Didn't know your bedsheets could make you sick? Think again!

May 8, 2015 11:29 PM

Your bed that once seemed like your best friend at the end of a stressful day may actually be the bane of most of your illnesses.

Bedsheets and duvets

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.

Home hygiene expert Lisa Ackerley, M.D., told The Daily Mail, "Humans shed half an ounce of skin a week and a lot of that will be in the bed."

As if this isn't bad enough, those micro-organisms put you at risk for illnesses and allergies like flu or even food poisoning or a syndrome called "Sick Bed Syndrome."

"Dust mites like warm moist environments, the bed’s the perfect environment," said Ackerley to The Daily Mail. "They reproduce so there will be about 10 million per bed."

While dust mites themselves are harmless , their fecal matter and body fragments can trigger allergic reactions like eczema and hay fever, and they affect nearly 80 percent of people with asthma.

Lisa says that, in two years time,10 percent of the weight of your pillow is made up of "dust mites and their droppings." To protect yourself, you can invest in allergenic protectors, or wash and change your sheets regularly and with scalding hot water, no less!