Wash your sheets once a week. It’s one of the most common pieces of sanitary advice given to adults and kids alike. The buildup of dandruff, dirt, and general grime is simply unavoidable, and resting in it for hours at a time makes it easy to see why cleaning sheets is essential. The question still remains though, do people actually wash their sheets once a week?
How Often Should You Change Your Sheets
The answer is ultimately complicated. Overall 32% of Americans wash their sheets at least once a week, but the differences between demographics are massive. Single women, for example, have a wide majority washing their sheets once a week at 73%. In comparison only 14% of American couples wash their sheets at least once a week. Different priorities seemingly breed different tendencies.
What’s causing these differences then, what reasons do people have for not washing their sheets?
The most common answer, at 53%, is that Americans don’t believe the expert recommendations. They keep their sheets clean enough to wash them far less often, a week is simply overkill. A large percentage of Americans are also simply unaware.
What Do The Experts Recommend
But what do the experts really say, is there a meaningful difference between one and two weeks? Looking at consumer perceptions, interestingly, the marker for worse sleep was 12 days without changing them out. A time period much closer to two weeks than the seven day recommendation of most experts. By 20 days most consumers were starting to get very satisfying sleep.
This in no way means changing one’s sheets weekly is pointless. Although it may mean that the difference becomes more minute the shorter one waits. The difference between one and five days isn’t too great, but the difference between 12 and 16 is pretty massive. The truth on bedsheets is ultimately that it is preference. Although it’s in everyone’s best interest to play it safe rather than sorry. Checkout out this ultimate bedding guide infographic to learn more.
