Only using a heavy-duty washing setting under certain circumstances is good for keeping your lower and helps reduce the environmental impact.

Everybody loves their bed --it’s where we recuperate and escape from the . Sleep is vital for our physical and and it’s estimated that on average people spend around 26 years of their lives sleeping.

So it stands to reason that we want our beds to be as welcoming as possible. There’s nothing better than getting into freshly washed sheets at night but because of the amount of time we spend in them, they can become dirty quickly.

READ MORE:

Bedding accumulates dead skin cells, body oils and dust mites. As well as not smelling great, the bacteria from these can cause skin irritation so sheets should be changed every week or every two weeks if you wear pyjamas or bath before bedtime. Those who sweat heavily during the night, have allergies or allow pets to share their bed may want to change them more regularly.

You may assume that it’s best to wash your bedding on a hot 60C cycle to ensure they’re as clean as possible but the say you don’t need to opt for a heavy-duty washing setting unless your sheets are heavily stained or soiled. A shorter, normal cycle does the job just as well and is gentler on sheets, meaning they will last longer. It also helps to keep energy bills down and has less of an impact on the environment.

They always recommend checking the care labels on your sheets for guidance before deciding what temperature to use but they say that generally, a good temperature to wash bed sheets is 40 degrees. A hotter setting of 60C will be better at killing germs and getting rid of any nasty bacteria. So for this reason if anyone in the house has been ill or has , opt for a hotter wash.

"Washing sheets in cold water is often not advised because a higher temperature will help kill any bacteria that may lurk between the sheets. For heavily stained bed linen you should always wash your sheets in hot water on the highest recommended temperature setting," they advise.

When it comes to choosing a setting on your washing machine, this will depend on your model but avoid any that are too vigorous. Lenor explains: "New machines can have so many incredible features, so it can be hard to know what setting to wash your bed sheets on. So before washing sheets check your washing machine to see if it has a dedicated bedding cycle. If it doesn’t, select the "normal" cycle instead of the heavy-duty option, which can cause tangling and excessive wrinkling."

How often do you change your bed sheets? Let us know in the comments below.