Is your pillow making you sick?

When was the last time you changed your pillow? Go on, be honest. Is it three years ago? Five years ago? Or (gasp!) 10 years ago? If the answer is more than two years, you’re probably not going to like what I have to say next…

Tontine, (tontine.com.au) one of Australia’s leading pillow manufacturers, conducted some interesting scientific research recently and discovered that our pillows are making us ill. Our old pillows, that is.

According to the results of its research, pillows that are five years old have twice as much mould in them in comparisons to a two-year-old pillow. Um, yuck! And considering the different types of mould present in our pillows are directly related to their age, it’s a little scary to know the average age of a pillow in Australia is five years. Not good, Aussies. Not good.

Think these scary facts don’t affect you because you’re not allergic to mould? Not so quick. Allergy or no allergy, breathing in mould and all the nasties it contains puts your immune system under a stack of pressure, which makes it work a whole lot harder to fight said baddies off. And when your immune system is suffering, your body is less likely to fight off other germs. Oh, and considering many of the moulds found in these old pillows are pathogenic species (which cause bacteria infections and disease, especially in those with a low immunity), sleeping on an old pillow is actually rather risky.

But it gets worse. Tontine’s research results showed children’s pillows are just as old and mouldy as adults, and bearing in mind a child’s respiration rate is on average higher than an adult’s, they are likely to be breathing in more mould. Add to the mix their developing immune systems, and you’ve got yourself an increased risk of adverse health effects. Clearly, this is not ideal. Not one little bit.

UNHEALTHY FACT: the pillows collected in the Northern Territory had six times more mould than those collected in New South Wales. Props must go to those residing in Tasmania though, as this is where the least amount of mould was found.

So, I’ll ask you again: when was the last time you changed your pillow? And will you make an effort to purchase a new one after reading this? I will. And I’ll be hunting for one of Tontine’s Fresh pillows, which are date stamped with a use-by date so I’ll never find myself breathing in unnecessary nasties while I sleep again. Phew!

How old is the pillow you sleep on? Will you be buying a new pillow after reading this? And how often do you currently change your pillows?