Your bed probably isn’t as clean as you think. In fact, it may just be one of the germiest.
According to a study from Amerisleep, within a week, your sheets can accumulate 5,000,000 bacteria while your pillows can accumulate 3,000,000 bacteria. This means that within a week, your sheets will have 24,631 times more bacteria than your bathroom doorknob. Similarly, your pillows will have 17,442 times more bacteria than your toilet seat.
In case that didn't register, let's read that one more time:
THE PILLOW YOU WASHED A WEEK AGO HAS 17,000 TIMES MORE BACTERIA AS YOUR TOILET SEAT.
Perhaps you're okay living with this fact. But, it gets far worse.
The average person spends 33 years in bed, using the same mattress for 7 years at a time. When the bacteria levels in mattresses of varying ages were tested, they found that a newer mattress (1 year old) has only 3 million bacteria, but by the time it's 7 years old, it has over 16 million.
What's more, according to their study they found, "The most common kind [of bacteria] (at over 41 percent) was gram-negative rods." Gram negative bacteria are a serious health problem as they are highly resistant to antibiotics and can cause serious human infections – including urinary tract infections, pneumonia, diarrhea, meningitis and sepsis if they get into the body.
Trust me you don't want any of the infections mentioned above.
So what can you do?
First, clean the sheets and pillowcases every week. Second, make it a weekly habit to clean areas of high bacteria concentration like your kitchen and bathroom – we recommend our H2O e3 Natural System for a deep clean. (If you're still using chemical-heavy cleaning products, you NEED to give this a read.) Third, consider steam cleaning your mattress every 4 months using our H2O series steam cleaners. Not only will the steam kill dust mites and germs hiding deep inside the mattress – where a traditional vacuum can’t reach – steam also works wonders in eliminating odors and loosening stains. And finally, replace your mattress once every 7 years.
Having sold over 13 million of our H2O series steam cleaners, we can make sure you're killing 99% of germs, bacteria, and viruses*. So you can stop worrying and get a good night's sleep. See all Thane H2O products.
*Controlled lab tests have shown that when applied for approximately 15 seconds, H2O SteamFX Pro, H2O HD, and H2O X5 can kill 99% of common germs, bacteria, and viruses. Independent lab testing proves that H2O e3™ kills 99.9% of germs, bacteria and viruses. Efficacy varies according to treatment time and surface treated.