Our beds are our safe haven. There’s nothing like coming home from a long day and snuggling under a duvet. We spend several hours in our beds each day, which is why it’s essential to make sure our beds are clean.
For most people, making their bed each morning is part of keeping their bed clean and tidy. But apparently, we shouldn’t be making our beds at all.
TikTok user @sherifelsahly caught our attention recently by saying we should never ever make our beds in the morning. Our beds attract dust mites and making your bed first thing in the morning will allow them to keep growing, he said. “But if you keep your bed unmade it exposes the dust mites to light and fresh air which actually helps kill them off,” he added.
And it seems he’s onto something. The average adult loses 285ml of fluid each night, according to The Sleep Council. What this means is that when you make your bed each morning, you are trapping in all of that moisture to fester during the day, ready to be slept on again in the evening.
We should actually be pulling back the bed linen to give the mattress the chance to breathe and for moisture to evaporate. This is because moisture can get trapped between the mattress and the linen causing discolouration and potentially odours. Doing this will ensure your mattress lasts longer.
They also advise us how we can clean our mattresses.
How to clean a mattress
Don’t use a vacuum: it seems tempting to vacuum dust and fluff from your mattress but the powerful suction of a vacuum cleaner can cause the filling to become dislodged which can lead to bumps and dips. Instead use a soft brush to remove the debris onto the floor, which can then be vacuumed.
Blot don’t scrub: stains should be immediately tackled by blotting with a clean cloth. If your mattress is filled with natural fibres this should be a dry cloth, ‘wet cleaning’ could damage the upholstery. Other mattresses may be able to withstand warm soapy water on a rung out clean cloth, but always check the manufacturer’s advice before cleaning. Hacks such as bicarbonate of soda and various harsh chemicals are not recommended.
Regularly wash your bedding and mattress protector: wash your bed linen every one to two weeks and your mattress protector once a month. Regularly cleaning these will stop any dirt seeping through the mattress, keeping it cleaner for longer. In the summer, you may have to clean your linen and protector more regularly due to sweat.
Protect to prevent, rather than clean: mattress protectors are like taking out travel insurance on holiday, you hope it isn’t needed but will be glad you have it if the worst happens.
Should you flip your mattress and if so, how often?
Whether you need to flip your mattress or not is dependent on the type of mattress you have.
Double-sided mattresses can be flipped and should come with the instruction to turn over regularly. For the first three months of having your mattress, it is recommended that you turn it over once a week. After that, turn it over just once a month. This will ensure that the filling is evenly placed and stop dips from forming.
Single sided mattresses (such as those with memory foam on top) can not be flipped but should still be rotated 180 degrees. Like with the double-sided mattress, for the first three months it is recommended that you rotate your mattress from head to toe once a week. After that, rotate it just once a month.
For natural fibre mattresses, such as those by Vispring, it is recommended that you turn your mattress over twice a week for the first three months and once a season after that. This is to firstly encourage natural and even settlement of the mattress fillings and subsequently to extend its life.
How often should we be changing our bed sheets?
Mary Malone, a laundry expert at about.com, previously said that we should be washing our bed sheets regularly. Not washing your bed sheets frequently can lead to a host of health problems such as infected wounds and athletes foot.
“Infrequent cleaning of sheets and pillowcases allows the fluids to seep into the pillows and mattresses, and those are much more difficult to clean than tossing sheets in the washer,” she told ATTN.
Allowing dust, sweat and dirt to build-up for just two weeks can be enough to leave you with a scratchy throat or the sniffles, according to New York University microbiologist Philip Tierno.
Leaving your bedsheets unchanged can result in sweat and dirt seeping into your pillows and mattress. So how often should we be changing our sheets?
The general consensus is that we should all be changing our sheets – including duvet covers and pillow cases – once a week, Tierno says.