What is the best dust mite cover for people with allergies?
The type of mattress you sleep on can greatly affect your health and your daily life.
Dust mites are the most common cause of nighttime allergies. To minimize allergies, exposure to dust mites must be greatly reduced. This can be accomplished by choosing the right mattress for your health (i.e. dust mites can be found in abundance in traditional innerspring mattresses).
What causes bed allergies?
Dust mite droppings, not the animal itself, are the real cause of allergic bed reactions. The dust that accumulates on an innerspring mattress is contaminated with dust mite droppings.
Some common allergic reactions to dust mite droppings are sneezing, itching, watery eyes and wheezing. Dust mite allergies have also been associated with headaches, fatigue and depression.
What is the worst mattress for allergy sufferers?
Innerspring mattresses are the least favorable for allergy sufferers because of their internal spring system. The inner cavity of innerspring mattresses creates an incubator for dust mites, where the droppings and dead skin cells of dust mites collect. It is not uncommon to find mold in the cavity of box springs due to the moisture that causes body heat transfer. This is why, typically, an innerspring mattress will weigh 10 times its original weight after 10 years.
Padded or cushioned covers also attract dust mites. These covers have a light, loose, soft filling that provides the ideal environment for dust mites.
So what is the best mattress for allergy sufferers?
A good memory foam mattress or latex mattress is by far the best mattress for allergy sufferers. Since the core of these types of mattresses is not hollow, there is no incubator effect and no room for dust mites. In addition, there is no open cavity in which allergens can accumulate.
But it is important to cover your mattress with a anti-dust mite cover that covers all 6 sides of the mattress and has a zipper. This will prevent the mites from accessing their food (human dead skin) and they will disappear because they will not find food to survive.
Also, even if the cover covers all 6 sides, there must be anti-dust mite protection on all 6 sides as well, which is not always the case for those sold in large centers.