How Often Should I Change and Wash My Pillowcase?

Let’s face it, we all get pretty up close and personal with our pillowcases. Our faces, hair and bodies touch them all night, every night - and that means we should make it a priority to keep them extra clean! We’re going to outline why it’s important to prioritize clean pillowcases and answer that burning question - how often should you change out your pillowcases? Hint: it’s more often than you might think.

Your Pillowcase Could Be Home to Dust Mites

The simple fact is that your pillowcases are home to a lot of dust mites. Think millions on average per pillow. Pillows and pillowcases are actually the perfect breeding ground for dust mites because of the dead skin cells that accumulate on your pillowcase over time. No home and no pillow are completely free from dust mites but the best way to keep their numbers down is to change out your pillowcases often. You can also choose pillowcases that prevent dust and pollen from adhering to fabric.

Your Pillowcase Could Be Accumulating Allergens

Millions of dust mites mean lots and lots of dust mite feces (gross, we know). Dust mite feces is not just gross, it’s a major allergen, which is bad news for anyone with an allergy to these little critters (up to 30% of the general population). Fun fact - a dust mite allergy isn’t an allergy to the actual mites, but to their feces and bodies. Dust mite allergy sufferers can experience a variety of unpleasant symptoms including congestion, postnasal drip, sneezing and an itchy throat.

Dust mites + dust mite feces = a couple of great reasons to change out those pillowcases pretty often. Asthma sufferers should especially pay attention to pillowcase hygiene as a dust mite allergy can lead to worsening asthma symptoms, including a tight chest and difficulty breathing. Anti-microbial sheets can help a lot with these allergy symptoms, preventing those pests from adhering to the fabric and therefore keeping them from aggravating your sensitive system.

Dust, Sweat and Tears

I think we’re in agreement that dust mites are gross but they’re not the only reason to switch out your pillowcases on the regular. We also need to consider what we leave on our pillowcases every night - sweat, tears and more. These natural bodily fluids can accumulate on your pillowcase and cause a bacteria build up. Coupled with hair products and cosmetics, this bacteria can cause acne and other bacterial infections as well as lowering your immune system function. Doesn’t that make you eager to pop in a load of laundry right now?

Not Fallin’ for Pollen

Last but certainly not least, any seasonal allergy sufferers listen up! Residual pollen can cling to your hair and then transfer to your pillowcases, meaning you won’t get any respite from your allergies even when you’re in bed! P.S. We have a whole dedicated blog post on helping our allergy suffering friends to get a better night’s sleep.

We’ve Covered the Wow – Now Let’s Cover the Why

Changing your pillowcases out at least twice a week can have a tremendously positive affect on your health and wellbeing. To make things easy on yourself, try to come up with a schedule for changing out the pillowcases and keep extra sets on hand in the linen closet for an easy change over. We love mixing and matching pillowcase colors with the rest of our bedding for either a fun pop of color or a sleek complimentary color.

Worried that all this extra washing will have an effect on your pillowcases? PeachSkinSheets has you covered - our fabric is durable, pill resistant and has a wrinkle release, meaning those pillowcases are going to look good as new even after a twice weekly wash.