Dreams Beds recently commissioned a PR research with Atomik Research to explore the bed hygiene of the UK population. The research was part of a wider campaign, alongside 4media group, launched in conjunction with World Sleep Day. The campaign consisted of research and news generation elements in order to promote awareness of the brand.
The research of 2,000 UK adults looked at how often Brits change their bedding, how much they know about the germs that live with in and what it is that is making them unclean.
The key findings from the survey included:
- 70% of Brits don’t change their bed weekly as recommended
- 68% people surveyed didn’t know that dirty bedding could cause allergic reactions, illness, infections and spread viruses.
- 57% are also guilty of making a mess in bed by taking food up with them.
- Chocolate is the preferred bedtime snack with a quarter admitting to sneaking a bar of chocolate or two in bed. A fifth will also leave a trail of toast crumbs regularly
- 57% let their pets sleep on their bed
- 68% clean surfaces and their kitchen more often than their bedding
- 62% the hoovering more often than changing the bed
- 67% don’t wash their sheets at 60 degrees, the optimum temperature at which to kill dangerous bacteria
- 37% never clean their mattress
- 30% fail to freshen up their pillows
- 24% decline to dry clean the duvet
- 27% owned up to not replacing pillows after three years
- 22% admitted to not buying a new mattress after the recommended eight years
- 20% also failed to swap their duvets
- 71% of Brits have never recycled a mattress in the past
- 12% never having disposed of one at all
The campaign secured 19 items of coverage including pieces in The Daily Mirror, the Mirror Online, Men’s Health, MSN, The Daily Star, the Irish Daily Mirror, The Sun, House Beautiful, Women’s Health, Fab UK Magazine, and more!
