Don’t Make Your Bed First Thing in the Morning

Lazy people, rejoice: There’s a compelling reason not to make your bed first thing in the morning. Yes, you should still make it like a proper grown-up—but consider this your leeway to so a while after you wake up. Here’s why.

Why not make your bed right away?

The argument against immediate bed-making is not new, but it’s also not well-known. In 2005, researchers at Kingston University released the findings of a two-year study that suggested dust mites—up to 1.5 million of which may be living in a bed at a given time—don’t survive as well in the warm, dry conditions created by an unmade bed.

“Mrs. D.,” a well-known cleaning expert in the UK, also advises against making the bed right away when you get out of it. She wrote on Instagram that humans sweat a lot overnight, so “by making your bed first thing every morning, you are trapping all that damp air and helping dusts mites/bed bugs breed.”

That’s gross—grosser than an unkempt bed, for sure. Wait about an hour after you wake up to make the bed, no matter what your self-help books say about how making it first thing will spur you to be more regimented and productive.

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Make the bed, though

We’ve long advised that making your bed every morning is important, so don’t use this new knowledge of mite breeding habits to excuse yourself from doing it at all. We even have lots of tips on how to do it efficiently and quickly, so you have no excuse once that hour is up.

Dr. Michael Breus, “The Sleep Doctor,” recently released the findings from a survey his company conducted that found while just 38.4% of adults make their bed every day, 45.4% of them fall asleep within 20 minutes at night. He says this is because “a clean room represents a clean mind,” which isn’t particularly scientific but is a pleasant thought. Keep it even more clean and pleasant by not encouraging any extra mites to find comfort in your sweaty, damp, dark, freshly-made bed.