Dr Karan Raj recently took to TikTok to warn people about sleeping on old pillows, which left many saying that they “wished they never watched it.”
If you’re anything like me, you’ll change your pillows all the time, mainly because they always seem to go flat or lumpy, but if you’re not as fussy and you keep the same pillows for 2 years or more, then you might want to take hear of this Doctor’s advice – because you know who else loves pillows? DUST MITES!
To a dust mite, your pillow is A 5* hotel, filled with the yummy dead skin cells that they love to feast on. What’s more, we’re approaching dust mite season: they love spring and summer because, like us, they also enjoy heat and humidity.
Dr Raj’s video went viral within hours, racking up 1.2 million views and thousands of comments with one saying, “oh that’s why it’s hard to breathe.”
In it, he explains: “The average person sheds about 4kg of skin every year. Most of that ends up on your bed or pillow – a feast for microscopic dust mites.
“A single dust mite has about 20 dumps each day, multiple that by the hundreds of mites living on your pillow.”
“A build-up of dust mite faeces can cause breathing and allergy-type symptoms.”
A typical pillow can harbour tens of thousands of dust mites. Sick yet? In fact, 10% per cent of the weight of a two-year-old pillow can be composed of dead mites and their dung!
“Excuse me whilst I go burn my bed”.
If that wasn’t enough Dr Raj continued with a warning that if you find yellow and brown patches on your pillow, it’s a result of oil and sweat from your body building up over time and that moistness can breed mould or bacteria.
He also offered a top tip to check whether your pillow needs replacing. He told viewers to fold their pillow in half and see if it springs back open. If it doesn’t, it’s time to bin it and replace it as it’s no longer keeping you supported and may affect your posture.
How often do you change your pillows? Bet it will be most weeks now!
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