bed sheets - and why it’s a health risk if you don’t.
What makes a bed?
So, to understand the intricacies of manchester hygiene we need to take things back to the most basic for the briefest of moments.
What goes into a properly made bed.
This encompasses both the items you need, and a breakdown of what the most popular materials in Australia are.
This is important because it depends on whatever fabric you own.
A made bed should typically consist of the following components; a mattress protector, fitted sheet, a flat sheet, a blanket and, or quilt, depending on the season, pillow protectors and between two to four pillowcases
Now the fabric these are made from can differ.
In Australia the most popular sheet materials include:
Cotton
Egyptian cotton
Cotton blend
Linen
Silk
Bamboo
Now you will notice a similarity in the options above. They are all derived from natural fibres, and there’s a reason they’re popular in Australia.
Natural fibres are the best material choice for warmer climates as they are lightweight, cooling and more breathable when compared to synthetic options like polyester, or polyester blends.
Indeed, fabrics like linen, bamboo and cotton are often recommended for sweaty sleepers because they help to regulate body temperature.
However, this doesn’t mean it makes it ok to negate washing your sheeting regularly.
This should never be done, and let us explain why.
What happens if you don’t change your bed sheets?
Leaving your sheets on the bed for weeks on end is bad for your health, literally.
In our opinion it’s one of the most unhygienic things you can do, up there with licking your phone.
Health experts agree that not changing sheets can lead to a host of health problems.
But why, and how, you ask?
The bacteria, dirt and grime you accumulate throughout the day seeps into the fabric.
If this is left unwashed long enough, the fluids can work their way down into the mattress and pillows themselves, which trust us, is much harder to clean than Manchester.
The highest amounts of bacterial contamination on sheets occur in the areas of the head, groin and legs, a study published in the Journal of Clinical Microbiology found.
The ick factor doesn’t stop there.
We also shed our skin when we sleep.
In fact, it’s estimated humans lose up to 500 million skin cells a day.
Sadly, your former skin provides a great source of food for dust mites and their droppings can trigger allergies like asthma and eczema.
Not washing your sheeting often enough can harbour a bacteria playground, but despite the health implications, a concerning, and recent, British study found almost half of UK’s single men don’t wash their sheets for up to four months at a time.
It gets worse.
A further 12 per cent said they only wash them “when they remember to do so”, meaning that duration could be even longer than four months.
How often to change bed sheets
Now we’ve already tipped our hat a little here and revealed it should be more common than once every four months, but the answer to how often should bed sheets be changed may surprise you.
Most experts agree that people should change their bed sheets every week to every 14 days, depending on the season.
However in Australia’s sticky climate, Dr Karl recommends replacing them twice a week.
“If you’re in a very sweaty environment and you sweat during the day and then you come home all sweaty - and then you don’t shower before you go to bed and you don’t wear pyjamas - (change sheets) twice a week,” the Australian scientist explains in a TikTok video.
“At the other extreme - cold environment, you don’t sweat, wear pyjamas and have a shower before you go to bed - maybe every couple of weeks. The average is every two weeks.”
For natural fibres, like the ones mentioned above, we recommend erring on the side of caution and washing them weekly, so they don’t get clogged and can keep their temperature regulating powers.
Just make sure you’re washing the material according to the correct care instructions.