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.
