Nobody actually enjoys the arduous task of stripping their bed linen and washing it - and with the current weather and cost of living crisis, drying it can also be a nightmare. This may lead some people to get a little complacent when it comes to changing their sheets.
The team at BedKingdom.co.uk have shared insight into how often you should clean your sheets, and it's a lot more often than you may think.
The sleep expert says that on average you should be getting a fresh set of sheets on the bed once a week, or once a fortnight maximum.
Keeping your sheets on any longer than a fortnight can give rise to germs, bacteria, skin cells, sweat, and bodily oils on your sheets - causing unpleasant odours.
But unfortunately, for those who are lazy with their linen, it gets worse.
If you leave your laundry over a month, it's likely you will sleep alongside bacteria - and it has been linked to a host of nasty diseases, such as pneumonia, gonorrhoea, and Lemierre’s syndrome.
UK bed retailer Time4Sleep asked a member of the public to sleep in the same bedsheets for a whole month, then they swabbed parts of the bed at the end of each week.
Each weeks swab was sent to the Biology Development Centre at the University of Seville - and the report might leave you sprinting to change your sheets.
A volunteer slept in the same bed for 28 nights straight without washing or change the sheets, pillowcases or duvet cover.
Researchers then collected samples from three areas - the pillow, the middle of the bed (where the person slept) and the bottom (where the feet rest), at the end of each week.
The samples were then sent off to the lab in Spain, where they were tested for bacteria and photographed under a microscope.
Their result by week four revealed an grim list of dangerous bacteria growing inside the petri dishes.
Among the bacteria discovered in the laboratory were bacteroidales, a bacterium linked with pneumonia gonorrhoea, and appendicitis; fusobacteriales, known to cause throat infections leading to Lemierre’s syndrome; as well as neisseriales, bacteria that is known to cause gonorrhoea.
These bacteria were linked to human skin and the oral cavity to human stools.
The findings back up claims made after research from the North Carolina State University that revealed the beds of human beings have a greater diversity of bacteria than chimpanzee nests - yikes.
Cleveland Clinic dermatologist Alok Via explained that there are more bacterial organisms in our bodies than our own cells.
He told the Express: "When you let the dead skin cells rest in your sheets, those bacteria can thrive. If they get back onto your skin it can lead to folliculitis."
Jonathan Warren, CEO at Time4Sleep, stressed that people should consider changing their sheets more often to avoid the build-up of nasty bacteria.
He said: "Despite the accepted habit that you should change your clothes every day, there is significantly less attention paid to how often you should look to change your bedsheets.
"Look to change your bedding at least every fortnight. If you don’t, you’re likely sleeping in worse condition than a chimpanzee."
How often do you change your sheets? Let us know in the comments.
