Background

• People who suffer from allergies associated with their pillows or bedding are often allergic to dust mites. Dust mites live in warm, moist environments like carpet or your pillow. Dust mites are invisible to the human eye but could cause discomfort and aggravating symptoms that can keep you up at night and promote chronic conditions such as sinusitis or hay fever.
  
  

Cause

• A person with a dust mite allergy is not just allergic to the mites themselves, but to all of their byproducts, according to the Mayo Clinic. Dust mites leave waste and shed continuously, creating a more hostile environment for people suffering from an allergic reaction to them. If you have a dust mite allergy, your body recognizes dust mite byproducts as harmful to your body so it releases chemicals to attack them. This reaction is what leads to the allergic reaction.
  
  

Purpose

• The Mayo Clinic says that certain pillow covers are designed to block and prevent mites from colonizing on the pillow. They are made from vinyl, not allowing dust mites to survive in or even inhabit the pillow. You shouldn't place another pillow case over the dust mite pillow cover unless you wash the secondary pillow case on a weekly basis in hot soapy water, according to the National Library of Medicine.
  
  

Considerations

• Along with using pillow covers, consider using dust mite protecting encasing for your mattress and other bedding as well. This will make the use of a pillow cover for allergies more effective. If you don't find that your allergy symptoms improve after using pillow covers for more than two weeks, you may need to consider taking more aggressive steps to killing dust mites in your home. This may entail replacing carpet, keeping a dust-free house and keeping your living space dry. If you have a severe allergic reaction to dust mites, talk to an allergist to discuss other options for you.
  
  

Warning

• Do not use dust mite covers with a newborn or infant without first consulting with a pediatrician. Dust mite covers do not allow air to pass through and could lead to suffocation of a young child.