Bedrooms are like sanctuaries. It’s where we sleep, get dressed for the day, and escape everyone else to decompress. However, despite how often you clean, bedrooms can also be one of the filthiest rooms in the house, thanks to this one specific item that is a germ and dirt magnet.
We can wash, fluff, and lint-roll our pillows all we want. Ultimately, they are still a dirt and bacteria petri dish. “Pillows and pillow cases are a hot spot for bacteria, fungi, dust mites and dead skin cells,” Kelly Reynoldsa professor and chair of the community, environment and policy department at The University of Arizona’s Zuckerman College of Public Health, told HuffPost.
Not quite grossed out enough to rest your head on one of these bad boys? She went on to say, “These contaminants can make you sick, spread skin infections and trigger respiratory symptoms or asthma attacks in susceptible persons.”
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Our pillows are especially prone to collecting and absorbing these contaminants since we spend a lot of time in direct contact with them. Our sweat, saliva, oils from our skin, and other bodily fluids are transferred onto our pillows as we sleep. The combination of these things is the perfect recipe for creating an environment where bacteria can grow and thrive.
According to Carol McLay, an infection preventionist and president of the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology, a two-year-old pillow can weigh up to 10% more just from dust mites and skin cells. She noted a 2005 study out of the U.K. that found pillows can contain millions of fungal spores, particularly Aspergillus fumigatus.
“A professor who worked on the study said that we know the pillows are inhabited by the house dust mite, which eats fungi,” she told HuffPost. A theory is that the fungi are, in turn, using the house dust mites’ feces as a major source of nitrogen and nutrition, along with human skin cells. There could therefore be a miniature ecosystem at work inside your pillow.”
If you don’t want to subject yourself to frequently sleeping in dust mite poo and fungi, it is imperative that you wash your pillows and pillowcases regularly.
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Cleaning coach Leslie Reichert told Today that for good health, you should get in the habit of cleaning pillows every three months. While some pillows can be tossed in the washing machine with some detergent, others may require handwashing depending on the material.
Hand-washing won’t be as strenuous as it seems. All you need is a bathtub or a sink and a few splashes of detergent.
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Pillowcases, on the other hand, especially those you regularly sleep on, should be washed at least once a week. This is crucial if you are someone who has oily or acne-prone skin, which can speed up the buildup of dirt, oils, and bacteria on pillowcases. Some people even opt to use two pillowcases per pillow to swap out midweek before washing them together at the end of the week!
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Megan Quinn is a staff writer with a bachelor’s degree in English and a minor in Creative Writing. She covers news and lifestyle topics that focus on justice in the workplace, personal relationships, parenting debates, and the human experience.
