I like to keep my house clean, not just neat, but disinfected, bacteria free. I am not a germaphobe, but after taking classes in infectious disease and microbiology I became more aware of “germs”. But it never occurred to me to think about bacteria and fungus beyond the pillow slip. I wash my pillow slips regularly and I thought that was good enough. Well, maybe not.
Do you know what’s in your pillow?
Research has shown that the soft cozy pillows we smash our faces in every night are full of fungus! Our sweat, dead skin cells and household dust gets through our pillow slip, through the fabric holding our pillow together and into the inner material. Theses substances become a food for fungus as it lives in a nice warm environment inside our pillow. I know, disgusting!
This fungus isn’t going to kill us but it can cause big problems for people struggling with allergies, asthma, sinusitis, and those with severe respiratory or compromised immune systems. If you fall into one of these categories, I suggest consulting your doctor. You also might want to immediately put a plastic cover over your pillow (like they do in hospitals) and then put the pillow slip on over the plastic. For everyone else, if you start to struggle with allergies or have respiratory issues at night, try getting a new pillow and see if it helps.
Hypoallergenic pillows and synthetic pillows have more allergen problems then feather pillows. This is thought to be a result of the heavier cover feather pillows have so that the feathers don’t poke through. Feather pillows might contain less fungus, but I doubt they can be washed as well and are probably more expensive to replace. I prefer memory foam pillows, which I haven’t seen mentioned in the research, but like feather pillows, they have a thick covering that zips around them and are machine washable.
3 Clean Pillow Solutions
1. Washer and Dryer
I honestly never thought about putting my pillows in the washer, but today I read the tag and sure enough - my synthetic pillows could be washed! Make sure you read the labels because I’m not sure about feather pillows and I know I can’t wash my memory foam pillow either. My pillows are in the dryer now, so I’ll see how they turn out.
2. Additional Barrier
To help keep the inside of your pillow clean, consider purchasing an extra pillow cover to zip around your entire pillow. The additional layer of thick and tightly woven material keeps unwanted dust, sweat, dead skin cells, and other unwanted bacteria and fungus from getting inside your pillow.
3. Buy a New Pillow
If you’re really worried, which was not the point of this post, just buy a new pillow. It probably isn’t a bad idea to get a new one about every two years anyway, depending on how well it’s been taken care of.
Sleep sweet tonight! :)
By Emily S.
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