Proper washing of bed linen: frequency, detergents, washing modes. How often should bed sheets be changed at home If bed linen is not changed

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A person spends a lot of time in bed. Linen should be clean, fresh, so that diseases do not develop and there is good health. How often should bed linen be changed? It depends on the time of year, the age of the person, the presence of diseases, the presence of pets.

The bed is the place where a person spends a third of his time. Bed linen should be changed frequently. Dust mites feed on skin cells and live and die on the bed along with their waste. You can get rid of a temporary allergy, in the worst case, immunity will decrease, the body will weaken. A simple allergy can turn into asthma if bedding is not changed regularly.

What accumulates on the bed besides ticks:

dust, pieces of insects, pollen from house plants;
mold, fungus, bacteria;
wool, pet dander;
own sweat, dead skin cells, cosmetics;
food crumbs - many people like to eat in bed while watching a movie.

Mixing with sweat, cosmetics, microorganisms multiply more actively. Many people use a cream for the face, hands, some use the product for the whole body. It is not always possible to wait until the cream is absorbed and the person goes to bed. In the nutrient medium of the cream, microbes from the bed are quickly activated. Therefore, it is necessary to re-lay bedding at least once a week and a half.

Bed change frequency

How often should bed linens be changed at home? It depends on age, health, presence of pets.

Adults

In summer, a person sweats more often, in a larger volume. In summer, the windows are open longer, there is more street dirt in the room. Change the set at least once a week. Adults are not so afraid of microbes, especially if the immune system is strong. In winter, it is enough to do this every two weeks.

Individual characteristics matter. A person with hyperhidrosis will have to remake the bed more often: in the summer every five days, in the winter every seven to ten days. Lovers of long pajamas, shirts will wait a couple of days. Those who sleep without clothes will have to change the set earlier.

The more animals at home, the more often you need to lay a clean bed. If the pet sleeps in the owner's bed, you will have to wear new sheets, pillowcases, and duvet covers twice a week. The length of the coat, its amount after molting matters.

To kid

For a newborn baby, doctors recommend changing underwear every three days. Some parents are afraid of germs and re-bed every day. The baby spends almost all the time in the crib. Frequent change of textiles will protect against pathogenic bacteria, help the baby sleep peacefully. In children sleeping in a stale bed, allergies and dermatitis are more often detected.

If you have a pet at home, the bed is changed many times. If the animal does not sleep next to the child, particles of wool and skin still settle on the surface. Be sure to change earlier if any contamination appears. Linen must be dry and clean.

The frequency of changing underwear in older children is 4-7 days. Depends on the characteristics of the child. One can calmly play in the corner, the other will jump on the bed, arranging on it a lair of pirates, a spaceship, a forest of Indians.

Adolescence

The child's body begins to rebuild, internal processes change and go astray. No longer a child, but not yet an adult. At 11-13 years of age, sweating increases, the composition of sweat becomes different.

Teenagers need to change their underwear twice a week. Many people develop acne. It is recommended to change the pillowcase daily.

For diseases

The frequency of changing kits varies depending on the disease:

A bedridden patient, an elderly person, change their underwear daily. For any contamination, it is necessary to change the sheet, duvet cover or pillowcase. A sick person should sleep on dry, clean material.
If bed rest is indicated by the doctor, the kit is changed daily. At elevated temperatures, more sweat is usually released, the sebaceous glands work more actively. Microbes should not have time to multiply, otherwise effective treatment will not work. When a person is on the mend, linen is changed a couple of times a week.
With a common cold or any other illness, the bed is made every three days. A person is not in bed for days, but at the same time, bacteria act faster.
For skin diseases, the bed is changed once a day. If there is blackheads, acne on the face, the pillowcase is replaced daily, as well as a separate face towel.
In the presence of asthma, frequent allergies, it is recommended to re-lay the entire set every couple of days. In some cases, the pillowcase will need to be replaced daily.

In a preschool

There are certain rules that establish the procedure for changing the bed in a preschool educational institution. They are defined by SanPiN:

the child is allocated 3 sets of linen, 2 mattress covers, 3 towels;
all kits are marked;
bed change schedule - weekly or as needed;
a blanket, mattress cover and pillow are aired outside during general cleaning.

If the child is sick a lot, “brings” the infection home, you can ask to change the kit more often. If it is not possible in kindergarten, it is recommended to bring your own set from time to time, then take it home for washing.

Other cases

How many times do you need to change the large elements of the bed? Pillows, blankets, mattresses and mattress covers are recommended to be aired 2-3 times a year. This is usually done in spring, summer, sometimes autumn. Those accessories that can be washed are washed.

It is not always necessary to change the entire kit. Usually they do it like this:

duvet cover - once every two weeks;
sheet - once a week;
pillowcase - every 3-5 days;

In this order, bedding is usually soiled.

In the hospital, linen is changed once a week and a half. In the health resort, children's camp, bed linen is changed weekly.

If you follow all the rules of care, bedding will stay clean longer:

A new set must be washed before use. This will make it softer, remove the remnants of chemicals left over from production.
How often to wash bedding depends on the material. Linen textiles will withstand many washings, you can constantly use them. Cotton is also quite durable. But calico will not withstand as many washes as poplin. But satin is subject to repeated washing. Silk does not like frequent washing, it is recommended to use it less often.
To destroy microorganisms, wash at a temperature of 60 degrees. The more the better, if the material allows.
To destroy microbes, bleach is used if this does not spoil the material. Dirty kits are soaked. Before washing, pillowcases and duvet covers are turned inside out, dirt and dust are cleaned from the corners.
Tumble dry with hot air or outdoors to air dry.
Ironing is not required. A hot iron destroys microbes, but at the same time, the villi are “sealed”. This does not allow the skin to breathe, the person sweats more.

It’s not easy to determine how many days to change the bed set. To do this, you need to know the individual characteristics.

Changing bed linen can be safely attributed to one of the hygiene procedures that are important for human health. Keeping your sheets and pillowcases clean is just as important as washing your clothes regularly. If you do not change bed linen for a long time, pathogenic microorganisms begin to actively multiply in it, causing allergic reactions and exacerbation of diseases. That is why adults and children should sleep exclusively on clean pillowcases and sheets. Its regular replacement is the key to comfortable sleep and human health.

How many times should bed sheets be changed?

Experts in the field of epidemiology recommend washing the sleeping set for adults every 10 days. Every night, dead skin cells, sweat, organic secretions move from the human body to the bed. All this is a breeding ground for bed mites, bacteria, fungi. If a person often sweats in his sleep, this is a good reason to change clothes to clean ones even more often, because high humidity is an ideal environment for fungal growth.

I must say that the change of pillowcases should occur twice as often as the rest of the elements of the sleeping set. This is especially important if there are rashes on the skin or a person has any disease of an infectious nature.

Baby bedding should be changed at least every 7 days, even if the set appears clean. The pillowcase should be replaced with a clean one twice a week. Babies and newborns will need several sets of bedding.

If the baby sleeps without diapers, sheets can be changed every day, if not more often. In order not to deal with bed linen all day long, it is worth buying disposable absorbent diapers.

How often to wash bed linen?

After how many days should I wash my pillowcase, duvet cover and sheet? Bedding should be washed at the same frequency as its change. "Adult" sets should be washed every 10 days, children's - once a week. If stains appear on the bedding, you will have to replace the set ahead of time.

Children's clothes must be washed separately from adults. The baby's bed set should be either hand or machine cleaned in the delicate wash mode. Existing dirt must first be rubbed with laundry soap. It is recommended to use products for children with a neutral pH without fragrance. It is better to refuse conditioners and bleaches in order to avoid allergic reactions.

Adult clothes can be washed in hotter water. If the laundry is made from cotton, it is recommended to select the "Cotton" mode, which is equipped with many automatic machines. This program will provide a longer wash at 60 or 95°C. Hot water effectively eliminates pathogens living in bedding. However, in what mode it is better to wash the kit, manufacturers indicate on the label.

What days to change bed linen?

On what day of the week to change the sleeping set is everyone's business. Many people have a “cleaning day” on Saturday, when they change their linen. If we are talking about a person working at home, or a mother on maternity leave, then bedding can be washed on Monday, Wednesday, and any other day. It's best to set a date for changing your sheets so you can keep track of the time since you last updated your set and know exactly when to change.

Change of bed linen should take place on a regular basis, because human health depends on it. It is important to monitor the cleanliness of both children's and adult sleeping sets. It is necessary not only to update pillowcases, sheets and duvet covers, but also not to forget to air pillows and blankets at least once a month.

It turns out that linen should be changed every 7, well, a maximum of 10 days! At the same time, a more rare change of underwear is wrapped in such a haze of frightening tales that, willy-nilly, you want to change the set immediately.

So, what is the reason for such a frequent change of linen?

A person sleeps about 8 hours a day. About the same time he wears clothes at work or school. Wearing the same sweater for 2 weeks in a row is beyond social decency, which means that linen needs to be changed just as often. Dead cells accumulate on the bed, which can attract bedbugs, the presence of which you will be absolutely not happy with. The fat that is released through sebaceous glands, it becomes more and more difficult to remove over time: even “Whiteness” does not help to remove old yellow spots on pillows. In a dream, a person sweats, releasing up to a liter of fluid per night in total. Who wants to sleep on a sweat-soaked sheet or pillowcase? Sweat, fat, and dead cells cause bad breath, which can prevent you from enjoying healthy, quality sleep. Still, it is easier to sleep in a fresh bed. Dirt that accumulates on sheets and duvet covers promotes the growth of bacteria and fungi, which are not so easy to remove with washing. Dust and dirt on bedding can exacerbate certain chronic respiratory diseases, such as asthma. By the way
The hotter the water during washing, the more germs and bacteria will die. So, in most machines, the “cotton” mode at 90 ° C is provided specifically for washing clothes, and not so long ago, sheets and pillowcases were generally boiled in large pots.
It sounds like it's time to drop everything and urgently wash the laundry that you put on for an unacceptably long 11 days ago. Then why - and here you will surely recognize yourself - the minimum number of people are not too lazy to change sets weekly, and the majority delay washing up to two weeks, and sometimes a month?

How often do you really need to change your underwear?

Have you ever heard of a person coming down with an incurable illness from not washing clothes for too long? Hardly. Some individuals - to be honest, mostly bachelors - manage to use the same kit for months and still feel great! So how often do you need to change bed linen at home? Unfortunately, it will not be possible to voice a specific figure, because it depends on many factors. Some people tend to sweat and sebum more than others. In this case, the bed will get dirty much faster, and you will have to refresh it (in order to prevent the appearance of yellow spots and an unpleasant smell) much more often. But even if you sweat a lot and have oily skin, you can sleep in pajamas or without them. In the first case, the nightie will take on some of the dirt, so the laundry will not get dirty as quickly as in the second case. If you are insensitive to dust and its presence under cabinets and on shelves does not poison your life much, then dust on the laundry is unlikely trigger an asthma attack. While fungus is something to be wary of, most bacteria on your sheets won't be able to harm you. By the way
When considering whether or not to iron your laundry after washing, be guided by your degree of germ fear and your willingness to put up with creases and wrinkling in sheets and duvet covers.
There is a 99.9% chance that microscopic mites are already living in your mattress, and this is normal. If an allergic reaction to the products of their vital activity has not yet manifested itself in the form of a runny nose or itching, then apparently you are insensitive to them. The sweat that the body secretes accumulates not so much in the sheets as in the pillows and mattress, but about their regular cleaning forget much more often than about changing sheets. But it is recommended to clean pillows, blankets and a mattress at least once every six months! But the most important factor that will help you decide how often you need to change bedding at home is how you feel. How clean are you on a scale from germophobic to oblivious to trash? In the first case, you will not last even five days on stale sheets, and in the second, someone is sure to be horrified by your ability to manage the household. There is nothing good in both extremes, but it is difficult to measure the golden mean here with an accuracy of up to a day. It could be a week, two, four, or maybe even eight.

While most of the bacteria that live on your bed linens are harmless, it's a good idea to use bleach or other disinfectants when doing your laundry.
By no means do we encourage you to become sluts: it is still difficult to find an excuse for laundry that has not been washed for six months. But even within the normal range, each person has his own ideas about cleanliness and dirt, and in most cases this affects the state of health, which is so fond of appealing in various studies, to a small extent.
It is unlikely that someone will dare to admit that he washes his clothes once a month or two: the fear of public censure is too great. But in fact, such a frequency of changing kits does not make you an incorrigible slob, and certainly does not jeopardize your health. As long as you are comfortable sleeping on this sheet and you do not feel that stale linen is somehow affecting your well-being, the only person whose opinion you should care about is your significant other, whose concept of cleanliness and comfort can be different from yours.

Despite the progressive views of modern people, superstitions still play a huge role in their lives. For almost every occasion in life there are corresponding signs. Changing bed linen is no exception. So, when is the best time to change sheets?

When can bed linen be changed?

A person spends most of his life in contact with bedding - there is nothing strange in the fact that we give him a piece of our own energy. That is why it is worth paying more attention to various signs - popular beliefs say that the situation in the house will depend on what day you deal with “linen problems”.

The best time to change your linen is Saturday - in this case, it is better to combine the procedure with a weekly house cleaning. And if the new moon also falls on Saturday, then happiness and harmony in relations with your spouse are guaranteed to you. Some healers recommend doing laundry on Thursday, moreover, before sunrise - this promises happiness and good health.

When is it best not to touch it?

There are days when it is better not to touch the linen. For example, you can’t change it on church holidays - on these dates it’s better not to work at all without special need, since this can lead to misfortune.

It is not recommended to do this on Sunday either. Many psychics say that this threatens with insomnia and nightmares. Friday is also not a very suitable day - so you will only reward yourself with small, but completely unnecessary problems. Do not do laundry on Wednesday - this is a difficult day on which you need to fast and indulge in reflection, and not solve everyday problems that can wait until the next day.

As for Monday and Tuesday, there are no special prohibitions for these days. However, it is better to start the week by doing more important and useful things.

Other signs and superstitions about bedding

Changing underwear is not such an easy thing. We offer you a few more signs that you will probably be interested to know about.

Do not give up ironing. If you store crumpled linen, then remember - it attracts adversity to the house. But neatly ironed sheets and pillowcases will ensure harmony.
Did you accidentally make your bed inside out? This is a bad sign, get ready for failure. But you can take off an incorrectly worn pillowcase or duvet cover, spread it on the floor and walk barefoot on it.
Do not be lazy to make your bed in the morning, otherwise your life will not turn out as well as it could.
Did you notice a ladybug in bed while changing your linen? This promises a love adventure or a long life together, if we are talking about spouses.
If a pet relieved natural need on your bed, then this promises dramatic changes in life. They can be both pleasant and not very - it depends on how you react to the incident with what emotions. So don't get mad at the animal.
Spouses are not recommended to sleep on linen of red or orange color - this promises treason.
In no case should you give someone bedding that you have already used. This is not appropriate. And together with a set of pillowcases and duvet covers, you transfer a part of your well-being and health to a person.

Do you believe in omens?

In order to be healthy, we need 7-8 hours of sleep, therefore, we spend about a third of the day in bed. Sheets, pillowcases and duvet covers inevitably get dirty when they come into contact with the body. Many people answer the question of how often bed linen should be changed, they answer incorrectly, thinking that only visible dirt is a reason for washing. Unfortunately, this opinion is as wrong as it is popular. Let's figure out why you need to change clothes often.

During use, the bed accumulates a lot of things. Dust settling on the bed, human sweat, dandruff, food crumbs, cosmetic residues, dirt from the body and dead particles, the hair of your favorite pets, high humidity and temperature - all this creates excellent conditions for bacteria and microorganisms. Bed and dust mites, multiplying in large numbers in the bed, can cause allergies, dermatitis, rhinitis, and a decrease in immunity. And this is not the whole list of diseases, the development of which leads to a violation of sleep hygiene.

To avoid adverse effects, it is imperative to change the bed set at least once every 1-2 weeks. The pillowcase gets dirty even faster, because of its “staleness” serious skin problems can arise: acne, blackheads, blackheads and allergic reactions. If your skin is prone to breakouts, try changing your pillow cover every 1-2 days to help improve the situation.

In addition, with frequent change of linen, you can use more gentle washing modes at low temperatures, do not use bleach. This will make the kit last longer.

Factors affecting the frequency of linen changes

The service life of a bed set depends on several indicators. We list the factors by which you can determine the time to change the pillowcase, sheet and duvet cover.

Age

Important! If you have furry animals that like to sleep in bed with you or your children, you should change the bed more often. If it is not possible to wash it, remove the hair that has flown from the pet with a clothes cleaning roller.

Health status

Another factor to consider when changing bed linen is the presence of diseases. During illness, bacteria multiply faster and remain on the bedding. Therefore, to prevent re-infection, it is necessary to change the linen on the bed daily. If the illness is not serious, such as a common cold, the bed should be changed every 3-4 days. In the presence of allergies, change of linen should be every 2-3 days, and a pillowcase - every day.

Season

At first glance, the time of year has nothing to do with how often you need to change a set of bed linen. However, it is not. The higher the temperature outside the window, the more a person sweats when he sleeps. In addition, in the warm season, people, like all living organisms, are more active. All this is reflected in the cleanliness of the linen. Therefore, in summer, late spring and early autumn, it is recommended to change the bed twice as often as in the rest of the time, and the pillowcase must be changed daily.

Attention! Every 5 years you need to buy new pillows and blankets, as the old ones become unusable. But they should be washed once a year. The lifespan of a mattress is 20 years, unless a different time period is specified in the instructions.

How to prolong the freshness of laundry?

There are a few small tricks that will help you enjoy the cleanliness of the kit a little longer:

Here are some bedding care tips to keep them fresh and clean:

It is not recommended to hang a pillowcase, sheets and a duvet cover on radiators and other heating devices, as this will make the material rough and unpleasant to the touch.
When washing and ironing, select the temperature that does not harm the type of fabric.
Store dirty laundry in a basket or box with holes to allow air to circulate. Do not put wet laundry in the basket: mold may develop, which will be very difficult to wash off.
In order for the pet to lose less hair, it is worth cutting it. For some time the problem will be solved, but even when the hair grows back, the loss will decrease.
Turn the set inside out before washing. This will help keep the picture bright.
Do not neglect ironing, as it not only makes the linen look beautiful, but also prevents the growth of bacteria. If there are any decorative elements on the duvet cover, pillowcase or sheet, it is better to iron the item from the wrong side.
Immediately after buying a bed set, you should wash it. This will wash away the production dust and make the fabric softer.