The experts from Better Sleep Council recommend replacing your mattress every seven to 10 years. But that frequency depends on each individual as it accounts for comfort and support, not the ugly debris you’re leaving between the springs each night.
Over eight years, the average person will shed 4.84kg of dead skin in bed, as well as body fluids, reveals Koala Product Manager Stephanie Roberts-Baxter.
From sweat to saliva, after eight years there’s enough to fill two bathtubs. Over time a mixture of sweat, oil and bacteria eventually seep into your mattress cover.
Philip Tierno, New York University microbiologist told Business Insider that tiny microscopic life forms love to make themselves at home in our mattresses and that they could be potentially affecting our health.
“When you’re in the bed you desquamate, or you slough off tissue, and all that cellular debris collects between your sheet and the sheet over the mattress. That serves as food for dust mites. They eat human tissue. And they defecate and excrete substances and then they die. And that’s part of the allergens that collect. In addition, you have bodily secretions of all types,” Tierno told the publication.
He continues that these substances can trigger chronic sinus problems, asthma-like symptoms and eczema in people with existing allergies.
This article originally appeared on Better Homes and Gardens.
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