Demand for professional mattress cleaning is rising steadily, and experts say the trend reflects growing awareness of health and wellbeing rather than a passing fashion, according to a report by Agerpres.
Research into the condition of household mattresses found that people spend more than 2,500 hours a year in bed, in close contact with a surface that often goes years without a deep clean.
A mattress may look like nothing more than fabric and filling, but the report noted that it absorbs up to 1.5 kilograms of dead skin cells over the course of a year. Combined with overnight sweat and moisture, this creates ideal conditions for dust mites, organisms too small to see with the naked eye.
Allergy symptoms often mistaken for tiredness
Allergists said microscopic dust mites are among the most common triggers of chronic respiratory allergies. The symptoms, they said, are easy to confuse with ordinary fatigue or a cold, including a blocked nose in the morning, itchy eyes on waking, or sneezing fits early in the day. If these symptoms occur regularly in the morning but fade later in the day, the cause is often the bed itself.
Children were described as the most sensitive to these irritants, since their immune systems are still developing and they typically spend more time in bed than adults. For that reason, paediatricians recommend deep-cleaning children's mattresses at least once a year.
Why a vacuum cleaner is not enough
According to the report, household vacuum cleaners only pick up dust from the surface and the top few millimetres of fabric, leaving mites and pathogens untouched deeper in the fibres. Cleaning sprays were also said to offer only a superficial, short-lived effect without addressing the underlying cause.
Professional cleaning works through two combined technologies. The extraction method uses a cleaning solution forced deep into the fibres under pressure, then drawn back out along with the dirt. Steam treatment, at temperatures between 80 and 120 degrees Celsius, destroys mites and bacteria in the inner layers without leaving harsh chemical residue. Combining extraction with heat treatment is considered the gold standard for caring for home textiles.
When to call in the professionals
Experts advised calling in professional help if a mattress has been used for more than a year without any deep cleaning, if young children or pets live in the home, if a family member has developed unexplained allergy symptoms, or if the mattress came with a rented flat from previous tenants, even if it looks spotless.
The recommended baseline schedule is professional cleaning once every 12 to 18 months, shortened to every 6 to 12 months where risk factors are present.
