WHO doesn’t love pyjamas? They keep you warm and cosy on cold nights. They protect your sheets when you sweat in the summer. You can kick around in them on your day off. And the mere ritual of changing into them helps small children get to sleep.

That’s what we want to believe about pyjamas. Unfortunately, it’s a lie.

In fact, pyjamas are a disgusting, festering, crusty breeding ground for bacteria, which, if incubated for long enough, can unleash all sorts of horrible skin ailments, staph infections and even cystitis. According to Professor Sally Bloomfield of the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, that incubation period begins after a minimum of one week.

However, a recent survey in the UK found men wear their pyjamas for an envelope-pushing of 13 nights compared to an utterly revolting 17 nights for women. The poll, commissioned by mattress company Ergoflex, asked 2,500 couples, aged between 18 and 30, about their sleepwear and bedtime habits.

The most popular choices among women were the traditional “two-piece pyjama set” at 37 per cent, “underwear only” at 28 per cent, and “partner’s nightwear” at 26 per cent.

For men, the majority preferred underwear only (38 per cent) followed by “pyjama pants/shorts” at 35 per cent, and “two-piece pyjama set” at 19 per cent.
Almost 20 per cent of participants admitted to waking up wearing less than what they had on when they went to bed, with socks and tops the most commonly removed items at 31 and 14 per cent, respectively.

Women claimed alternating between two pairs made it easy to forget how long they had not been washed for while the most popular excuse for men (two thirds) was that they didn’t do the washing. About half of both men and women claimed that their pyjamas didn’t smell to them and therefore did not need a wash.