Some people can go crazy over a messy bed. There’s always someone in a couple who is obsessed with keeping the bed tidy, immaculate, believing that an organized room translates into an organized mind. But there’s bad news for all the control freaks out there: science suggests that leaving your bed messy might actually be healthier.
Researchers from Kingston University, England said that one’s chaotic bed could actually scare off allergen and asthma-causing dust mites.
THE MESSY MYTH YOUR BED HOLDS
If you are a clean-freak and your boyfriend is not, would it make you feel better to know that not making your bed is actually better than making it? While an unmade bed may look ratty it is also unappealing to dust mites.
Let’s talk about scrappiness. Household dust mites – commonly known as bed mites – are typically found in textiles and furniture and feed on scales of human skin. That’s nasty and it gets even worse. Don’t get scared, but on average, about 1.5 million of these millimeter-long pests reside happily in your bed.
The researchers developed a computer model that helped track the effect on number of dust mites depending on a person’s bed routine, before putting mite pockets into beds in 36 households.
REDUCING THE MITE POPULATION IN YOUR HOME AND BED
Researchers found that the warm, sweaty conditions created in an occupied bed are ideal for the creatures as they live by “taking in water from the atmosphere using small glands on the outside of their body”.
However, these unwanted guests get weak when moisture is in shorter supply.
“Something as simple as leaving a bed unmade during the day can remove moisture from the sheets and mattress so the mites will dehydrate and eventually die,” said Dr. Stephen Pretlove in an interview with BBC News.
“Our findings could help building designers create healthy homes and healthcare workers point out environment most at risk from mites”.
TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE?
Expert Carolyn Forte, director of the Cleaning Lab at the Good Housekeeping Institute, expressed her opinion saying that since dust mites have virtually colonized our homes, the unmade bed strategy will not make a huge difference after all. However she recommended GH to throw back your bedding when you get up in the morning “so some moisture might evaporate and everything can air out”.
Are you a pro-messy bed? Share your views in the comments section below.
