Can you help me understand why so many people are obsessed with anti-bacterials and hand sanitizers for hands, but find it ok to put their dirty body in bed without showering?

hm, that is pretty gnarly.

It is hard to sell people a shower before bed. It is easy to sell them a two dollar bottle of gel that doesn’t really do anything. So I would chalk it up to advertising.

Eewww! That’s like not washing your hands after you go poop. My hubby and I are both squeaky when we get into bed, unless one of us has been super sick and not left the bed all day anyway.

The germs on my body are mine…the germs on my hands are around 2,000 other peoples germs. I am a hand washing fiend! FWIW I do NOT go to bed without showering first and putting on homemade scented body oil!

Hey, how else are the bedbugs going to survive?

I see your point, kinda but not really.

My “dirty” body has been shirted and panted all day after my morning shower (on a non gym day, but even on a gym day, I shower after the morning gym). Whereas my hands have touched toilet seats, door knobs, shaken hands (many times of people who don’t wash their freakin’ hands, I’m sure), touched food, so on and so on. . . rarely do I do any of those activities with a pectoral muscle or a calf . . . so it’s ok to get in bed without showering!

Is this about showering in the morning vs. showering at night? I worked with woman who showered at night because she couldn’t stand the idea of getting into bed dirty but by the time she got to work in the morning she didn’t smell all that great. I shower in the morning. I don’t like the idea of going out into the world unclean. Forget the sheets, they can be laundered. Me, I like to start the day and face my fellow humans fresh and clean.

All I know is, I don’t catch a cold from sitting in a chair, I get it from touching things that other people have touched, namely things like doorknobs. I also agree that because the body is clothed and the hands are rarely protected and touch all kinds of different things (if you’re at a second-hand store looking through all kinds of items that hundreds of people have handled, it’s going to be your hands that come into contact with that, not the rest of your body). When I go to bed, I rarely sleep in the clothes I was wearing that day, save the underwear. Not to mention what @lillycoyote said about not being clean enough in the morning. You can brush your teeth at night, but you’re going to want to in the morning.

Anti-bacterial soaps and sanitizers are really bad. Nobody should be using that shit. (hint: resistance) @johnpowell got it with the advertising thing.

As for showering at night before bed – I only do that if I feel that I need it. I shower in the morning, shower after a good workout, and change my clothes prior to bed.

It’s often what people could do or think they could do at the given time. Hand sanitizers are simple and quick to use in all situations to help you to keep your hygiene or ‘feeling’ of cleanliness while avoiding shower then fall in to your bed is easily understandable if one is far too tired to have a shower and need an immediate rest, or let loose themselves a bit, since no one is looking at them so it’s not that important to keep their ‘clean’ reputation at home.

We also use our hands more often than we use our body to interact with other people so it’s more vital to keep your hands clean. We will need to scrub our itchy eyes, shake hand with other people (who may infect you through their dirty hands), grab your sandwiches,etc.

Probably because the hands are the most immediate body parts of the body which come in contact with germy surfaces. Many contagious diseases are transmitted by hand contact, so hand sanitizers are usually a good line of defense. But I still prefer good ol’ handwashing with soap and warm running water.

I know what you mean, though. I can never go to bed without showering first. Even if I showered about 5 hours earlier, I STILL have to clean my entire body right before I get into bed. I love the feeling of a freshly showered body against clean bedsheets!

I don’t shower before going to bed. But I do have designated inside clothes. Even if I’m just lounging in bed in the middle of the day, I’ll change out of my outside clothes before hopping into bed. My other half makes fun of me for this.

But that’s more about dirt.
The whole antibacterial thing is about germs/hands.

I’m with the “What germs? I’ve been wearing clothes all day.” people. FWIW, I don’t use anti-bacterial soap or sanitizers, either, though.

Wow, between this Q and the shoe one and I haven’t even read all the others yet! it’s just a damned wonder that anybody even talks to me, let alone that I’m still alive. I don’t shower before bed as a given, I don’t shower every day as a given. My skin is in much better shape not washing away all the natural oils and such every day. Good thing we’re virtual here, I’d probably make half of you sick just by being in the same room. Good thing my RL people have such wonderful immune systems…

The clothes I wear to work go into the hamper as soon as I get home and my sweats an shirt end up in the same place or on the floor at night, so it’s only my germy body in the bed. I shower in the morning because I get serious bedhead.

@JilltheTooth Come on over darlin’. I can try to follow your example, and we’ll have a no-shower party.

I think they are more concerned about catching/transmitting c old viruses, ecoli etc. when they use hand sanitizers a lot although they say it kills the good bacteria as wel, so it is debatable
Not everyone needs to take shower/bath everyday. That is more about feeling good. Some people sweat a lot. Some don’t. Some have oily skin some have dry skin. Office workers and mechanics, etc. don’t have the same need.

Also, cleaning oneself can be done by sponge bath, and washing the feet etc.

How do you feel about routinely (not in an emergency) putting the contents of the purse for eg. on the floor/ground while searching for something? Or sitting on the ground and then sitting on a chair. Or sitting on a sofa etc. with the shoes on?

Paranoia, mostly. I suppose that one is at home with his own filth, by contrast.

I find myself in the opposite camp. I don’t bother with hand sanitizer (principle: overuse of the stuff contributes to super-bacteria, practice: hype aversion) but I always shower before bed.