Right now, you need to grab your doona off the bed. And soak it in 'washing soda'.

This is a very important question: Do you wash your doona? Y/N?

And no, we’re not talking about the duvet cover but the actual fluffy, cloud-like doona… which is apparently teeming with a whole heap of bacteria, dust, dead skin cells, leftover fake tan, sweat and goodness knows what else.

We know this because Sara, a member of the Mums Who Clean Facebook group, did a ‘strip soak’ and washed her doona – and the before and after photos are making our skin feel tingly.

The Mamamia Outloud team discuss: How often do you wash your sheets? Post continues below.

Speaking to Mamamia, Sara says she used a quarter of a cup of  Lectric’s Inwash & Soaker Washing Soda ($3.85) and soaked her doona in a bathtub filled with the “hottest water from the tap”. She then left it there until the water cooled down.

The washing soda is a form of sodium carbonate which lifts and suspends dirt and grime, and the below photos prove it does this very effectively.

“I wash the doona about once a month. It took a day to dry and we had a good wind so that helped. Getting it from the tub to the laundry was a mission as well. There was water everywhere,” she said.

“I’m going to try and do it every three months as I’m still in shock at how much dirt came out. The doona was a lot brighter too. If it’s pretty bad the next time, then it might be easier to go buy a new one. Sheets are so much easier to do…

“I’m just glad others out there had the same [experience]. I’m still embarrassed at how dirty it was.”

Now let's be honest. Washing bed sheets suck (let alone hauling your actual bedding into your bathtub) but how often should you do this?

Speaking to the Huffington Post, Helen Johnson, a spokesperson for The Fine Bedding Company, said a doona that hasn't been washed for a year can contain over 20,000 dust mites and advocates for people to wash their doonas every six months or annually at the very least. This even applies to people who sleep with flat sheets.

She also says that people shed millions of skin cells every night and produce about 200ml of sweat in a night.

If you've consistently placed washing your doona in the 'too hard basket', consider this your persuasive motivation to start.

Now excuse me as I haul my manky, biological-weapon grade, cesspool of a doona into the bath and soak it for all it's worth. It's time.

Do you regularly wash your doona? Tell us in a comment below.