Like everything, pillows deteriorate with use over time, and that deterioration can affect your quality of sleep. How quickly they deteriorate has a lot to do with how they’re used, what they’re made of, as well as hygiene factors.
When it comes to hygiene, pillows can be effected by the transfer of things like oils, dirt and dead skin from our face, head and neck. As well as potentially breaking down the materials used in the pillow construction, leading to a less comfortable and less supportive pillow, these can also help encourage the growth of dust mites, which may cause allergic reactions in some people that can trigger things like asthma.
Fortunately, for allergy and asthma sufferers, there are anti-allergy pillows available that have specially treated fibres designed to inhibit the growth of dust mites, which are a common trigger of allergies and asthma.
Pillow Hygiene - Our Top Three Tips
So, how do you ensure that your pillow remains clean and fresh for the best quality sleep? Here are our top three tips:
1. Wash your pillows regularly. Many people buy machine washable pillows and then never wash them. If your pillow, or its cover is machine washable, we recommend that you wash them fairly regularly. How regularly? That depends. You're in the best position to judge how frequently you should be washing your pillow, given you are the one that uses it and changes the pillow cases on it. If it shows signs of discolouration or starts to smell a little, they are sure signs your pillow could do with a good wash.
One word of caution though on washing your pillow. Make sure the pillow is completely dry before using it, make sure you follow the washing instructions provided on your pillow's care label, and don't wash your pillows too frequently, which may cause them to deteriorate faster than usual.
2. Use a good quality pillow protector. There are lots of pillow protectors to choose from, including very basic ones to ones with extra quilted comfort and special features like stain resistance, water proof and anti-stain pillow protectors.
In some instances, good quality pillow protectors will help keep your pillows in such good condition, that you will rarely, if ever, need to wash them.
3. Don't keep your pillow for too long. It's amazing how long many people keep their old pillows for far too long. The average life of an average polyester pillow is 18 months to 2 years under normal usage conditions. For memory foam and latex pillows, the average life can be around 2-5 years.
So how do you know when it's time to get a new pillow? If you've been using a polyester pillow regularly for up to 2 years or a latex or memory foam pillow for up to 5 years, there's a good chance it's time to change it. Other signs include the pillow losing it's shape, being too flat, being too soft or generally looking tatty and worn.
BONUS TIP
The best way to know when to change over your old pillow is to register your pillow online with the Tontine Digital Date Stamp feature. Once registered, we'll email you a reminder when it's time to change your pillow, so there's no excuse for keeping a tired old pillow any longer than necessary.
To register your Tontine pillow, or any other Tontine product, click here.
