Your pillow is such an important part of a good night’s sleep. It is the only thing that can make a person sleep comfortable. Even a comfortable mattress cannot make up for a good pillow. But have you ever thought about the fact that your pillow could be housing millions of germs and could be one of the most powerful germ sources. The fact is that this is a real.

A close study of the pillow has revealed that it could contain some of the most unlikely things that are not favorable for a good night’s sleep. At least 10 % of your pillow weight could be made of some extremely unlikely things such as:

• Bugs- Bed bugs are not confined to the bed alone. They could also be residing in your pillows too.
• Dad skin- The human body is continuously shedding skin and a majority of it is while we sleep. Our body does repair and regeneration works while we are fast asleep. This is one of the reasons that your pillow could be filled with your dead skin.
• Dust mites- Yupps! even these can be found on your pillow
• Faeces- People who love their pets enough to let them climb the bed should know that they could leave behind come faecal residue. Not exactly the best thing to sleep with.

Studies conducted by health experts have shown that your innocent pillow could be the cause of some serious diseases such as flu, chicken pox or leprosy. The hygiene level is extremely questionable in case of pillows in the hospitals and hotels. This is because, though the covers may be washed, but the sponge could be filled with these unwanted agents. The same pillow is used by many people thus increasing the number of agents in them.

Doctors said that these germs could move from the pillow to the mattress. Dermatologists studied the health of hundreds of pillows that were used by patients before coming to the conclusion that a ‘non-living’ pillow was housing several ‘living’ contaminations. The situation could be worse if the person had ripped the pillow, cried on it or the saliva has dripped while they were asleep. The added moistures were an easy invitation to E.coli stomach bug. Therefore it was concluded that pillows could lead to stomach infections, respiratory diseases and urinary tract infections.

A closer look at hospital pillows revealed that they had more than one million staphylococcus hominus per millimeter. This could be serious bad news for people who had weakened immunities due to an infection or were immune-compromised (HIV +). Doctors believed that these infections can prove to be an annoying hazard in recovery of the patients.

This is one of the reasons that doctors are promoting pillows that are anti-bacterial, especially at hospitals. But the problems are not confined to only hospital pillows. Pillows at home could be having the very same issues. The fact that the sponge could remain moist for days and be the perfect breeding ground for bacteria, adds to these woes. Not many people make the effort of washing and sun drying their pillows.

In fact doctors added that it could be one of the easiest ways to cultivate bacteria as the sponge keeps the bacteria in a favorable, humid environment which is supported by the warmth of the body.  So besides the patient, common men who use the pillow are at a risk too.

Just covering the pillow cases with a fresh cover is never enough as you may be keeping the exterior extremely clean but at the same time, you are trapping moisture along with germs inside the pillow.

There is another debate that states that using personal pillow cannot make a person sick as all that people are doing is passing on the germ physically to their partner or it could be their own germs that cannot make things this bad. The ratio of passing germs via a pillow is the same as passing it from one person to another.

However, we do recommend some hygiene measures that a person needs to take in order to have a healthy sleep. So if you cannot afford new pillows every month, here is what you should do.

• Purchase only washable pillows.
• Wash them in a detergent and sanitizer every 3 months or less.
• Leave them in the sun for 4 to 5 hours to get rid of any excess moisture or bad smell.

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