The Stain Library

How to remove blood stains from bed sheets

  • DifficultyEasy
  • OutlookUsually removable
  • MaterialBed sheets
  • Reviewed1 September 2026

The short answer

Rinse the mark under a cold tap, soak the sheet in cold salted water for at least half an hour, then wash it cold or warm and check the mark before you ever wash it hot. The wash that kills dust mites is also the wash that sets blood.

If it has just happened

Lift the sheet and check whether it soaked through to the mattress before you strip the bed. Then rinse the mark under a cold tap from the back of the fabric.

Heat can set this stain permanently

Do not use hot water, a tumble dryer, an iron or a steam cleaner until the mark has gone. Heat fixes this type of stain into the fibres and makes it far harder to shift.

Test on a hidden area first

Try any cleaner on a hidden part of the material first, such as a seam, an offcut, inside a hem or under a piece of furniture. Wait for it to dry and check for colour change before treating the visible mark.

Treat blood that is not your own as a hazard

Blood can carry bloodborne viruses. If it is not your own, put disposable gloves on before you start, cover any cut or graze on your hands with a waterproof dressing first, and wash your hands when you have finished. That is the standard precaution, and it applies to a small mark on a sheet as much as to a large one.

Rinse cleaning products out of bedding properly

Sheets are held against skin for hours at a time, so anything left in the fibre gets a long contact. Enzyme detergent residue and peroxide are both common causes of irritation, so give treated bedding an extra rinse cycle rather than assuming the wash dealt with it.

What you will need

  • Disposable gloves If the blood is not your own.
  • Cold running water and a bowl or bath
  • Table salt One or two tablespoons per litre of cold water.

Helpful but not essential

  • Washing up liquid One drop, for working into the mark.
  • Biological laundry detergent The enzymes are what shift a dried mark.
  • Hydrogen peroxide, 3 percent White bedding only, and rinse it out thoroughly.

Fresh blood on bed sheets

Deal with it before the bed is stripped, and check the mattress while you are there.

  1. Check underneath first

    Lift the sheet and look at the mattress or the mattress protector before you move anything. Blood that went through is far easier to treat while it is still damp, and once the bed is stripped it is easy to forget.

  2. Blot and rinse cold

    Blot the sheet with a dry cloth, then hold the marked area under a cold tap from the back of the fabric until the water coming through is clear.

  3. Soak in cold salted water

    Put the sheet in a bowl or a bath of cold water with one or two tablespoons of salt per litre and leave it for thirty minutes. Agitate the marked area against itself once or twice.

  4. Wash and check before drying

    Wash on a cold or thirty degree cycle with your usual detergent, then look at the sheet wet before it goes on the line. Anything still visible needs treating again, not drying.

  • How longTen minutes plus a thirty minute soak
  • RepeatingRinse two or three times rather than scrubbing once.
  • Stop ifthe rinse water is clear, or the fabric starts to look pale where you have been working

Dried blood on bed sheets

Dried is not the same as set. If it has not been washed yet, this usually still comes out.

  1. Soak the sheet cold overnight

    Submerge the whole sheet in cold water in a bath or a bucket and leave it overnight. Long and cold beats short and warm every time with blood.

  2. Work biological detergent into the mark

    Lift the marked area out, put a little biological detergent straight onto it and rub it gently between your fingers. Leave it on for thirty minutes.

  3. Rinse cold and repeat if it is fading

    Rinse in cold water and look at it wet. If it has clearly lightened, repeat the detergent step once before washing.

  4. Wash cold and line dry

    Wash at thirty degrees, then dry on a line or an airer. Save the hot wash for the next time the bedding goes round, once the mark has gone.

  • How longFour hours to overnight, plus a wash
  • RepeatingOne repeat overnight soak is worth doing. A third is not.
  • Stop iftwo overnight soaks leave the mark unchanged

Old or set in blood on bed sheets

This is a sheet that went through a hot wash with the mark still on it. Be realistic about the ceiling here.

  1. Soak overnight in cold biological solution

    Dissolve biological detergent in cold water at the dose on the pack and leave the sheet fully submerged overnight. Do not be tempted to use warm water to help it along.

  2. Rinse and judge it wet

    Rinse cold and look at the mark while the fabric is wet. Wet fabric shows the honest result. Dry fabric always looks better than it is.

  3. Oxidise it, white bedding only

    On white sheets, either soak in an oxygen based stain remover in cold water for four hours, or dab 3 percent hydrogen peroxide onto the mark and leave it five minutes. Rinse very thoroughly afterwards, because this is fabric that sits against skin all night.

  4. Wash and dry outside if you can

    Wash at thirty degrees and hang it in daylight. On white cotton, sunlight takes a little more out of a faint remaining shadow.

  • How longOvernight, twice
  • RepeatingTwo overnight biological soaks. If it has not moved, it is not going to.
  • Stop ifthe mark is unchanged after two overnight soaks, or the fabric feels thinner where you have been working

What not to use on bed sheets

  • A sixty degree wash before the mark has gone

    It is the standard bedding cycle and it is exactly hot enough to coagulate the protein into the cotton permanently.

  • The tumble dryer while anything is still visible

    Dryer heat fixes whatever the wash left, and bedding usually goes straight from machine to dryer without being looked at.

  • Hydrogen peroxide on coloured or patterned bedding

    It removes the colour of the mark and the colour of the sheet in the same reaction, and a pale patch on a duvet cover is more obvious than the mark was.

  • Ignoring the mattress underneath

    Blood that soaked through is still there after the sheets are clean, and it is much harder to shift once it has dried into the foam or the ticking.

White compared with coloured bed sheets

White bedding gives you the whole toolkit, including an oxygen soak or hydrogen peroxide. Coloured and patterned bedding does not, because both will take the dye out. On coloured sheets, cold water and a biological soak are where the method stops.

Products that genuinely help here

Try the household route above first. These are worth buying only when it is not enough.

  • Escalation

    Dr. Beckmann Stain Devil for blood, milk and protein, 50 ml

    For one spot on an otherwise clean set

    Soaking a whole double duvet cover to deal with a mark the size of a coin is a lot of bath and a lot of water. A targeted protein remover treats the spot in place, which is the practical answer when the rest of the bedding is fine.

    Worth knowing. It contains oxygen based bleaching agents, so test coloured or patterned bedding on a hem first, and rinse it out fully afterwards.

    Check current price Checked 7 September 2026

    View at Amazon UK Paid link

If the mark is still there

Soak the whole sheet in cold water with biological detergent overnight, then wash it cold and hang it out to dry. Sunlight helps a little with the last of a faint mark on white cotton and does nothing on colours.

If the mark is still visible after two overnight soaks, it is either set or it is not coming out. On white bedding the remaining option is an oxygen soak or a dab of 3 percent hydrogen peroxide, rinsed out well because that is fabric you sleep against.

A sheet that has been washed at sixty degrees with the mark still on it is the common failure. Expect a faint brown shadow that stays. It launders normally and it is hygienically fine, it just looks like what it is.

When to stop and call someone

There is rarely a professional answer for a sheet. There is one for what is underneath it: if blood has soaked into a mattress and you cannot get it out of the top layer, a specialist upholstery cleaner can extract far more than blotting will, and it is worth calling before the mattress dries fully.

Why blood behaves this way on bed sheets

Bedding is the easiest place to treat blood and the most common place to set it, for the same reason: sheets are washed hot on purpose.

While the blood is wet the protein is in solution and rinses out. Once the wash reaches around forty degrees the protein starts to coagulate, and at sixty it is done. The mark is then bonded into the cotton rather than sitting in it, and the soak that would have worked yesterday does nothing today.

So the order of operations carries the whole method: treat cold, look at it wet, and only then run the cycle you would normally run.

Common questions

It went through to the mattress. What now?

Blot with a cloth wrung out in cold water, working inwards from the edge of the mark, and change to a clean part of the cloth as it picks up. Do not pour water on it. A mattress cannot be rinsed, and anything that soaks into the foam will take days to dry and can smell before it does.

Should I wash bedding hotter to disinfect it?

Yes, but afterwards. Get the mark out cold first, then run the hot wash you would normally run. Doing it in the other order guarantees the mark stays.

Does salt actually do anything?

It is the cold water doing most of the work, but detergent manufacturers still specify a salted soak and people who deal with this regularly report it as what works. It is cheap and it is not going to harm the sheet, so it is worth including.

Sources

What we checked and when. Where a manufacturer instruction disagrees with anything here, follow the manufacturer.

  1. Persil UK, how to remove blood stains from clothes manufacturer

    Manufacturer instruction to use cold water only because hot water sets the proteins, to soak in cold salted water at one or two tablespoons of salt per litre for several hours, and not to wash hot until the mark has gone.

    Checked 1 September 2026

  2. Getting blood out of bedding, Mumsnet housekeeping discussion community

    A long UK thread in which an overnight cold soak, cold salted water and a biological pre-soak are repeatedly reported as what worked, and in which the original difficulty was a hot wash that had already set the mark.

    Checked 1 September 2026

  3. How to wash and care for your bedding, Dunelm retailer

    Retailer guidance to use around a third of the usual detergent dose on bedding, to line dry cotton sheets where possible, and to tumble dry on the lowest setting over a longer period rather than on heat.

    Checked 1 September 2026

  4. Enzymes in laundry detergents, University of Maryland publication

    Explains that proteases hydrolyse the peptide bonds holding a protein together, which is the mechanism a biological detergent uses on a blood mark that plain detergent will not shift.

    Checked 1 September 2026

  5. Standard infection control precautions, NHS Scotland national manual authority

    Establishes that gloves and an apron are worn where contact with blood is anticipated, and that cuts and grazes are covered with a waterproof dressing before the work starts.

    Checked 1 September 2026