How Often Should You Change Your Bedding? The Hygiene Guide

Short answer: Bedding should be changed weekly if two people sleep in the bed or if you perspire at night, and fortnightly if one person sleeps there and does not perspire much. The sheet should be changed as often as the cover, and that is where it often slips.

Why weekly

You shed perspiration, skin cells and skin oils every single night. They stay in the fabric until it is washed, and that is what dust mites live on. A week is the point where most people start to smell the difference between a fresh set and a used one.

Fortnightly can work

If only one person sleeps in the bed, wears nightwear and does not perspire much, fortnightly can work. That assumes the bed is aired in the morning and the room is no warmer than 18 to 20 degrees.

The sheet gets forgotten

Most people change the cover and use the sheet for another week. You lie directly on the sheet all night, so it is actually the layer that gets dirtiest. See bamboo fitted sheets and buy two of them.

The pillowcase first

The pillowcase takes your face, hair and skin oils all night. If your skin reacts, it is the pillowcase rather than the rest of the set that should be changed twice a week, and that needs only two extra cases in the cupboard.

Air the bed in the morning

Throw the duvet back and leave the bed open for half an hour before making it. The moisture from the night evaporates instead of being shut in under the duvet, and that does more for a set's lifespan than anything else free.

When someone is ill

During illness, change the bedding once the fever has gone and wash it at 60 degrees that one time. Bamboo viscose can take it, but not as a routine, because the fibre weakens when it is wet and warm at the same time.

Allergy and mites

With a dust mite allergy, the recommendation is a weekly change and washing at 60 degrees. That wears the set more, which is why three sets are worth having rather than two, so each individual set goes through the machine less often.

Two sets make the rule possible

The weekly rule only gets followed if there is a clean set in the cupboard. With one set, the change happens when there is time to wash, and that quickly becomes every second or third week instead.

See the range

Qualities and colours sit together under bamboo bedding. Buy two sets from the same series and they can be washed together and fade at the same rate, so the bed looks the same whichever set is on. See also better sleep with bamboo and washing and caring for bamboo clothing.