Here's How Often You Need To Clean Your Sheets

There's nothing like a good night's rest to help you feel energized and get you prepared to take on the day. WebMD recommends roughly seven to nine hours of deep sleep a night in order to ward off sleep deprivation and ensure that your body is getting the rest it needs. Without proper amounts of rest, you could suffer memory issues, be prone to irritability, and even be more likely to overeat. What better way to ensure a good sleep than to have the perfect mattress and the cleanest, most comfortable sheets.

While you're sleeping, your body sweats and loses hair and skin follicles that can get trapped in your bedding. If left for too long, tiny dust mites could be attracted to your shed skin and hair because they depend on it for food. When allowed to gather, dust mites can actually increase reactions for those who suffer from allergies or even asthma, per the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences. If these microscopic terrors aren't enough of a motivation to keep your sheets fresh and clean, then if not properly washed, sheets can start to gather stains and smells from regular uses that could ruin your sheets. But don't be so quick to just replace those linens and toss them in the trash, in order to keep your bedding smelling fresh and looking their best, all you have to do is stick to a regular cleaning routine.

In order to get the most use out of your bedding and to keep them from collecting unsightly stains or nasty smells, it's important to wash them thoroughly and regularly. To ensure that you're cleaning your sheets properly, always check the washing instructions on the label provided. Different materials such as cotton, silk, or polyester could require particular methods of cleaning so as to not ruin the fabrics. Also, pay close attention to the detergents you use, as this may also affect the materials of your sheets. The last thing you would want to do is accidentally bleach your beautiful bedding and have bright colors fade before their time.

When it comes to how often you should be washing your sheets, that could depend on a few factors. In order to effectively rid your bedding of dirt, hair, oils, and odors from your body as well as ward off pesky microscopic dust mites, Sleep Foundation recommends that you wash your sheets at least once per week. However, if you have the type of household that allows your pets to share the bed, then you may want to up your bed cleaning routine to every four days. Because pets tend to shed hair and bring with them dirt and grime from the outdoors, it would be beneficial to your health and the cleanliness of your bed to increase your sheet washing.