How to get blood out of a mattress

What to do first

Blood needs a little more care than most stains. Wear disposable gloves, avoid direct contact and wash your hands afterwards. Take particular care with blood that isn't yours or whose source you don't know. If blood touches broken skin, your eyes or your mouth, follow current health guidance. This guide covers stain removal, not infection control.

• Whether the blood is fresh or dried, and roughly how large the mark is
• Whether it reached the mattress or was stopped by a removable protector or cover
• Your mattress's care label, the maker's instructions and your warranty terms
• Clean white or colourfast cloths or towels, and disposable gloves
• A little clean water, only if your maker allows moisture
• A stain product, only if needed and allowed by your maker and the product's label

Blood on a mattress isn't quite the same problem as blood on a washable fabric: the mark may sit above layers that some makers say must not be washed or soaked. A removable protector or cover has its own care label, the mattress beneath can have different restrictions, and removable doesn't automatically mean machine washable. Our guide to getting urine out of a mattress gives more examples of why the manufacturer's instructions come first.

We read guidance from Which?, the National Bed Federation's Bed Advice, and care pages from mattress makers including Silentnight, Emma, Nectar, Simba, Eve and Tempur on 21 September 2026, plus GOV.UK infection-control guidance for the point about handling blood. Makers write for their own mattresses and the National Bed Federation is a trade body, so we treat all of this as maker and trade guidance, not testing. The GOV.UK guidance is written for childcare settings. Sources differ on water temperature, steam and chemicals, so we don't set a single rule. We haven't tested any of this ourselves, and guidance changes, so check the current instructions for your mattress.

How to deal with fresh blood on a mattress

1. Check the care guidance firstLook at your mattress's care label, the maker's instructions and your warranty terms. Some makers restrict liquids altogether.
2. Put on disposable glovesAvoid direct contact with the blood, and wash your hands when you've finished.
3. Strip the bedRemove the bedding. Take off a cover or protector only if its care label and the maker's instructions allow it.
4. Absorb what you canPress clean, dry cloths or towels onto the blood and lift, using a dry part each time. Don't rub, which can spread the mark.
5. Add as little moisture as possible, and only if allowedIf your maker allows moisture, dab with a little cool or cold clean water on a cloth, and don't soak the mattress. If it says the material can't be sponged or washed, stop at dry absorption.
6. Only if a mark remains, use a compatible product, if allowedChoose one whose label covers blood and your mattress's material, follow the maker's guidance, and try it on a small hidden area first. Apply it to a cloth rather than to the mattress.
7. Dry completely, then reassessLet the mattress air dry completely before you cover it or make the bed, then judge the result. Don't keep adding liquid because a mark is still visible while it's damp.

What changes once the blood has dried?

Dried blood is generally harder to remove than a fresh mark, and we didn't find a well-supported home method for it on a mattress. What follows is a cautious way of deciding what to do, not a method that's guaranteed to work.

Start with your maker's instructions and what has already been used on the mark. Don't soak or re-wet it by default: liquid goes into the layers, and some makers restrict it altogether. If your guidance allows a product, use only a compatible one whose label covers blood and your mattress's material, with as little moisture as it needs.

Then let it dry completely and reassess. Complete removal can't be guaranteed. If the mark stays, or you're unsure what your mattress allows, contact the maker or consider a professional.

How much water, and how do you dry it?

Most of the blood-specific mattress guidance we reviewed uses cool or cold water, but makers' instructions differ: Silentnight, for example, specifies warm soapy water followed by a cold rinse. Follow the care guidance for your mattress and use as little moisture as possible. Avoiding hot water is the cautious choice; steam is a separate question, covered below.

Several makers, and Which?, advise against soaking a mattress, particularly a foam one; the memory foam section below gives examples. So use as little moisture as possible, and treat a mark that isn't lifting as a reason to pause, not to add liquid.

Let the mattress air dry completely, in line with your maker's guidance, before you cover it or make the bed. A surface that feels dry doesn't prove the layers underneath are (our own cautious reading, not something a maker has demonstrated), and we can't give a drying time: it depends on how much liquid reached the mattress, what it's made from and the room.

Can you use hydrogen peroxide?

Some makers mention hydrogen peroxide for blood: Emma and Nectar do for their own mattresses, and Nectar advises a patch test because it can bleach fabric slightly. Others restrict liquids or chemical cleaners altogether; Hypnos says detergents and chemical cleaners may bleach or disintegrate its fabric. Your mattress's instructions come first, and we give no strength, recipe or method for it.

What about bicarbonate and other home remedies?

Bicarbonate of soda. Which? suggests a little in the water if plain cold water doesn't lift a blood stain, and some makers mention it too. It isn't essential, we give no ratio, and your maker's instructions come first.

Salt. Simba suggests salt with a drop of water for blood, but we found little support for it elsewhere, so it isn't part of our method.

Soap and specialist products. Some makers mention mild soap or detergent where they allow moisture, and we give no mixture. A specialist stain product's label must specifically cover the surface and the use, and we don't say how any product works.

Vinegar, cornflour and ammonia appear in online advice, but the mattress guidance we reviewed doesn't offer them for blood, so we leave them out. Bleach can strip colour from fabrics and isn't a method we give. Never mix products.

Can you use a spot cleaner or steam cleaner?

Not as a default. A spot cleaner or extraction machine adds liquid as well as removing it, and some makers restrict liquids altogether. Whether one is suitable depends on both your mattress's instructions and the machine's own, and we found too little evidence to recommend extraction for every mattress.

If you're unsure, follow your maker's guidance rather than improvising.

Don't steam-clean a mattress unless its maker explicitly allows it. Tempur and Eve say not to, while Silentnight and Simba mention steam for some mattresses, so there's no universal rule. Nothing we reviewed shows that steam clears blood contamination.

What if the mattress is memory foam?

Some foam mattress makers set strict limits on wet cleaning. Tempur says its material can't be washed, sponged or dry cleaned; Eve says the same of its memory foam and hybrid mattresses, adding that doing so might damage the mattress beyond repair and invalidate the warranty. Silentnight advises against soaking memory foam.

Those are instructions for those makers' own mattresses, not a rule for every foam mattress, and we haven't found reliable material-by-material rules to give for latex, sprung or hybrid ones. Check the instructions for your exact mattress; a removable cover and the layers beneath can have different rules. If the core shouldn't be sponged or wet-cleaned, don't override that with a general stain method: absorb what you can with dry cloths, then ask the maker.

When to stop, and when to get help

Stop, or pause and reassess, if:

• There's a substantial amount of blood.
• The blood isn't yours, or you don't know whose it is.
• The liquid seems to have reached the deeper layers or the core.
• A mark persists after a careful attempt that your maker's guidance allows.
• An odour persists.
• Your maker prohibits liquid treatment.
• You're not sure what the mattress is made from or how it should be cared for.
• The mattress is valuable, or you're concerned about your warranty.
• You can't get it to dry properly.

If you're unsure what your mattress allows, your maker's customer support is a reasonable first step. For a large amount of blood, or a mark or smell that persists, a professional cleaner may be worth considering; check your warranty terms first, as some makers restrict liquids, steam and chemicals. We can't say a professional will get a better result.

Related guides

If it was urine rather than blood, our guide on how to get urine out of a mattress covers that. If it happened on a carpet instead, see how to remove blood from carpet, or for a sofa, how to get blood out of a sofa. You can also browse the Mattresses section →