Bed making us sick?

Ok... John and I have what I believe is a full sized bed. It came from his grandparents house, where it sat in a guest bedroom.. no one ever slept in it, and it was kept clean. Then it sat out in the horse trailer for 4 months while the house was being built... but it was clean and dry in there. We've been sleeping on it for 4 months or so now, and we have our specific sides that we sleep on.
Every morning for the past week or two, John has been waking up with a stuffy nose, a headache, and just feeling generally awful. As soon as he's up moving around, he feels great. Well, last night he fell asleep on "my" side of the bed so I had no choice but to sleep on his side. I woke up this morning to a stuffy nose, horrible headache, neck pain, back ache, can't breathe at all, etc. I've been up for about half an hour or so and my stuffy nose is gone, and my back doesn't hurt as much... I still have an awful headache though.
Anyway, it seems pretty odd to me, that our bed may be making us sick... I wash sheets, pillow cases, and blankets twice a week. Dogs are not allowed on the bed right now since they go outside where there's no grass and are usually somewhat muddy when they come inside from potty time. The cats are allowed on the bed, but they usually are not on there... Spike sleeps with us but that's about all.
I can't think of a thing that may be causing this... does anyone have any ideas on how I might fix the problem aside from getting a new bed?

It IS possible that at some time the mattress got a little damp and you never noticed it - could have gotten some mold in the mattress.

If you don't want to buy a new set, then maybe you can cover it completely with one of those plasic covers that people with allergies use - would seal the entire mattress - not just the top side you are sleeping on.

That is why we don't really buy a "used" mattress.

I would say it is possible too. I'd go out and buy one of the covers that was mentioned or a new set if money is available.

I third that on the plastic sheet. Try that out first and if nothing, then it could be the posture that the bed puts you in while you sleep.

Or perhaps the cleaning job wasn't deep enough, and with you and John sleeping on it, some allergens are coming to the surface.

Did you know that the general rule is to buy a new matress every 2 years?

Reason being, if you slice the matress up and get a microscope you will see all sorts of bacteria and tiny animals in it. They live off our sweats and body heat. (gross i know)

Maybe you could turn the Matress around so his head isnt on "that side" its just the feet.

Thanks... I'll try flipping the matress and I'll see about getting one of those covers first. After I posted I went back to sleep on "my" side of the bed and woke up feeling great. It's really strange.

That happens to Dave and us. If he sleeps on my side he gets sick but is fine on his side....Im clueless as to what to do for it..It may just be how your sleeping or the bed itself..

Beds are a breeding ground for dust mites. We shed skin, no matter how clean we are, and that skin settles into the pillows and mattress and is yummy food for dust mites Did you know that after 1 year, your pillow is 25% heavier than when you bought it new? Yep! The 25% increase in weight is from dust mites.

I have a water bed so I wipe the vinyl mattress down once a month.

Washing sheets weekly in hot water isn't enough. You need to vacuum your mattress regularly and you should have a good mattress cover on the mattress too. One that is actually moisture proof and hypo allergenic so that you don't get a build up of dead skin and dust mites in your bed. And you should replace pillows every year.