Bedding, Mattresses, and Furniture: You Sleep Here for a Third of Your Life

You spend roughly eight hours a night in contact with your bedding, pillow, and mattress. Over a year that is about 2,920 hours. Over a lifetime it is tens of thousands of hours. The idea that the materials in your sleeping environment are just neutral passive surfaces is worth questioning.

Mattress Off-Gassing

Conventional mattresses are primarily constructed from polyurethane foam. Polyurethane foam releases VOCs, a process called off-gassing, that is most intense when the product is new. The "new mattress smell" is these VOCs. While the smell fades over time, some studies have found that VOC emissions continue at lower levels for extended periods. Allowing a new mattress to air out in a well-ventilated space for several days before sleeping on it reduces initial exposure significantly.

Flame Retardants

Flame retardants are a major category of concern in mattresses, upholstered furniture, and foam products. Polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) were the most commonly used class and were added to nearly all foam products for decades. Research found that PBDEs bioaccumulate in human tissue, affect thyroid hormone function, and cause neurological effects in animal studies. They were phased out in 2004 and 2013 in the US, but they persist in older mattresses and furniture and in household dust.

Newer flame retardant chemicals have replaced PBDEs, but some of these replacements are also raising health concerns. The cycle of replacement chemicals also having health issues is a recurring pattern in chemical regulation. Some mattress brands now achieve flammability standards using natural materials like wool, which is inherently flame-resistant without chemical treatment.

PFAS in Bedding

PFAS are used in some mattress covers, pillowcases, and upholstery for water and stain resistance. A study found PFAS in over half of tested mattress covers. Conventional cotton bedding is also grown with significant pesticide use. Since you sleep with your face against a pillow for eight hours, the skin on your face and scalp is in prolonged contact with pillow fabric. This is a case where organic cotton certification makes particular sense.

Better Sleep Environment Choices