‘Dirtier than a toilet’: Why you should never go to sleep with socks on

It turns out keeping your feet warm at night can be really, really disgusting.

Are you the type of sleeper who likes to keep their feet cosy in bed, or do you prefer to set your toes free when you’re snoozing?

If you fit into the former category, it’s super important that you put on clean socks before you climb into bed, according to new research.

That’s because dirty socks – the kind you’ve worn all day, sweated in, walked around the house in, padded outside to hang the laundry up in – have been found to contain the same kind of bacteria found in cockroaches and their poo.

Excuse us while we go burn all our socks and move to a single-use socks system.

UK company Mattress Next Day polled over 1000 people about their sleeping habits and found that of the 18 percent who wore socks while sleeping, 70 percent wore the same stinky socks they’d been wearing all day. Yuck.

The socks were swabbed and researchers found that half contained a revolting infectious bacteria called pseudomonas aeruginosa. Double yuck. 

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Dirty socks and clean sheets don't mix. Photo: iStock

Change into clean socks before going to bed

The bacteria is insidious.

“It typically infects the airway and urinary tract, and causes infection of the lungs,” the experts said.

“It can easily spread on tools that get contaminated and are not properly cleaned.”

When getting cosy with clean bedding, the bacteria spreads easily into the sheets, which means it’s easier for infection to spread.

Bacteria wasn’t the only culprit making bedtime socks disgusting. With sweaty feet comes moisture that causes fungus to grow. And fungus can cause Athlete’s Foot. Yikes.

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Some of the socks were especially filthy, even more than TV remotes, which were found to be “dirtier than a toilet”.

The study only looked at grown-up socks, but we also wonder about kids’ socks, which have to be the crustiest, most horrible objects on the planet.

While kids’ feet likely don’t get as stinky as grown-ups' do, they're undeniably filthy. That's because kids do things like run through the dog poo in the backyard in their socks, or take a route through a muddy puddle on their way to jump on the trampoline in socks.

In short, kids are gross.

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A mum took freshly clean socks and soaked and scrubbed them turning the water a filthy brown. Photo: Facebook

Proving our point, a mum took to a Facebook cleaning group to try to remedy the issue of dirty kids’ socks, complaining especially about the “crust” and “hardness” of the socks.

She soaked them in a sink, then scrubbed them, which left the water dark brown and totally opaque, like a pool of disgusting standing water.

How could the socks be so dirty, she wondered, when she’d put them through the wash?

 Followers had plenty of suggestions – hotter water, a better washing machine, less laundry detergent as too much caused build-up.

But regardless of the best solution for that mum, one thing is clear. For grown-ups, change into fresh socks before you sleep. And for kids, just throw your socks away and sleep barefoot.

Originally published as ‘Dirtier than a toilet’: Why you should never go to sleep with socks on