ST News: Go ahead, leave your bed unmade. It's healthier
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This message was forwarded to you from Straits Times Interactive
(http://straitstimes.asia1.com.sg)
Jan 18, 2005
Go ahead, leave your bed unmade. It's healthier
by Chiang Yin Pheng
HOW many of us have been nagged at by our mothers or spouses to make the bed?
Well, the lazier ones among us who hate the chore now have one good counter:
It does look slovenly, but it's healthier to leave the bed unmade because it
kills the dust mites resident there.
Dust mites have been blamed for asthma and a host of other allergies.
Scientists from the Kingston University have found that unmade beds, which
leave the sheets and pillows exposed to the air, dries them out more than if
they were covered up with a quilt; drier conditions make survival challenging
for those dust mites.
Warm, damp conditions created in an occupied bed are ideal for them, but they
are less likely to thrive when moisture is in short supply.
The BBC website this week noted that an average bed could be home to up to
1.5 million house dust mites. Think of these critters feeding on scales of your
shed skin and happily breeding and excreting waste in your mattress and pillows,
which you inhale while you slumber.
Kingston University scientists have developed a computer model to track how
changes in the home can influence the dust mite population in beds. They will be
tracking mite populations in 36 British households and figuring out how changes
to building features such as heating, ventilation and insulation affect mite
colonies.
Researcher Stephen Pretlove said: 'We know that mites can only survive by
taking in water from the atmosphere using small glands on the outside of their
body.
'Something as simple as leaving a bed unmade during the day can remove
moisture from the sheets and mattress so the mites will dehydrate and eventually
die.'
He added that the research being done may help cut back on spending on
mite-induced illnesses each year.
In Singapore, dust mites have also been identified as a major source of
allergens. They are found mostly in beds, carpets and other soft furnishings in
the home.
One in five children and one in 20 adults in the Republic suffer from the
chronic respiratory disease, with most asthma cases being caused by allergies,
mainly to dust mites. -
I leave it unmade, its next to the window and when the sun comes in, i know i don't have to sun the pillows on sunday.
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irrelevant
i make my bed without putting on a quilt -
i must be crazy cos when i do make m bed.. i fold everything...
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Someone makes my bed for me.
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Her name is Maria?Originally posted by Donald Trump:Someone makes my bed for me.