Good cuddling buddies: teddy bears, puppies, kittens and bunnies. Dust mites, not so much. Yet, apparently, some single men may not mind sharing their bed with these tiny creatures.
A recent survey of 2,004 people done by Ergoflex, a mattress company in the United Kingdom, shows that 55 percent of men between the ages of 18 and 25 rarely change the sheets on their beds, some even as little as four times a year, according to www.msn.com.
Mark Smoke, owner of Sleep Nation in Gainesville, said an average person sheds dead skin cells and sweats anywhere from six to 10 fluid ounces during one night. A mattress that was 100 pounds will gain 20 to 30 pounds of skin, sweat and dust from the room over the course of 10 years, he said.
College students are busy. With classes, homework, extracurricular activities, work and a social life, it may be difficult to find the time to change the sheets. It’s a process: take them off, put them in the washing machine, wait, put them in the dryer, wait, remake the bed. Who wants to take the time to do all that? And just think, if you forget to move the sheets from the washing machine to the dryer and come home late at night wanting to crawl into bed, you won’t be able to if your sheets are soaking wet.
It may, however, be in a man’s best interests to make the effort, as his image among the ladies may suffer if he does not.
“I think it’s unhygienic and shows a lack of maturity,” said Kelly Audette, a 22-year-old first-year multimedia journalism graduate student.
Take note, men.
Ideally, bed sheets should be changed once a month, Smoke said. He recommends keeping three sets of sheets in rotation. If you can’t wash them right away, there is another set to put on the bed.
Turns out women at UF may be in luck. Sean Wilson, a 20-year-old finance junior, said he washes his sheets at least every two weeks.
“If I come home drunk and dirty, sometimes I will wash them sooner,” he said.
Cameron Darr, a 21-year-old history junior, also washes his sheets about every two weeks and said if it weren’t such a hassle he would wash them more often.
“It’s a pain to remake my bed after washing my sheets,” he said. “I also don’t like raising my utilities bill.”
Chuck Rogan, vice president of Mattress Town of Gainesville, recommends doing more than just washing and changing bed sheets. He suggests buying a mattress protector to help prevent dust mites from building up and causing allergies.
Keeping the bed bugs from biting is easier than grabbing a shoe and whacking them until they’re black and blue. All you need to do is change the bed sheets.
A version of this story ran on page 7 on 9/5/2013 under the headline "Bi-weekly change helps keep bed bugs away, gets ladies to stay"
