How Often Should You Wash Pajamas?

How Often Should You Wash Pajamas?

How often you should wash your pajamas is a surprisingly heated topic among laundry experts—and there’s no single, unanimous answer. We all know undergarments (underwear, socks, etc.) should be washed after every wear. Pajamas, though, feel like a different category: they’re typically worn indoors and often only after you’ve showered, so washing them after every use can seem unnecessary (and a little wasteful).

Still, “clean” doesn’t mean “stays clean.” Even if you’re just sleeping, pajamas collect natural body oils, sweat, dead skin cells, bacteria, and residue from skin care products like body lotion. Wear them too many nights in a row without laundering, and you might notice irritation, breakouts, or that not-so-fresh smell. To settle the debate, we asked several cleaning experts how often pajamas really need to be washed—and their answers depended on a few key factors.

How Often to Wash Your Pajamas After Wearing Them

How often you wash your pajamas depends on several factors, including whether you sweat during the night or how long you're wearing your pajamas.

When It's OK to Wash After Every Few Wears

"When deciding how often to wash your pajamas, consider how close in contact they have been with your skin and how much you've perspired while wearing them," seconds Gwen Whiting, co-founder of The Laundress. "If you wear your pajamas to bed and change out of them in the morning, you can probably get away with a couple of wears before naturally occurring body oils, perspiration, and bacteria begin to build up in the fabric, all of which can lead to odor."

If you shower every night before you get into your pajamas, you can probably stretch the time between wash cycles. Your body being clean every time you put on your pajamas means they'll stay fresh longer. However, if you put lotion or oils on after you bathe, you might want to wash them more frequently.

"Unless you spill a midnight snack on them, sweat heavily, or wear them all day long, pajamas can usually be worn a few nights in a row before they need to be washed," says Jennie Varney, brand manager of Molly Maid. Sometimes, though, you'll want to wash them more often.

When You Should Wash After Every Wear

Now, if it's the weekend and you're sitting in pajamas all day (or if you're sick or it's just a regular Tuesday working from home), you probably want to up your washing frequency. "It's worth noting that if you're wearing them all day...you'll want to wash them after each wear," says Whiting.

According to Chris Albers, marketing director at Carbona, "Since you're spending an average of seven to eight hours per night sleeping in your pajamas, you should launder them as frequently as you would your traditional daytime garments."

Melissa Maker, author and founder of housekeeping service Clean My Space, explains, "Washing pajamas is dependent on whether you wear them as your only sleep layer, or if you wear them as a sleep layer with an undergarment (as a second layer). If they're an only layer, they should be treated as underwear and washed every day. If they're a second layer, they should be washed every two to three days."

What Happens When You Don't Wash Pajamas Often Enough

We spend a good amount of time in bed—roughly a third of our day on average. During that time, we slough off skin cells, dirt, and even bacteria onto our pajamas and sheets. Plus, dust mites eat those particles, so there's the added risk of those buggers multiplying.

If you don't wash your pajamas often enough, you risk side effects like aggravated allergies, rashes, infections, and even MRSA (in extreme cases).¹ In addition, body odor will increase the more you postpone washing your PJs, and you may just generally feel grimy and grungy.

If you don't want to lug laundry to the laundromat too frequently, there are ways you can increase your pajama life before it needs washing. "Showering at night, before putting on pajamas (rather than in the morning) can help increase the frequency of wear to two to three times before needing to wash them," says Lindsey Boyd, co-founder of The Laundress. "And stay away from using too much body lotion or tanning lotion before wearing them–stains and product buildup means you should be washing them after each wear."