Whether it’s a sexy negligée or a comfy two-piece, pyjamas are worn by people around the world. But how often should you pop your favourite PJs in the wash?
This is the question that has torn social media users this week, with some claiming that changing your pyjamas every day is ‘crazy and unnecessary’.
Previous studies have shown that the average Brit wears their pyjamas for up to two weeks without washing them.
But is this enough? Dr Primrose Freestone, associate professor of clinical microbiology at the University of Leicester, has settled the debate once and for all.
Speaking to the Daily Mail, she explained that it’s best to change your pyjamas every single day.
If you shower before bed and aren’t very sweaty, you might be able to stretch that to three or four wears at a push.
However, most people are putting themselves at risk of developing bad body odour and even harmful infections by repeatedly wearing the same pair of pyjamas.
Dr Freestone says: ‘The more one sweats, the more smelly the pyjama becomes, and this may mean the nightclothes need to be changed daily.’
A scientist has revealed how often you should really be changing your pyjamas, and it’s bad news for people who don’t like doing laundry (stock image)
On social media, the question of how often to change your pyjamas has sparked an intense debate.
On one side, there are those who claim that wearing pyjamas more than once or twice is unhygienic.
One commenter wrote on X: ‘I must be one of those water wasters cause it’s a fresh one every night and bed linen is changed weekly.’
Another user chimed in that they ‘wear them twice maximum’, while another asked: ‘What about sweat? What about crotch odour?’
However, many other social media users were shocked to learn that people were changing their pyjamas more than once a week.’
‘Thought we are meant to wear one for a whole week? Like c’mon it’s just to sleep in at night,’ one commenter retorted.
Another added: ‘I thought pyjamas were basically a weekly subscription, not a daily change.’
And one wrote: ‘Every night is crazy and unnecessary. Every 3-4 nights though is acceptable.’
On social media, the question of when to change your pyjamas has sparked a fierce debate, with some claiming it is best to change every day
However, other social media users were shocked to find out that people were changing their pyjamas so often
How often should you change your pyjamas?
If you sweat a lot at night, you should change your pyjamas every single night.
However, if you shower before bed or don’t sweat so much, you can wear them for longer.
At most, experts advise changing your pyjamas after three to four days.
Some particularly unbothered commenters even argued that it was better to keep wearing pyjamas until they start to smell.
‘Some change daily. Some change weekly. Some change when they get funky,’ wrote one commenter.
Meanwhile, one social media user claimed: ‘If I can still smell the laundry detergent on it I’m wearing it again.’
However, Dr Freestone says that people do need to think more carefully about their pyjama hygiene.
She says: ‘Pyjamas are in close contact with the skin of the human body, which is naturally coated in millions of bacteria, fungi and viruses.’
Whether you shower before bed or not, everyone produces about half a pint of sweat each night, almost all of which ends up in your pyjamas.
This creates a warm, damp environment in your bedclothes that is perfect for microorganisms to breed.
Microbes feed on the dead skin, sweat and oils that build up in our pyjamas and excrete smelly chemicals that produce the distinctive whiff of BO.
One commenter said that changing your pyjamas every night was ‘crazy and unnecessary’, opting instead to change them once every three to four nights
One commenter joked that they thought pyjamas were a ‘weekly subscription’ rather than something that needed a daily change
Some social media users preferred to rely on the old-fashioned smell test to see if their pyjamas were still wearable
If you eat while wearing your pyjamas, this can become even worse as particles of food get trapped in your clothes and provide a buffet for bacteria.
To make matters worse, Dr Freestone points out that sweat isn’t even the only source of bad smells in our pyjamas.
She says: ‘If you have flatulence and release a lot of anal wind, you will be shooting tiny amounts of faeces into your pyjamas with each fart, which over time will start to smell.
‘Most people have several milligrams of faeces in their underwear from flatus release each day. Multiply this over days into pyjamas and you have another level of odour to consider.’
Beyond simply smelling bad, letting your pyjamas get too dirty can also create a genuine health risk.
Researchers from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine found that bedclothes and pyjamas can spread infections from person to person.
In fact, pyjamas are more of an infection risk than other types of clothing since they are directly in contact with the genitals and bodily fluids.
This is particularly true for infections associated with faecal matter, such as norovirus, with the NHS issuing specific guidance to staff to be careful while washing patients’ clothing.
Experts say that you should change your pyjamas every day, especially if you sweat a lot or eat food while wearing them (stock image)
Dr Freestone adds: ‘Skin cells deposited into the pyjamas are unavoidable and will also act as food for any house dust mites and fungi present.’
‘The more dust mites eat and reproduce, the more faecal droppings accumulate in your bed; mite droppings are allergenic and can trigger asthma attacks and skin.’
Likewise, fungi can also eat human skin cells, leading to asthma attacks and a lung infection called Aspergillus fumigatus which can cause severe illness in people with weakened immune systems.
If you want to make sure you are not putting yourself at risk of infection, it’s important to change your pyjamas regularly and to wash them thoroughly.
A low-temperature wash might remove the dirt and sweat, but it won’t be enough to kill the bacteria growing in your night clothes.
To kill off germs, the wash needs to be at least 60°C (140°F) or use a laundry disinfectant if a high-temperature wash is not possible.
Dr Freestone says: ‘To be even more sure of eliminating any remaining germs, a hot tumble dryer or a steam iron treatment is highly effective at killing bacterial and viral pathogens in pyjamas.’
Why do towels get so smelly so quickly?
Towels are the perfect home for a swarming community of bacteria and fungi.
They hold many of the key ingredients for hosting microbial life – water, warm temperatures, oxygen, a neutral pH, and even food in the dead skin people leave behind after a thorough dry.
The human body also boasts these ideal living conditions, which is why our bodies are host to trillions of bacteria throughout our lives.
As a towel is used to dry the body, microbes sitting on the surface of the skin are deposited onto its damp, warm surface.
When we smell towels, we often perceive a musty or sour odour, which is from the waste products deposited by growing communities of mould and bacteria.
Don’t throw a wet towel into the laundry basket, as the damp and dirt will still be an ideal place for microbes to breed.
By the time you get to doing your washing, the towel and the other laundry around it may have acquired a bad smell. And it can be difficult to get your towels smelling fresh again.
Instead, put the damp towel straight into the washing machine, or, if it’s a while before it’s getting laundered, hang it to dry first.