This is the first in what we hope will become a series of product reviews here on the Snoozester Sleep Blog. Over the past month, we’ve had a chance to get a feel for CleanRest’s line of mattress and pillow covers. CleanRest’s products are designed to “Protect your Sleep ™” by shielding you from the dust mites, allergens and microscopic toxins that take up residence in your bed (actually your mattress, box spring, pillows and comforter).
CleanRest’s products utilize a proprietary, patented fabric known as Micron One to create a barrier between you and your bedding. The key is, as you may have figured from the name, that the pores in the fabric are only one micron (read: very, very, very small). For a series of reasons that are beyond the scope of this review, this has the effect of preventing the evil-nasties from getting cozy in your napping nook.
This much you could have gathered from the CleanRest website, so on to our review…
We don’t have the scientific know-how or the equipment to prove whether or not CleanRest’s products are as effective at protecting you from dust mites, micro-toxins and allergens as they claim, so we decided to focus on the overall CleanRest experience. To start, the product packaging was very good, similar to the packaging used for other bedding products like sheets and pillow cases. One concern I have with purchasing high-tech, synthetic fabrics, especially ones I’m going to wear or sleep on, is - do they have a weird petrol-like smell? In the case of the CleanRest products we received, thankfully, no.
On to “installation” - if you can put a pillow case on your pillow, you can “install” the CleanRest system on your bed. We didn’t test the mattress cover on an exceptionally thick / deep mattress (15″+), but it doesn’t seem like many mattresses would be too big to fit (if you are considering buying for your bed, and you have trouble buying fitted sheets, you may want to call ahead and confirm).
So now that we’ve got our CleanRest mattress and pillow covers installed, how do they feel? Well, for starters, they are designed to go underneath your linens, so you aren’t in direct contact with the MicronOne material. The addition of the CleanRest products to our test bed (get it? ha ha!) did not seem to have any noticeable impact on in-bed temperature (as someone who is always too hot, this was one of my primary concerns). We did, however, notice that the MicronOne fabric can be kind of noisy (in a swishy, pantlegs-of-a-jumpsuit-rubbing-together kind of way). This may bother some more than others. The MicronOne fabric is less “plasticy” than plastic, but we’re not talking about 1200TC Egyptian cotton here; the best description for the texture of the fabric would be something like a high-end hotel shower curtain liner - part fabric, part plastic.
All-in-all, the addition of the CleanRest system had a fairly small impact on the comfort of our test bed (aside from the potential, but hard-to-measure benefit of the reduction in microscopic bed pirates), since we like our bed the way it is, that’s a good thing. That brings up another point - do you really need an allergen / micro-toxin / dust mite barrier in your bed? Well, maybe… If you suffer from allergies to allergens, micro-toxins or dust mites that live in your bed, then yes. If not, then probably not.
The Wall Street Journal published an article several years ago debating this very point as it applies to products that claim to protect you from dust mites.
In conclusion, the CleanRest system seems to be a great solution for all those who are allergic to, irritated by or paranoid about the allergens, dust mites and micro-toxins living in their beds. At about $320 - $510 (depending on the size of your bed) for a complete set that will cover your bed, it may not be worth the money for the rest of us.
3.5 stars out of 5 stars (stars subtracted for mild noisyness, high cost and debatable necessity)
