Do Your Allergies a Favor: Do NOT Make Your Bed

Making Your Bed May Be Bad for Your Health

If you are like so many who cope with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and Fibromyalgia, you also cope with allergies. If you must also work to keep your allergies under control, chances are you’ve already taken precautions and other steps in your attempt to allergy-proof your bedroom. That might involve switching to organic cotton sheets, a germ-free humidifier, or an air purifier. According to a recent study, that may not be enough. It appears that something as simple as making your bed every day may be creating a bedroom environment that will worsen your allergy symptoms.

Dust mites love it when you crawl into your nice, warm bed. When you’re snuggled under the covers, you create the perfect humid environment under which those dust mites can thrive.

While you’re sleeping, the dust mites get down to work, hungrily munching on those tiny flecks of skin you shed. The dust mites then show their appreciation for your hospitality by producing allergens for you to inhale while you sleep. The perfect symbiotic relationship — at least from the dust mites’ perspectives. (Actually, a symbiotic relationship doesn’t have to be mutually beneficial, and this one would probably more accurately be described as “parasitism,” but dust mites that get all caught up in politically correct speech are often offended by that term.)

The dust mites love it even more when you hop out of bed in the morning and immediately make the bed. When you pull the sheets and covers up and around the mattress all nice and tight, you maintain that nice damp, dark environment they love so well. While you’re off doing whatever you do while you’re awake, the dust mites remain behind and continue to feast on any teeny tiny little skins chunks you’ve left for them.

On the other hand, dust mites don’t do well in what for them is a dry, desert-like surroundings. Dust mites curse the human-healthy state of an unmade bed. That’s right: Dust mites hate a slob!

An unmade bed with the sheets thrown back willy nilly exposes the bed to air, which in turn removes any moisture your body may have left behind. This causes entire herds of dust mites to dehydrate and die. In fact, that may not be your mother’s or drill instructor’s voice you hear in your ear, threatening you with day-long feelings of guilt if you don’t make your bed; it may be as many as one and a half million frantic voices of allergen-producing parasites. (Okay, although the number can be correct, that part about them each having a voice may be stretching it, but the rest of this article is based on a scientific study.)

Dust mite allergens can trigger asthma and cause other allergy-related problems. Millions are spent every year dealing with dust mite-induced medical problems. Therefore, reducing the number of those pesky critters in a bed is a healthful objective. A recent UK study monitored homes in the hope of determining how to do just that. This Kingston University study discovered that dust mites simply cannot survive in the dryer conditions of an unmade bed.

Sure, you could change and wash the sheets and blankets daily. You could even iron the sheets to get rid of any of the critters that didn’t give up the ghost in the dryer. But why bother? Now you can rise and shine without guilt — and without overexerting yourself by making the bed, secure in the knowledge that by leaving those sheets thrown back you’ll be depriving lots and lots of dust mites of their ability to use the little glands on the outside of their little bodies to extract the moisture they need to survive.

Finally! Some scientific “evidence” that lets us enjoy the benefits!

More information:

Untidy beds may keep us healthy

Allergies Suck T-Shirts and Gift Idea Designs

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4. Sleep Medications for Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and Fibromyalgia
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