PILLOWS! We spend a significant amount of our time using them, in fact roughly one third of our lives are spent sleeping. Yet very few of us administer proper care when it comes to cleaning and updating our bedding. This mostly stems from a lot of misinformation about how to best look after your pillow so this blog post aims to debunk a few myths and paint a clearer picture of what to do with your pillow.
One of the first questions people ask us when buying a pillow is ‘how long will my pillow last’ firstly, this shouldn’t be the paramount concern, if you are keeping your 
pillow to the point of it disintegrating, you have an even bigger problem on your hands! All of the pillows we stock will physically last a very long time, as they are made of the highest quality materials, however this is not what you need to be worried about. The real culprit in the bedding saga are the tiny microscopic creatures that accumulate over time, known as dust mites. These tiny creatures can be a big hassle when it comes to allergies, and they will have allergy sufferers up all night!
Your pillow also becomes the resting place for the dead skin cells you shed as well as dirt and oil. In every 24 hour period you will shed roughly a million dead skin cells. Even though you won’t be able to see these, when they accumulate in your pillow they can cause skin irritations such as acne. A build up of dead skin cells will also promote allergic reactions. This is why it is very important that everyone should update their pillow every 2 years, regardless of how good you perceive it to be doing! Furthermore experts suggest that if you have severe allergies, updating your pillow as frequent as every 6 months is necessary to keep the allergies at bay.
Throughout your pillows lifespan it is also important that you take proper care of it. Here are a few simple tips to keeping your pillow healthy:
- Use a good quality pillow protector as well as a pillow case
- Choose pillows made from high quality materials such as memory foam or latex. These might cost you more, however it is a worthwhile investment
- Once every 2 weeks, clean your pillow protector and case. While you do this, leave your pillow out in the sun, this will help to freshen it up and to kill and dust mites or bacteria
- If you suffer from allergies, do some research and find pillows which are hypo allergenic. Companies will advertise this as a selling point, so it wont be hard to find
If you follow these few simple steps and update your pillow regularly, you will have a happy healthy nights sleep. The check out our range of the range of therapeutic pillows our chiropractic team endorse click here.
