Bed Care

Every night, we sleep
with dust mites in our beds.

We don't have to.

We spend a third of our lifetime in bed. Unfortunately, the bed is also a favourite breeding ground for the house dust mite. This is because the bed has the ideal living conditions for the house dust mite:

• warmth (from our body heat)
• humidity (from our perspiration)
• food source (from our shed skin cells)

This is why the bed is the most important area to start with. There are many ideas on how to control the dust mite population in the bed, but there is only one method that is constantly recommended by the medical community. That method is to use mite-proof covers to encase the mattress, pillows, bolsters and comforter covers.

These special encasings prevent allergen (whether mite allergen, pet allergen or other allergen) from coming out of the bedding items and reaching the person. But it is also important that these encasings allow our perspiration to pass through, for a comfortable night's sleep.

This is referred to as "breathability", and is very important in tropical climates. Therefore, encasing the bed with a simple polyurethane or plastic sheet may contain the allergen, but the sleep would hardly be comfortable.

The following guidelines should be considered when choosing allergen-proof covers: