Admit it - changing your bed sheets is not your favourite thing to do. Wrestling with your bedding and putting your sheets on to wash is never fun. Still, we do know that it's something we need to do. Our reluctance to engage in this chore can come at our cost to health, skincare, and even quality of sleep.

Why Is It Important to Change Your Bed Sheets Regularly?

Climbing into our sheets at the end of a long day means that we are bringing a day's worth of dirt into our bed - especially if you shower in the morning. Spending a recommended average of around 6-9 hours in bed every night amounts to a lot of dirt being collected. Sweat, hairs, skin flakes, and other parts of our body shed and make its way onto our bed sheets. Bed sheets are a magnet for allergens, like pet hairs, dust mites, and pollen. Having sets of matching bedding can help prevent too frequent washes, but having a regular rotation is still important. Some bedding types, such as linen bedding, are made of natural materials, and can be damaged with improper care and over-exposure to damaging elements.

For those with skin problems and allergies, dirty sheets can worsen pre-existing problems, counteracting any skincare regime you engage in during the day, and causing breakouts or skin rashes. Allergens and dirt can even interrupt or delay your sleep, causing reactions such as coughing and blocked sinuses. If you suffer from hayfever, changing your bed sheets frequently is a key tool in the fight against seasonal allergies. Asthma sufferers can also find allergens and other irritants as detrimental to their breathing quality and overall quality of sleep.

Can You Go Longer Between Bed Sheet Changes?

Maintaining good hygiene before bed can help you go longer between washes. Ensuring you are clean before bed and are not bringing dirt from the day with you is the best thing you can do to keep your bed sheets cleaner. Making sure only you use your bed for sleeping, rather than eating or lounging, will also help. When you get clean, however, make sure your face and body are fully dry from any moisturisers, lotions, etc. Taking extra time to ensure your makeup is off completely to help keep the pillow fully clean.

Not all bed sheets are created equal. Some materials avoid collecting material better than others. Bamboo bedding has greater moisture and temperature control, meaning you're less likely to sweat and develop breakouts. For those with sensitive skin or oily, damaged hair, silk pillows do not collect bacteria and moisture in the same manner as cotton pillows, helping to save your skin and hair. Shop our silk pillow collection here.

Factors That Determine How Often to Change Sheets

If you're unsure about how frequently your sheets needs to be washed and changed, consider if the following factors apply to you.

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Allergy and hayfever sufferers are affected by bedding's tendency to trap allergens. Those with pets that sit on their bed, or spend time working, eating, hanging out, etc., on their bed also accumulate a lot of dirt in a short amount of time. If you're unable to shower at night time and tend to do so in the morning, you'll be bringing in more dirt and irritants into bed than most.

If you shower at night, and only use your bed for sleeping, you probably bring in less dirt than average. If your sheets are made of a more delicate material, such as linen, washing should be done with great care to prevent the fabric from becoming damaged over time.

How Often Should I Wash My Bed Sheets?

You may not be pleased to hear that sleep and hygiene experts recommend changing your bed sheets at least once every two weeks. Bear in mind this is the maximum recommended time to change your bed sheets. The optimum recommended changing period starts at once a week.

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You should try to stick to a schedule of approximately one wash a week if you're bringing a lot of dirt to your bed sheets or if you're a chronic allergy sufferer. If your schedule means you shower in the morning, you should really change it more often than every two weeks. If you tend to sleep in the nude, your sheets will likely be dirtier from your body.

For those with allergies or asthma, the dust mites and dead skin cells work alongside each other to worsen one another. To stop your symptoms from worsening, clean bed sheets are essential. Those with sensitivities and health problems should opt for more breathable cotton linen bedding to go longer between changes.

How Often to Change Bed Sheets for Different Seasons

During the hottest nights of the year, you will likely sweat more in bed. As people tend to go outside more in the summer, there's a greater risk of bringing in allergens or dirts into bed from outside. During the spring and summer, better known as allergy season, the pollen count is high, and bedding becomes a hotbed (pun intended) of allergens that trigger reactions and bring down the quality of your health overall.

During the cooler nights of winter, you may be able to go longer without washing your bed sheets, as there is a decrease in dirt and irritants coming into contact with the material. This, of course, will rely on practicing good hygiene before bed to go as long as possible between washes.

How Often Should You Change Your Pillowcases?

Your pillowcase needs to be changed even more often. Your pillow collects the hair directly from your head and often collects saliva from those who drool a lot in their sleep. Any oils on your head or face can lie on your pillow, sinking into the material and damping it. If you want to maintain good hair and skin hygiene, a dirty pillow will make your hair and skin oily, leading to acne and hair damage.

Ideally, you should change your pillowcase every two days. Because your pillow is a smaller piece of fabric and is intimately connected to your head, it needs to be changed more often. Flipping the pillow over can help you go slightly longer between washes, but if you're a person who likes to flip the pillow over the cooler side, this won't work for you. Linen pillowcases, however, are different due to their natural material, and should be changed once a week.

How Often Should You Change Other Bedding Items?

Depending on intimacy, material, and contact with the sleeper, some bed sheets need to be changed more often than others, as they become unhygienic much more quickly.

How Often Should You Change Your Duvet Covers?

As duvet covers are such a large piece of fabric, able to accumulate a large volume of dirt and allergens, some recommend that they should be changed once a week. However, a top sheet can help extend that period between washes, creating a barrier between the sleeper and duvet.

How Often Should You Change Your Blankets and Throws?

The frequency of washing your blankets and throws depends on what you use the bedding for. If they are merely decorative and you don't use them during sleep, you can wash them when they appear to need it, as they are not getting into contact with human skin too often.

If your blankets and throws are used daily, the same rules apply for general bedding - washing every two weeks or more. For casual or infrequent blanket or throw use, once a month should suffice.

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Key Takeaways

To maintain hygiene and improve sleep quality, bed sheets should be changed weekly, or at least biweekly, depending on personal habits and factors such as allergies or pet ownership. Pillowcases, which collect more oils, dirt, and allergens from direct contact, require more frequent changes, ideally every two days, to support healthy skin and hair.