What Does Bed Linen Change Frequency Have To Do With Your Skin

How Often Should You Change Your Sheets?

Everything! Dirty sheets and pillowcases are the perfect shelters for opportunistic microorganisms that can unbalance your skin microbiome and cause acne and infections. Find the right time to change the bedding.

Have you ever stopped to think about the invisible population you take to bed every night? Well, the thousands of microorganisms that inhabit your skin make good use of sheets and pillowcases and live very well there, warmed by your body temperature. And they still feed on sweat, fat, and cells that quickly come off with friction during sleep and are full of keratin – the protein that makes up much of the stratum corneum, the outermost layer of the skin.

With this good life, bacteria and fungi have the optimal conditions for their proliferation. The crowd gets more prominent every night, and you start to feel like you’re crossing the line when that smell of clean clothes goes away.

When to change everything

The habit of weekly trading is classic and indicated. However, like what happens in warmer seasons, excessive sweating is worth reducing this time to 4 or 5 days.Most people should wash their sheets once per week. If you don’t sleep on your mattress every day, you may be able to stretch this to once every two weeks or so.

Those who sleep together also increase the microbial population more intensely, which requires more frequent exchanges.According to a 2012 poll by the National Sleep Foundation, 91 percent of people change their sheets every other week. Although this is a common rule of thumb, many experts recommend weekly washings.

And the towels?

Always for individual use, the bath towels obey the weekly change rule. However, very oily, scaly skins or those with intense sweating require a shorter replacement period for clean towels.

The skin of the face, usually more oily than that of the body, requires extra attention so that cross-contamination does not occur. And here’s a golden rule: have more miniature towels to dry your hands and others suitable just for the face. In this way, the microorganisms on the hands do not pass to the front. They always remember that the hands are the part of the body with the most excellent contact with the external world.

To know when to change face towels, you must consider your skin type and condition.

Those who have acne, combination, or oily skin should change every 2 or 3 days, depending on the intensity of sebum secretion. Normal skin can last seven days with the same towels, while dry, sensitive, and dehydrated skin needs more delicate fabrics and changes every 4 to 5 days. For hand towels, the replacement must be done daily.

And why all this?

Remember our conversation about cross-contamination? The soft surface of fabrics is full of areas conducive to opportunistic microorganisms, like moisture, heat, and foods such as skin proteins. Many can cause an imbalance in the skin microbiome and problems ranging from acne to infections. The frequent change of sheets and towels is essential to keep your skin balanced, healthy.According to Mary Malone, a laundry expert at about.com, leaving bed sheets unchanged for long periods of time could lead to a whole host of health problems, such as infected wounds and athlete’s foot. According to Malone, during sleep we continue to perspire, meaning body oils and soil are released.

Also, Read : How To Eat Your Way To Healthy & Glowing Skin

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