Are Your Bed Sheets Making You Sick?

Well, this is disgusting. Instead of being a safe haven at the end of a long day, your bed could actually be harboring dead skin cells, which could lead to millions of nasty dust mites (spare yourself the Google image search, really).  Home hygiene expert Dr. Lisa Ackerley told The Daily Mail, "Humans shed half an ounce of skin a week and a lot of that will be in the bed." YUCK. As if that wasn't gross enough, those micro-organisms put you at risk for illnesses and allergies like flu or even food poisoning — or as Lisa likes to call it, "Sick Bed Syndrome." "Dust mites like warm moist environments, the bed’s the perfect environment," said Lisa to The Daily Mail. "They reproduce so there will be about 10 million per bed." Excuse us while we gag forever.  While dust mites themselves are harmless (yeah, okay), their fecal matter (ew!) and body fragments can trigger allergic reactions ike eczema and hay fever, and they affect nearly 80 percent of people with asthma. And in two years time, Lisa says that 10 percent of the weight of your pillow is made up of "dust mites and their droppings." *Cue throwing of all pillows across the room* To protect yourself, you can invest in allergenic protectors, or wash and change your sheets regularly (making sure the water is at 60 degrees).