We all know that you're meant to regularly wash your bed linen, but how often do you wash your pillow, too?
According to a nationwide study conducted by Silentnight, 20 per cent of the nation is sleeping on an unwashed pillow that they've had for five or more years. In fact, 41 per cent of the country is sleeping on a dirty pillow, the research found.
Worryingly, 10 per cent of the weight of an unwashed pillow aged two years or more, can be made up of dust mites and dead skin cells. While most of these strains of mite are entirely harmless, some such as aspergillus fumigatus can trigger many common allergies, causing hay fever-like symptoms, and even triggering some conditions such as eczema and asthma.
Silentnight surveyed 2,000 Brits about bad bedtime habits and found that men (45 per cent) are actually more likely to wash their pillows than women (35 per cent).
Elsewhere, the research found that a quarter of Brits never washed their pillow because either they didn't know it needed washing or because they're worried about it losing its shape during the cleaning process.
Those aged 18-24 were almost twice as likely as any other age group to have washed their pillow, suggesting the growing trend for cleaning influencers such as Mrs Hinch is having a positive effect on the younger generation's approach to keeping their home hygienic.
Sally Bonser from Silentnight said: 'Many Brits consider themselves to be house proud and would balk at the thought of having a dirty home – but as our results show, spring cleaning and good housekeeping is rarely extending to our bed linen.
'Quite unwittingly, many people will find that their bed is a magnet for bacteria and that this could be having quite an effect on their health. We'd recommend everyone gives their pillows and other bedding a good wash or even better, invest in products that have anti-allergy and anti-bacterial properties in order to actively address these issues.'
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