Shine OnSingle men change bed sheets four times a year, says survey
Squeamish ladies cover your ears, because the man of your dreams may be covered in filth. Some single men only wash their sheets four times per year, reports a new survey by U.K. mattress company Ergoflex.
The survey asked 2,004 Brits about their bed sheet hygiene and found that on average men admitted to owning only one set of sheets while women estimated around three selections. It also found that single women changed linens every two and a half weeks, while couples claimed to change sheets every two weeks.
The cleanest demographic were women aged 35 to 50, with 60 per cent of those changing their linens weekly.
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The dirtiest demographic were single men aged 18 to 25, of whom 55 per cent reported changing their sheets just once every 3.1 months. Of that group, 49 per cent said that was an acceptable frequency, and another 19 per cent didn't care.
"Romantic ambitions aside, we were more alarmed by the potential health risks that unhygienic bed sheets could cause, considering in particular two unwelcome night-time companions — dust mites and bed bugs," Ergoflex's Steven Willis writes in a blog post.
Skin cells are a source of food for mites, who are known to fester in mattresses and sheets, and also leave their feces behind. And it's not just skin cells that accumulate in the harmless looking bedding, fungal mold, fungal spores, lint, fibers, pollen, soil and cosmetics can also get trapped.
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"If you don't have an allergy, you could develop one because you're constantly challenged," explains Philip M. Tierno, director of clinical microbiology and immunology at New York University, to the Wall Street Journal.
He recommends washing bed linens and pillowcases once a week to prevent respiratory problems and possible allergies.
“One person can perspire as much as a liter in a night—even more if you have a lot of covers,” says Tierno.
What are your thoughts on the survey's findings? Do you think Canadian men are any cleaner?
