Archive for the ‘Furniture’ Category
Memory Foam Mattresses and Dust Mites
As we sleep each night in the comfort of our beds, almost all of us are exposed to microscopic dust mites that live in our mattresses and bedding. Some mattresses are worse than others, and there are simple steps that can be taken with any mattress to substantially reduce or eliminate dust mites and the allergens they create.
Dust mites are present in almost every home, cleaning alone cannot eliminate them unless strong chemicals are used. Many of these chemicals may pose a health risk to humans as well if used in high enough concentrations to eliminate every dust mite. For those with allergies or other respiratory problems, the fumes from the chemical residue after treatment may be at least as harmful as the allergens created by dust mites.
Dust mites live on and inside the mattress and other fabric covered furniture. The burrow between he fibers of the mattress to escape sunlight and to find a cozy area that helps them retain enough moisture to avoid drying out. Many cloth fibers also supply a ready food source for mites. While open cell foam mattresses like memory foam mattresses also have opening into which a mite can crawl, they cannot feed directly on the memory foam mattress material they way they can with natural cloth fibers. This lack of a ready food supply limits the population of dust mites in the mattress.
Another source of food for mites is our skin. As we sleep, dead skin cells flake off and fall onto the mattress where mites consume them. They may also crawl onto our bodies as we sleep and eat dead skin cells directly off of us. So even though a memory foam mattress reduces the available food supply for mites, our own skins provide enough food for smaller populations.
Dust mites cannot crawl through plastic barriers. If we place an impervious plastic cover between the mattress itself and the bottom layer of sheets, then we can prevent mites from hiding in the mattress altogether. They normally hide in the mattress to avoid sunlight, which kills them, and to avoid drying out which also kills them. If they cannot retreat into the mattress at day break, then they can only live in the blankets and sheets. By washing the blankets, dust mites are destroyed. While there may be a few mites that live in the sheets of a bed with a plastic mattress cover, the entire population is wiped out every time the bed linens are washed.
In summary, to reduce or eliminate dust mites, choose a mattress without natural cloth fibers (such as a memory foam mattress), wash the sheets and blankets frequently, reduce humidity in the bedroom with a dehumidifier, and most importantly, use a plastic mattress cover to block mites from nesting in the mattress itself.