How Often You Change Bedding Depends on Age, Gender–and Whether Someone is Joining You ‘Between the Sheets’
One survey found that single men tend to wait the longest, up to 45 days, before tossing their sheets and pillowcases in the laundry.
| 05 Dec 2025 | 02:58
Surveys say women change sheets and pillowcases with greater frequency than men. A single male could wait 45 days on average before tossing the sheets into the laundry, unless he was being joined by someone else, in which case fresh sheets would turn up. (
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Everyone loves climbing into your own bed on the same day that you tuck in fresh sheets and pillowcases. How often you experience that fresh from the laundry sensation, may depend in large part on your gender, your age and your sex life. A single man on his own might take 45 days between laundry dats, If a young partner was going to be rustling the sheets with them, most young men say they’d turn the sheets over.
Last year, Sleep Advisors which reviews sleep-related products and offers sleeping tips, surveyed 1,000 volunteers to find out how often people wash their sheets. The conclusion: On average, once every 24 days although some folks claimed they’d probably wait up to 35 days before considering unwashed bed linen “gross.” Single men, on average, stretched that another 10 days.
In any cases, gender and sex clearly influence who washes what and when. Women may change their sheets more often, but men are more likely to do the job when they expect they’ll be sharing their bed with someone else. Nearly half of the young men surveyed said they’d change their sheets if they knew they were going to have an active night. Fewer than half the women said the same, most likely because their sheets were already fresh. After a romantic interlude though, the young ladies again were quicker than their male counterparts to bring on new bedding.
Those who shunned pajamas and nighties to sleep in the raw were likely to wash their sheets more frequently, and naked or not, both men and women thought that showering before bedtime would keep things neat and clean. It turns out, it won’t. The average male or female human body sheds about 600,000 skin cells each day, faster at night when, in addition, their body continues to secrete sticky natural oils. In addition, many pet parents invite their furry friends into bed with them, in which case no shower will reduce the dander the pets shed and the dirt hat may be lingering on their paws.
In the end, washing the sheets is an inevitability, so what matters is picking the proper water temperature to do the job right, says Mary Gagliardi, aka Dr. Laundry, Clorox’s in-house scientist and cleaning expert.
When in doubt, she and other experts say to go with a cold cycle. Once upon a time, hot water used to be the best way to clean clothes. Today, updated detergents and washing machines—as well as changes in common fabric types—now mean that cold water will clean clothes effectively so long as the detergent label carries terms such as “cold water” or “cold wash.” On the other hand, while the best guide is what the label says, there are specific moments when hot/warm/cold matter.
Hot water is best for any items used by a sick person, towels, sheets and pillowcases, and white clothes (as long as the care label doesn’t say otherwise.)
Warm water is best for items that might shrink or fade in hot water and light-colored garments made of delicate fabrics such as linen that need brightening.
Cold water is best for wool, silk and delicate items, denim, and everything including clothes that need to be protected from fading or shrinking
That being said, in the end hot, warm or cold, the one thing everyone agrees on: clean sheets feel exceptionally good.