Think back to this morning. You did the same thing you’ve done nearly every day for most of your life: You got out of bed. But what did you do after that?
Do make your bed most of the time?
Or, do you make your bed almost never
That’s me.
And it’s not
U.S. Navy Admiral William H. McRaven. In 2014 McRaven gave a now-famous commencement address at the university of Texas. “If you want to change the
world, make your bed,” he said. Making your bed would, he said, set the tone
for the day, import a sense of pride and accomplishment, reinforce that small
tasks matter, and set yourself up for a strong start for tomorrow.
Throw all of that away.
I’m here to tell you NOT to make your bed. And to give you three undeniable reasons why.
Reason 1: Making your bed is gross.
I was appalled the day I learned that basically every bed is home to about 1.5 million microscopic dust mites. (I was more horrified the day I learned about Demodex mites – which live IN YOUR EYELASHES and are apparently NORMAL. But I digress). TEN PERCENT of the weight of a two-year old pillow can be composed of dead mites and their waste products.
And here’s the kicker: Dust mites thrive on human dander and warm, moist conditions – like the inside of your bed after a cozy night’s sleep. Making your bed traps your residual warmth and moisture in, leaving the mites to happily feast on your leftover skin flakes. They THRIVE in a made bed. So, leave those covers off and let things cool off and dry up.
(As an
aside, I’ll be totally honest with you – there doesn’t seem to be actual
research proving that an unmade bed makes a more hostile home for dust mites,
but do you really want to be tucking those guys in every
morning?)
Reason 2: An unmade bed is more comfortable.
I don’t want the sheets tucked in. I want myself tucked in. I want the fluid freedom of rumpled, flowing sheets and blankets cascading around me and burrito-ing me close. the first thing I do at any hotel is kick-kick-kick out the bottom of the sheets out so I can swaddle them around my feet.
Another
thing: let’s assume
you have a spare blanket for if you get chilly. A bed-making person (like my husband, for instance) will have
it neatly folded across the foot of the bed. But do you really want to fool
with reaching all the way down there and unfolding it when you’re cold and
asleep in the middle of the night? I don’t. Unmade? Reach down, yank up, sleep.
Reason 3: You have better things to do.
Let’s be honest. Let’s say making a bed neatly takes 2 minutes. That’s 12 hours per year spent making your bed. Over 60 years, you’ve spent a WHOLE MONTH—that's thirty twenty-four-hour days—making your bed. You could take that 2 minutes to meditate, which has proven health benefits, unlike making your bed. You could pour yourself a cup of coffee, which, in my opinion, is much more energizing than making your bed.
You could even use that time to do legitimate chores: If you don’t wash your dishes, your kitchen gets gross and you have to eat everything with your hands. If you don’t do the laundry, you’ll stink and look unappealing, to say the least. But nothing bad happens if you don’t make your bed.
Think about it.
Does
making your bed matter in the grand scheme of life? Unless your name is Admiral
William McRaven, I doubt it’s going to come up on that fated day your family and
friends share fond memories at your funeral.
It’s not
a popular message, but someone had to say it: Save time. Stay comfortable.
Starve the mites. Don’t make your bed.
