Health tip of the day: Wash your bedclothes

Your bedclothes are a breeding ground for dust mites, with the average bed containing 10 million mites. If you’ve allergies at all, this can be a major trigger.

A recent YouGov poll showed more than a third of people in the UK only wash their bedsheets once a fortnight. Dr Lisa Ackerley, a visiting professor of environmental health at the University of Salford says we need to do it more often.

“Beds can become reservoirs of human cells, bacteria and bodily excretions. Humans shed half an ounce of skin each week – and a lot of that will be in the bed,” she says.

Washing your sheets at 60 degrees will kill mites and in between, pulling back the duvet every morning and opening the window will help release moisture to keep your bed fresh.