Your bed is your sanctuary from the world, where you catch your zzzs, and where you enter our dreams and subconscious. Unfortunately, it can also, if not treated right, be a haven for germs and bugs. Therefore, we should all be taking caution when it comes to bed hygiene and why we should never wear our clothes to bed.
Bacteria can live on clothes for months, meaning you should never get in bed with your clothes on, particularly clothes that have been worn outside. According to doctor Philip Tierno, director of microbiology and immunology at New York Univeristy, clothes can be a haven for germs and even new clothes, particularly if you have been walking around in them all day. If you then go to bed with those same clothes on, or even lying on top of your duvet, this means those same germs are then transferred to the bed where you sleep. Which isn’t good! These germs can live there for weeks or even months afterwards – so always dress appropriately for bed.
In fact, one of the reasons why so many of us are plagued by acne on our head, back and chest is because going to bed with germs, sweat and dead skin-debris on our clothes we then transfer these to our bed, and our body, when we later go to bed without our clothes on. It is maybe then even advisable, particularly if you suffer with chronic acne, to have a shower before entering the bed at night. Humans can sweat over a litre of fluid a day and shed half a million dead skin cells, if that has been pressed against your clothes, you certainly don’t want that touching your nice clean bed.
When you think about it, much of this is common sense. If you have been in the workplace or travelling on public transport all the germs of those environments, like dirty seats and dirty air from others, has throughout the day been landing on your clothes, which then go on your bed, which you then sleep in for maybe a third of the day, eight hours. Not pleasant!
However, this doesn’t cross the mind of many people and after a hard day, many of us jump on our bed with our laptop, fully clothed, watch our favourite shows or catch up with friends.
At these unprecedented times, it is more important than ever to maintain good hygiene and, hopefully, these habits will last long into the future. Just remember your bed is your sanctuary, it is your safe place from the world, and great sleep is crucial to maintaining physical and mental health. So think next time before you cross-contaminate.
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