The One Item That’ll Prolong Your Pillow’s Life and Help You Get Better Rest

Keeping your home clean isn’t only a matter of making sure your personal space looks nice. In many instances, cleanliness is actually a matter of health. This holds true when performing tasks like cleaning cutting boards or doing chores like washing bedding.

Of course, keeping your bedding clean involves minimizing contaminants like body oils, bacteria, and shed skin cells. But another, less obvious, reason to wash your bedding regularly and thoroughly has to do with allergies. Dust mites in particular love to live in bedding. While you may not think of your bed as dusty, with a steady supply of food (your skin) and moisture (your sweat), the bed can be a paradise for these microscopic critters that are responsible for many people’s allergy symptoms. This is why you may wake up congested, coughing, or exhibiting other allergy symptoms.

Regularly washing and drying bedding in hot temperatures cuts down on dust mite allergens, and you can also use an allergen wash to further address allergens in your bedding. However, even when you wash your bedding, there are plenty of dust mites and their allergy-causing detritus that still live in the less easily washed components of your bedding, such as your pillows. 

Allergy pillow covers combat this issue. Pillowcases alone, even clean ones, do not prevent exposure to dust mite allergen, which is so tiny it can get right through regular fibers and into your breathing zone while you’re sleeping. Allergy covers are composed of special fabrics or contain special barriers that are so tight that allergens can’t get out through your pillow. They also cut off the food supply to the dust mites that have already taken residence in your pillows. 

Hence, allergy covers are an important line of defense when it comes to keeping your bed as clean as possible — and result in keeping you and your family members in good health. Using allergy covers helps prolong the life of your pillow because it allows you to keep it clean longer between washes and therefore cuts down on wear and tear. Additionally, by cutting down on allergy-causing contaminants, using pillow covers also gives you a better night’s rest, which, of course, is invaluable. 

My favorite allergy cover is this National Allergy Premium 100% Cotton Zippered Pillow Protector, which has a weave tight enough that dust mite allergen won’t get through. It costs under $15 per cover and has an average pore size of 2.6 microns, much smaller than the recommended 10 microns required to combat dust mite allergens. 

You could also go with this budget-friendly find: the AllerEase Maximum Pillow Protectors. It comes in a four-pack for under $25 and is made of polyester and nylon, but is more cost-effective. In addition to allergy covers for your pillows, similar encasings are available for mattresses. 

Whatever type of pillow cover you choose, adding an allergy-proof one to your pillow underneath your regular pillowcase is an investment in both your bedding and your health.