I don't like going to bed. Nor do I like getting out of it. It's a conundrum.
My office desk is exactly 7 feet away from my bedroom. Every time I leave my office to go downstairs or outside this is what I see. Comfortable bed, napping cat, linen bedding, fluffy duvet ...
It's not that much of a temptation in the summer, but in this gutter of a season we call late winter - it's as persuasive as a late night infomercial to an insomniac. I've only succumbed to the temptation once or twice and the main reason for that is not my military-like discipline. It's the fact that my bed is already made.
If it were all a jumble of sheets and pillowy down I might be more likely to swan dive into it. But it's made, so I continue on with my day instead of curling up to sleep. Pulling back the covers and getting into an already made bed in the middle of the day is pathetic. Whereas falling into one that's still an unmade mess is just practical. Smartly taking advantage of a situation, really - I mean when you think about it.
That's reason number 1 to make your bed in the morning. The other billion reasons all lead to happiness.
According to a study by Hunch.com only 27% of people make their bed. Which is too bad because
70% of people who make their beds consider themselves to be happy.
Happiness expert, Gretchen Rubin; The Power of Habit author Charles Duhigg; and US Navy Admiral William H. McRaven all believe in the POWER of making your bed.
Gretchen Rubin says making your bed is also one of the most effective and easiest triggers of happiness.
Charles Duhigg describes making your bed every morning as a "keystone habit". A way to kick start a pattern of good behaviour for the rest of the your day, week, month, life.
But most impressive is US Navy Admiral William H. McRaven's commencement speech. Here's just a little bit of it ...
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Nancy W
Sometimes, very rarely, well ok never. I guess I should swallow that frog, but my husband does a much better job at making the bed...so I just sort of pull the covers up and maybe fluff it a bit. To me that counts as making the bed, but to him, it does not. So it does get made every day, just not by me...thanks Karen, for the opportunity to say swallow that frog!
Arli
Yes, I make the bed everyday. I am happy. I usually don’t sleep in the nude.
Heather
I don't really like making my bed but I do it, because I like coming into my bedroom in the evening and seeing my neatly made bed. I didn't always make my bed, I know that, but I can't recall when I began making it everyday, so I must have been doing it for a long time now. Am I happier?...Yeah, I think I am. I'm always happier when I just get on with things I don't really like doing instead of procrastinating. And since I like the appearance of a neat and tidy home, the bed-making has to be done. That said, I'm a terrible piler. I leave what I think are tidy piles of books and other things everywhere. I'm working on that bad habit. Hoping Marie Kondo will steer me in the right direction. She's certainly helped me to organize my clothing in an incredibly satisfying way.
Veronica D. Slater
I make my bed. Always. I don’t have a poll to prove it, but I can tell you with certainty it’s not a genetic thing as my kids don’t make theirs most days. Drives me so crazy, I have to do it for them.
Janine
I don’t know if it really counts when all I do is fluff the duvet(no top sheets are allowed on my bed). Or that I’m all that disciplined when all I’m trying to do is keep the dogs from nesting in it. (The little rotters just make a nest between the pillows and the duvet so I really don’t know why I bother)
Kim from Milwaukee
Yay, another fellow no top sheet believer! If I have time in the morning I pull the duvet up and straighten the bed, but if my kitty is snug in the folds of it I let things be. He's old, he needs peace and I hate rules, anyway.
Karen
O.K. I was just thinking about this last night as I got into bed. It was too warm to be covered in a duvet completely, but not so warm that I didn't need anything. Enter ... the top sheet! You can keep the duvet just down by your waist and have the sheet above. Perfect temperature control, lol. ~ karen!
Rikijean
Always make the bed-makes my heart happy to see it all plumped up and tidy, but not first thing. Must first experience the imperial joys of morning coffee! That lets it air out as well. And yes, Happy Happy! Sometimes I even stroke the bed as I walk past later in the day cuz it’s so satisfying. Simple pleasures!
Donna
Just as you were shocked when you read the study of how many sleep in the nude, I am shocked at how many people actually make their beds every morning and double shocked that they do it right away....and amazed they are happy. I never make the bed except when I change the sheets. And I am very happy, in part because I never feel compelled to make my bed. I subscribe to the let it air out theory and to the theory every one should take a nap every day. If you are going to take a nap why make your bed and if you are going to go to sleep at night in your bed,,,again why make your bed? I suppose if I thought someone was going to see the bed I might feel some pressure to actually make the bed, but no one sees this room except for the cats, dogs and my immediate family, and they seem to take in stride.
Kim
Yes. And yes. I make my bed EVERY morning and I am happy. The odd less than 1% of the time I don’t make my bed it does indeed ruin my day a little (& I make it at night). Of course. This is already a biased stat as the only reason I wouldn’t make my bed is if I was sick. So. You know. Not the best day to begin with.
I also wear pajamas. In case you want to get real technical in your survey. 💁♀️
Tina
I’m the odd one out, I sleep in a chair. I have terrible arthritis in my neck, shoulders and back (and everywhere else, to a lesser degree). I complained to my doctor some years ago. I said that some nights I would hurt so bad that I’d get up and go sleep in my recliner chair. He asked if I sleep well there, I do, so he said to get rid of the bed and put a chair in my bedroom. I did and now I sleep well every night!
I have a leather recliner chair, I made a padded cover for it so I can wash the cover and have a nice, clean bed. I wipe the leather with Murphy’s oil soap each month. And I have a duvet to tuck around me. In the morning, I sit up, fold the duvet and toss it over the chair and I’m done.
Debra B Milam
Tina, me too! I had shoulder replacement surgery in November and it was recommended that I sleep in a recliner for the first couple of months. When the Dr. told me I could remove the splint and sleep without it and go back to my bed, I did.
The next morning my back hurt so bad I could hardly walk, so back to the recliner I went. No bed to make. LOL I do however straighten the blankets on my recliner every morning and I am a happy person. Anyone want to buy a bed?
Tina
I'm at the point where I get minor panic attacks at the idea of sleeping at a hotel or friend's house! But I do have a lot of friends who have changed to chair sleeping. The best choice I made was to make slip covers for the chairs. I can take them off and wash them a couple of times a week and it's just like fresh sheets!
Carie
Aaawwee,..I love this post,....:)....and I love making my bed every morning,.....double duvets in the winter,...two cats who are SO use to having the bed made around them that they just keep sleeping while i tug and smooth out the covers they are buried in,...it makes me smile to have perfectly smooth white linens in my minimal bedroom,....a wondeul start to the day,.....and OH,...how i do love climbing back into tight beautifully made covers at night,....:)....thanks for this,..! Cj
carol
I'm old. I need to pee as soon as I get up and then it is time to feed the cat and check my e-mail. Then it's time to work on some craft project, or go some where, or do something else I really want to do.
Since my days and nights belong to me. I can, and do, sleep when I want without any real concern about sunlight outside, or darkness.
I do make my bed when I change the sheets or if I have company coming over, so I guess I'm not totally an animal.
Bottom line is my life is my own. I'm living it to the fullest for how ever long I have left. The bed is on it's own. That is true happiness.
Sue
I love your philosophy, Carol...and, so well said💕💕. I am now an old lady, too. In my younger years, I subscribed to the made-bed rule. 52yrs in nursing and making hospital beds made me realize I would love to have the luxury of having someone (else!) put clean sheets on my bed every single day!
That Karen-Girl... she makes us think about the darndest things! 😁
Jennifer
I DO make my bed every day. I even make it when I get up from my day-sleep (now don’t get judgmental, I work nights) and my husband is getting into it in a few hours. It’s just... neater? More comfortable? Better all around, getting into a made bed at the end of a day, or after a long night of work.
Christina
Make it up every morning right when I get up and on average consider myself pretty happy. On the rare day I don’t make it up, I have noticed I don’t feel the same...less focused, not ready to face the world...have a genuine dislike for going to bed in an unmade bed. Probably stems from childhood, we had to make our beds up daily and it just became a habit I do without thinking much about it.
Tracy
I don’t put the fancy pillows on every day, but pull up and straighten the sheets, tucking the spread over the pillows we sleep on. I don’t like getting into the bed at night if I didn’t make it up in the morning - seems untidy. LOL
Susan F
My mother’s bed making routine involved turning back the bed when you first get up, to let it ‘air’, which addresses Wendi’s concern. Then, after an hour or so, you made it. I discovered duvets, so mine gets made when I get up, or maybe after feeding the cats, anyway before my breakfast. Sometimes in summer it does get aired. How well it gets made depends on my mood, available time and sleeping cats. I like how a made bed looks, so it’s worth the energy. And yes, happy.
Katy
I don’t make the bed and I’m very happy! I read that it’s healthier to let it “air out” when you first get up. Otherwise you trap dust mites... so now I don’t feel guilty about not making. I was a bedmaker as a kid, Mom insisted and heaven help you if you didn’t! I do like how it looks when made so i will sometimes go back later to do it.
Karen
I've read that too! But it's a bit of a misnomer. Like it or not there's nothing you can do about dust mites/ bed mites. You're going to have them no matter what. Made or unmade bed. You just can't think about it, lol. ~ karen!
Wendi
Proud wild child here! No I don’t make my bed. And I have to say, I’m pretty darn happy. I’m of an age that I sweat when I sleep, and it kinda skeeves me out to think about covering that up and letting it fester and mildew in that warm environment. I know, I’m nuts, but that’s how my crazy brain works! lol
Frankly Beck
Sweaty or not, you're doing the right thing! There ARE scientific studies to show that the bed environment is healthier when you let it air out instead of immediately covering it up. So, I leave the bed unmade and airing every morning...and never get back to it until I return home in the evening. I'm happy, healthy, and wealthy (and wise, in my own eyes). Maybe when I am older, I'll be at home during the day to make the bed once it has aired out.
Kim
I read that a long time ago about not making your bed as soon as you get up, instead allowing it time to air out to dry, so that's what we've always done. Whichever one of us gets up last, folds the covers back to expose the bed.
And I just assumed that making ones bed in the morning was as universal as brushing ones teeth until we looked at purchasing a rental home a number of years ago and most homes that our realtor showed us had unmade beds – and I was perplexed. Uh...maybe my assumption about teeth brushing is also wrong.
Anyway, we're happy happy happy :)
Thelma
I can’t imagine showing a home for sale or rental with an unmade bed or beds. Makes you wonder what else hasn’t been done to present your home in it’s best possible light. We live in a small home now that we are older, and the bedroom is in full view of the living room so the bed gets made by the two of us, after we’ve had our first cuppa joe. We leave all the doors open so the air can circulate and we don’t feel like we’re in a one room prison. Know some people that live with all their doors closed. Makes you wonder what they’re hiding. We never had kids, so it was never an issue. They had four kids, so closed doors were a necessity. After they all left home it became a habit. Maybe they don’t make their bed!
Karen
Nope, not nuts. If you're a bed sweater it's better to leave it uncovered to dry out. See? You're just smart. Be happy about that. ;) ~ karen!
Linda
Yes, every day. I’ve never considered not making it. I also turn down the bed each evening. And, yes, I am happy.
Susan
Yes. Every. Day.
glenda
I do make the bed every day. My guy doesn't like making the bed but he does like it made. I don't care as much, but it makes me happy to make him happy. Win win.