Is it healthy not to make your bed?

It is estimated that the average mattress contains between 100,000 and 1 million dust mites Researchers from Ohio State University. About 10 percent of the weight of a two-year-old pillow consists of dead mites and their feces. That’s what they say in Ohio. And writing Media Impatiently about it. Whether that’s entirely true, we won’t comment for a moment – there are all kinds of stories circulating, while there are no solid studies – but your mattress is certainly not new.

The quilt went back

Wouldn’t it be wiser not to make your bed in the morning, but to leave the duvet folded back? This allows the bed to dry and cool faster. Does this make it a less ideal breeding ground for uninvited guests?

Most relevant to this story are dust mites. They live on the tiny dead skin cells you shed every day, which also end up on your bed and buried deep in your mattress. Our skin constantly renews itself from the inside, and gets rid of dead skin cells from the outside. And very little. According to the same article from Ohio State, this amounts to about 8 grams per person per day — roughly 3 kilograms per year. And since we spend nearly a third of our lives in bed, that’s the equivalent of a kilogram of skin cells sinking into your mattress every year. That’s how it counts the morning for us.

Your bed is a great living environment for dust mites

It may be less – magazine look Keep it At a rate of one to three quarters of a kilo of lint per year, it accumulates during the day and night – but still. Add to this the sweat we lose during the night, some of which also ends up in the bed, including the oils and fats in our skin. Estimates also vary on this amount, but it is definitely a few hundred milliliters. Per night.

“It’s a beautiful living environment for dust mites,” says Mike Brooks, a biologist at the Animal Pest Knowledge and Advice Center. “It’s humid, which is what moths really like. There’s lots of food, and then there’s this beautiful stove that stays on top of it all night.”

Kilo of skin cells

Brooks does not dare to make any statement about these numbers of mites and kilograms of skin cells, because he is not aware of any good studies on this subject. “It seems like a vague estimate to me. But in any case, those dead cells accumulate in that mattress, as well as dead mites and feces and shed skin. So after a few years it could definitely be around a kilogram.”

Some people have a severe allergic reaction to dust mites, especially mite feces. Therefore, their accumulation is a problem. You can do all sorts of things elsewhere in the house to keep dust mites away — like vacuuming frequently and replacing your carpet with soft flooring — but you can’t clean your mattress properly.

What can be done then? “There are chemicals you can spray on your bed to kill mites,” Brooks says. But then you still cannot get rid of the remains of the dead. And those materials… I don’t know if they’re harmful to us, but if you don’t change the conditions, of course those mites will come back very quickly.

so what? You can wash the pillow at 60 degrees, but the mattress? “Air,” Brooks says. “Turn it over every now and then. Make sure the bed construction and bed base are well ventilated. Replace the mattress after about ten years.”

And so you don’t make your bed? Pull the duvet during the day? “Yes, I definitely think it helps. How many? I have no idea, but every little bit helps.”