Why Your Bedrooms Smell Stale in the Morning
Have you ever woken up in the morning to discover that your bedroom had a musty odor from the night before? You'll be able to detect this musty, stale scent in the air the moment you wake up, especially on nights when you sleep with your windows closed.
Bad breath, body odors from sweating, and infrequent change of sheets, pillowcases, or rugs can all contribute to a stale scent in the morning. For those of you who live in apartments with small bedrooms and poor air ventilation, stagnant air is quite common. Aside from that, did you know that the respiratory and sensory systems of a normal human can differentiate over one trillion different scents? Of course, with so many scents perceptible by our nose, we would prefer to be in places with friendly, nice odors. Furthermore, because we spend around one-third of our days in our bedrooms, it is an ideal location for our sensors to detect and analyze scent and indoor air quality.
We will break down the two of the most common reasons for that musty bedroom smell in the morning, what you can do to avoid it, and how you can enhance your home's air quality at the same time in this post. Remember, good-smelling bedrooms equal good moods!
Let’s check it out!
Body odors
We are sure you have heard of this before; our bodies naturally recover and repair their cells when we are asleep. It makes sufficient sleeping hours crucial for our day-to-day life!
When we sleep, our bodies automatically strive to heal damaged skin and attempt to restore normalcy. Dead skin cells, natural oils secreted by the body, and a light perspiration produced by the body in an attempt to control body temperature are common byproducts of this process.
Body odor is an undesirable side effect of the process of controlling body temperature and generating sweat. Sweating over a lengthy period of time produces body odor. We cannot do much about the body odor smell since we essentially will be in a full resting mode when we sleep for 6-8 hours.
To resolve this, what we can do is to have a morning shower as soon as we are awake. However, if nothing is done about the musty smell in the bedroom due to constant perspiration and bacteria buildup, the sheets and mattress will become musty - which brings us to the next point!
Dirty linens and pillows
The major issue that many of us miss is dirty sheets and pillows - don't worry, the writer of Kulture Deco has experienced this as well.
Singapore is a tropical country with only two seasons; a sweaty one and a wet one, however, we all have to agree that the humidity in both seasons can be overbearing. We will often perspire when we sleep, even in an air-conditioned room, and our linens will absorb it. Our pillowcase, like our bedsheets, is a catch-all for oils and dead skin cells. It is a little flagrant, but it is normal.
Your pillowcase is the heart of your sleep sweats, guys!
Let’s face it, guys, bed linens that have not been washed for weeks or longer are filthy - no excuses!
How to solve it? Cleaning your bed linens is an important component of removing stale and musty odors from your bedroom. So, wash your pillowcase and bed linens once every 10 days at the maximum. It will keep your room smelling fresh, and enhance your sleep quality. Besides, in terms of home decoration and interior design - clean bed linens play a crucial role!
Other than the linens, our mattresses also naturally absorb perspiration and body oils, which turns it to become another common cause of musty odor. However, we all know that you can't wash an entire mattress.
Wash your bed linens and pillowcases, people!
If you have owned your mattress for more than three years, it is fair to suppose that perspiration, oils, and dead skin have accumulated on the surface and within the mattress throughout that time. Imagine sharing your bed with a partner - oh no, those things are multiplied by two!
Whilst we know that it is rather difficult to dispose of a mattress, we suggest you use a thicker bed linens or a mattress protector to try to keep your mattress clean.
Other than the two mentioned above, do you have more? Let us know in the comment section below!
You can also stay tuned for our article next week, which will elaborate more reasons and methods to prevent musty bedroom smell!