Many mattress brands will advertise ‘anti dust mite’ as a benefit of their mattresses. A Memory foam or Latex mattress is argued to be anti allergen as dust-mites can’t readily pass through the material as it has a solid structure. There are as always many flaws in this assumption and as expected we want to provide the alternative angle towards this myth!
Lets examine a bit more closely the dust mite.
The dust mite is 0.25–0.3 millimetre in length and has 8 legs. Male dust mites live for 10-19 days whilst the female can live up to 70 days and lays 60-100 eggs during her final 5 weeks of life. It’s the faecal particles and dead exoskeletons that are the subject of debate. They depend on water and moisture to survive so any material that can retain moisture will provide an environment for dust mites to survive.
Traditional Vs Memory Foam Mattresses – The argument used in marketing is that Memory foam are anti allergen, we would argue that whilst there is some truth with this it is not just the mattress that dust mites take up residence, but bedding, sheets and even clothes. So all you are doing is minimizing the dust mites in your mattress. Given the figures that 100-500 can live in a 1gm of dust means you may have already established your onto a losing battle!!
Typical Allergies to Dust Mites
- Itchiness
- Sneezing
- inflamed or infected eczema skin
- watering/reddening of the eye(s)
- sneezing repeatedly and or frequently sneezing.
What can I do to stop it?! – Quite simply you cant. The only way to reduce it is to tumble dry your bedding which will kill the dust mites and use some specialist anti dust mite covers. The draw back is that these are only as effective as the routine you use to keep them clean. As you can imagine tumble drying your bedding and sheets every day, to try and keep numbers to a minimum is highly troublesome. Carpets act as a breeding ground and fabric sofas so unless you put down wooden or laminate floors and sit on hard wooden chairs the chances are your going to come into contact with them at some point!
Our only recommendation is to have a robust cleaning regime, seek medical help if the allergens are becoming troublesome and to do the best you can with it. For most people they won’t even notice a dust mite problem. Again use your judgement to work out whether anti allergen is really a selling point for you or just another gimmick!
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