Lifestyle

These Sheets Basically Clean Themselves Because We're All Gross And Lazy

by Emily Arata

You're pretty disgusting. In fact, humans are pretty disgusting in general, even when we're asleep.

In the last few years, several studies have pointed out how infrequently we wash our sheets (as few as four times a year if you're a man) and the subsequent buildup of dead cells and bacteria. Even waiting a couple of weeks between laundry sessions is a bad idea, especially with your delicate facial skin rubbing all up on that fabric every night.

You've probably even heard the advice not to make your bed after sweating or lying in the sheets, so as not to encourage the dust mites living in them to multiply and aggravate allergies. Nothing says “good night's sleep” like encrusted sweat and grime.

Thankfully, we live in the age of crowdfunding. There's no problem too big for someone to tackle, and that includes our nasty pillowcases and top sheets. A Brooklyn-based company called Silvon aims to do just that, using real silver woven into Supima cotton sheets to change the bedding ballgame.

Silver, known to have antibacterial properties, will reportedly cut down on the nasties developing in your bed by as much as 99.9 percent. Plus, the silver is fused into the thread, so you're still getting all the comfort of luxury bedding without ever wondering if it will wash away.

Although Silvon still recommends you launder the sheets every 10 to 14 days, the point here is that they'll be far less disgusting after several days of use than your average Ikea extra-long twin set left over from college. You should really replace those, anyway. For the cost of a few happy hour cocktails ($60), you could swap out your pillowcases and upgrade your lifestyle.

If you're still feeling dubious about dropping $150 on a set of queen sheets, it's time to look at the numbers. With two days left before the Kickstarter ends, Silvon has raised more than $400,000, which is especially impressive given its initial $20,000 goal. When the campaign concludes, Silvon will begin production and sheets will ship by August.

Beauty sleep, indeed.

Citations: Cut Back On Laundry With These Incredible Self-Cleaning Sheets (Refinery29)