BRITONS "SLEEP IN DIRTY DUVETS"
20,000 of these miniscule monsters could be living in your duvet.
Britons are likely to be sleeping under duvets which are riddled with dust mites and dead skin, research shows.
Tests carried out on 10 duvets at the University of Worcester found they held up to 20,000 live house dust mites.
And a survey also revealed two-in-five Britons admitted to not washing duvets every six months.
The worst case was a duvet that had not been washed for 11 years and contained 45g of debris including skin scales and house dust mite faeces.
"This content has serious implications for health as the contaminants can cause symptoms of asthma, rhinitis and conjunctivitis and irritate existing cases of eczema," said Professor Jean Emberlin, director of the university's national pollen and aerobiology research centre, which carried out the research.
Seven of the 10 duvets tested had never been washed - two of which were more than a decade old.
How often do you wash yours?
And what about those in hotel bedrooms?
Is that the entire duvet do you think, or just the duvet cover. I wash the latter but have never tried to wash the complete duvet - I think it would have to go to the cleaners.