Bedroom secrets: How to create a healthy sleep environment
When we are lying prone for hours at a time, we are vulnerable in bed to both physical and respiratory problems. Ensure your bed is a nurturing, supporting place to unwind. File pictures
We slide into its embrace every night, many of us in partial or fully in the buff.
However, how often have you thought about the kind of physical and biological pressure the mattress supporting you is actually under? In a recent report by the consumer group, a study by North London Waste Authority found a quarter of people sleep with their pets, 20% eat in bed on a regular basis – 8% of these respondents doing so every day.
Here’s a short tip sheet to ensure those family sleeping environments are as immaculate, comfortable and above all, as healthy as they can be.
If your bed is over eight years old and has odd collapsed areas that are not overcome by turning the mattress around or flipping it over - chances are it’s time to get rid. Apart from structural problems (for example subsidence at the mattress edges), any mattress will collect a burden of dust hundreds of thousands of dust mites and biological stains that will be increasingly hard to dislodge.
After around 10 years most bases and divans will show signs of structural wear, but with a slatted base, sagging and broken plank supports can be replaced. With a divan, the damage can be hidden by fabric covers, so look for any divots and put a spirt level on various areas to isolate lumpy, bumpy degrading of the springs and padding.
Memory foam mattresses are hypoallergenic and (bar issues with the divan) can last up to 20 years with care.
We are creatures of habit, and most of us sleep in a favourite position for most of our lives until forced into another by infirmity or a snoring bed buddy. If your bed can be flipped over, the springs will wear more evenly, and the fabric comfort fillings will be distributed more evenly.
If you rotate any bed (ideally, flipping and rotating end to end where you can), you might add years to its survival. Lifting the mattress, get help and lift it up from underneath rather than yanking it around by the handles. Handles are there to adjust the bed once it’s in place, not to throw it around the room.
A bed is designed to be ridden flat down. If you sit on the edge of your mattress for prolonged periods of time you can significantly accelerate wear and tear on an isolated area of the mattress.
Again, rotating the mattress will reduce this damage. Try to get this done to every mattress in the house every three months, and with a new mattress take the time to rotate and/or flip it every two weeks for the first three months.
To start, take some baking soda and sprinkle it over the mattress, and go and do something else for about an hour. Pull the mattress down a little to allow you to get under the headboard end where we can be snowing nutrient-dense skin flakes from our scalps.
The first thing to do is to vacuum the entire surface with a clean upholstery head, paying special attention to crevices and seams deodorised by the baking soda. Use a clean microfiber cloth to wipe down any solid bed frame elements.
Dust and vacuum the rest of the room as you will have raised dust frolicking on the bed. Give any padded headboard the same attention, working your vacuum nozzle into buttoning and sweeping over the top edge of a deeper board.
Steam cleaners can be used to clean entire mattresses or spot clean but choose a day you can let the bed air for around six hours. Following vacuuming, steam can murder surface living bacteria, and dust mites, and dislodge some pretty awful stains in seconds.
Don’t press the head of the steam cleaner into the ticking on “boost” mode and use paper towel to blot areas where you’ve been too enthusiastic and avoid steam cleaning on memory foam or latex mattresses.
Bed manufacturer Dormeo says: “Over time, our bodies shed dead skin cells and fluids (yeeesh and yuck in equal measures!) which create a perfect breeding ground for bacteria and allergens like dust mites and mould. While you can regularly clean your mattress (following manufacturer guidelines) the only way to truly get rid of these potential health hazards is to change your mattress.”
Don’t ignore stains, whatever their origin and they are compromising this intimate area of your life. Deal with them immediately. If you have any allergies, cleaning your mattress should be as commonplace as cleaning your bedside table – don’t let dust mites and other disturbing allergens take hold.
A mild detergent and a little warm but not hot water is generally all you’ll need to shift most gunge. Hot water sets stains. Use the foam from your cleaning solution, rather than a deluge of moisture.
Foam-based, I’m a huge fan of Dr Beckmann’s Upholstery Stain Remover which works well even on urine by hand or using the follow-up of steam cleaning. €14 for 400ml – it’s a versatile, fabric-friendly friend all over the house.
Accidents happen and they will inevitably happen to you in your bed. Children’s beds are under constant attack from their skin microbiome, foodstuffs, wetting and pet pirates.
With prices for a fabulous King coming in close to €2,000, a mattress protector is the only sensible option. Washable and easily implemented as part of the bed linen suite, they should be included on every bed as standard. We can use a simple quilted protector, add full waterproofing, allergy protection and/or increase the overall softness and perceived warmth of the mattress on contact – it’s just a matter of price for additional plush fillings.
If the bed is slightly imperfect but less than eight years old, consider something like a 4cm memory foam topper to catch in small depressions in its contours. M&S do a good example, €120 for a single with simple elastic corner slings. Get into the habit of pulling back your covers and leaving your bed to air for an hour or two when you get up.
A study published by the Institut Pasteur de Lille in France, analysing the bed linen of hospital patients discovered that even these well-tended sheets were brimming with Staphylococcus bacteria which together with fungi spores can be released back to the air when we plump the pillows and snap back the sheets.
This type of naturally occurring germ burden could give you a pretty nasty skin infection. If you’re not washing your sheets at least once every fortnight – well, you’re not washing them enough. Most linens can be fully sanitised only at 60C, so save those quick, cool washes for everything else.
Fully washed, linens should be fully and completely dried. Don’t leave them folded up damp, even in the hot press.
Yellow pillows are heaving with toxins, oils, dead skins and a multiplicity of bacteria, and should never be left on the bed. Even disguised under two pillowcases, the microscopic mould, dust-mites and germs can leach back onto your skin and potentially reach your lungs.
Humans sweat profusely through their heads (we give off around 200ml per night from our entire body). Pillows can be washed at least twice yearly, but in my experience, they often never return to their pert, original condition. If in doubt – sling them out.
To wash most washable pillows, first put them into a clean pillowcase to keep the fillings intact, set the machine to delicates, and wash two at a time to keep them in place.
Persil advises: “Ensure that the machine is large enough and take care that the fabric case is robust and will not allow the filling to come loose, causing potentially serious damage to the machine. Foam pillows should not be put in the washing machine. The washing instructions on foam pillows may state you can hand wash them.”
If your pillows cannot be tumble-dried, leave them to air-dry in a well-ventilated room, or outside in the sun. Use pillow protectors on your pillowcases and wash them every other time you wash your cases.
Jysk offers a well-priced waterproof, polyester case, Jonna, for €6 each or a pair of standard Rikke protectors for just €7, jysk.ie. Suited to laundering about every six months if it’s the only one you use. Read the label on your duvet type and if you can fit them it into the dryer, slip in a couple of tennis balls to thump the wet out of it.
