… And at worst, actively making your bedroom less functional and more cumbersome to use. The arguments I hear in favor of it are completely asinine and I will address them one by one.
- It makes it more comfortable to sleep in.
I have absolutely no idea where that comes from. Do you all sleep like Dracula? My bedding is usually tussled about within minutes of me laying in bed. Blankets balled up for knee support, one leg sticking out for temperature venting. I couldn’t imagine sliding under the covers and laying perfectly supine like Vladimir Lenin.
- It doesn’t take much time, so you might as well do it.
I find any task not worth my time to be a waste, so unless it has a purpose, it is actively infuriating to do.
- It looks nice. And an unmade bed looks lazy
Given that this is an entirely subjective reason, I can’t exactly “disagree” with it. But if there was someone I trust enough to be in my bedroom, I’m not going to waste my time convincing you that I do not, in fact, sleep in my bed.
Not to mention that if you want to nap or even sit on the end of the bed, you have to make it again. It is an incredibly unstable artwork, making me avoid using my bed unless I really need to.
If you make your bed, I have no judgment for you. Just like people who fold designs into the ends of their toilet paper. I couldn’t imagine caring about something like that, but it literally doesn’t affect me at all, so go nuts.
But I think we should be honest and call it what it is: some kind of shameful cleaning ritual that is probably some vestigial military chore, and I want nothing to do with it.
unpopular opinion: beds are overrated, just get a bunch of blankets as a mattress and cover and sleep on the floor.
but also there’s a difference between “putting the pillow and cover back into place” and “spending half an hour removing every wrinkle and imperfection”. The former is so quick that one might as well do it, the latter feels neurotic
I have 2 dogs, and I’d prefer their shed hair ON the bed, rather than IN the bed.
This is something that’s recently been changing my tune towards making my bed. And it’s not just hair, but dirt and schmutz they drag in from outside.
That too, for sure.
THANK you. My cat was adorable, but inhaling her fur while trying to get to sleep was difficult…
…I don’t understand. How do you not inhale her fur when she places her butthole right on your lips as you fall asleep?
…what? Is my cat the ONLY one who does this???
I honestly feel like this is some sort of genetic thing. Even kittens, who have never had a chance to be taught this, somehow know exactly when the most inopportune time is and seem to focus on getting it just right.
Every pet thread there is at least one comment that reminds me how happy I am to not be a pet owner
You make the mistake of assuming that someone makes it look nice for someone else and not themselves.
Depression is a motherfucker. It really can rob that from you.
It is kinda stupid. The less i do stuff for myself, the more i get depressed.
So i sometimes groom myself back into action, before getting too depressed to give a fuck
Exactly.
Fatal counter point to all your arguments:
It feels better when you do.
Literally none of your logical arguments matter one iota because the human brain does not care how much you logic an argument. It feels nicer and more comforting climbing into a made bed then an unmade one.
Also, lying on wrinkly sheets is inherently uncomfortable.
Counter-counterpoint: It “feeling better” is a subjective opinion. To me, it just sucks, and then it’s done, and then it sucks to get back into the bed when you’re ready to sleep.
Your “fatal counter point” is that you like it, and surely every single human brain feels the exact same way?
Not everyone must make their bed. Making their bed is positive for some. “There are no rules”
Also, lying on wrinkly sheets is inherently uncomfortable.
And can cause bedsores.
Like sure, but that feels beyond the scope of a bed making discussion.
Not really, the discomfort felt on wrinkly sheets directly precede them. Even healthy skin can break overnight, during humidity, pressure, friction, etc.
No, healthy skin cannot do that from a wrinkle. I have never made my bed since early childhood, and i have never woken up with a new break in my skin
“never happened to me, so it’s never happened!”
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No, each individual night of my life asleep is each a separate data point that refutes your claim. If this happens to a person then they don’t have healthy skin.
You shift your body subconsciously all of the time, especially while sitting/lying down; this naturally prevents bed sores
If you’re at risk of developing bed sores from wrinkly sheets, then you probably won’t have the strength to make your bed every day. Bed sores are more frequent with neuropathy, weakness, altered mental status etc; but for the average healthy folk… no, wrinkly sheets won’t (significantly) increase your risk for bed sores
Underlying conditions (acute or chronic) are the reasons for bed sores. You can have a perfectly smooth bed, but if you’re not making subtle weight shifts, you’ll get a bed sore
I have cats, if I don’t pull up the covers then I get to sleep with tiny grains of cat litter.
One of many great reasons to not have cats. Yes I know I will be downvoted to hell by fools who love little brainless predators.
I love my cats, but this is one of many reasons I don’t allow them in my bedroom.
Been using tofu litter, way less tracking to places that are far from the litterbox and the tracking that does happen are cute little sprinkles that are easily picked up.
tofu litter
huh. interesting.
Highly recommend switching to pine litter and a sifting litter box for this reason. You can get a 40lb bag of pine litter at Tractor Supply and other similar stores for less than $10.
This video is a great breakdown
I think y’all have a fundamental misunderstanding of why beds were ‘made’ in the first place. Tight sheets prevent vermin from slipping between the sheets and waiting until you climb in to experience nightmare fuel. It’s a great thing that this doesn’t happen often in our first world experience… but let things slip a little and this becomes a necessity, not a weird habit.
I’m with ya, but if you have critters roaming around inside, you have bigger issues to address, like the critters roaming around inside.
Some of those critters are domesticated (as you mentioned before)
I make my bed for the discipline. I force myself to do something I don’t want to do. It helps with overall being less lazy and having more willpower in a sense.
Another reason: it helps keep the the bed warmer on cold days. When it’s a really cold night and you get into a made bed, it’s so much easier to warm yourself up.
for those not living in a place with electricity, sure
Another reason: I tend to perspire in my sleep. And if I were to make my bed in the morning and cover up the sweaty sheets, that’s a recipe for a real bad time when I go back to bed.
Gross as it may be, that’s the life of a sweaty sleeper.My grandparents had this wonderful antique sleigh-style bed frame in their guest room. It had a couple horizontal rods on the foot side that was perfect for hanging the comforter and a quilt on to air out. Had totally forgotten about that until your comment, now I kinda want to get one lol
I pull mine down for the same reason
Yup folded back over in half so only covering the bottom part of the bed with the top half of the bed and sheet exposed is my go to. Still looks tidy but nice and airy.
end every sentence with MOM!
Making your bed, is not the same chore for everyone. Some people have many layers and pillows on a fully accessorized sleeping platform. Yes it would be a chore to do that daily (personal opinion). And some people have a duvet, in a duvet cover on a mattress with a fitted sheet on it. Very easy to just shake that duvet over the bed and move on. 30 seconds and done. For some people, making the bed means folding up the duvet and leaving it across the foot of the bed so the mattress can air out all day. And then there is this interesting setup from Germany
However, I think the real subject here is… it’s no one else’s business what happens in your bedroom. Paint it plaid, sleep on a pile of plushies, have orgies, do your taxes in a corner chair, hang all your underwear on pants hangers from a rod suspended from the ceiling. Whatever. Your bedroom, your privacy.
If you’re having orgies it’s at least a few other people’s business.
I feel this. Depending on the season, my wife and i have sheets, blanket(s) (sometimes weighted blanket for her restless legs), duvet cover, 6-10 pillows, an extra blanket across the foot of the bed. She yells at me for not making the bed. Ive come to doing the sheets, and duvet cover, and the 2 pillows we rest our heads on. I dont even want to do that much, but its the most ill do on this battle front.
Because science.
Science says unmade is healthier
You know that’s a satirical article, right?
Something about unmade is a worse environment for dust mites.
I don’t make my bed too, but I swear there is some psychological/ritual shit going on in there. Another example would be why go to the church. Can’t we just pray and confess on our own balcony?
Why hang up Christmas lights only to take them down a week later?
Why read when (if) we can inject knowledge into our brain?
Why workout when we can just inject steroids?
Some of there stuff are more of a waste of time than others, and I suspect it is the reason OP has this (un)popular opinion.
If you dial the resolution back beyond the bed, you have the whole human experience.
Finding meaning within a finite existence framed against the infinite is not easy but, if you pick up your fucking room a little, maybe it can be done with a bit more class and comfort?
Lmao, matey. If you’re defining class and comfort by the making of a bed, you might need to dial the resolution back even further.
I make the bed to prevent bugs and spiders from crawling into the sheets
I never thought of that. It could explain why I’ve woken up with a spider in my bed more than once.
Counterpoint: I had a grandmother who made the beds tighter than the mythical sailor’s with their bouncy quarters, and was fastidious with her ritual of bed making as soon as you left the bed… and we still found scorpions on the regular.
Then she died, care of the house passed to the next generation (which was really my generation, since somehow that middle generation got the idea that kids were solely around at a vacation house to upkeep the house while said middle generation got to relax) and suddenly beds were rarely made. The amount of critters found in the beds went down. Maybe we were just better at cleaning the kitchen and making sure doors were closed, but I doubt it, considering dear grandma was like a beagle on a scent when it came to cleaning and making sure we didn’t air condition the outside.
I’m on the fence about the popularity of this opinion, so I’ll upvote after I respond.
But you missed out in your data gathering. There are other reasons to make a bed, if not daily, at least regularly.
First, my bonafides. Twenty years as a nurse’s assistant. That meant making beds and taking care of the people in them was my responsibility.
As such, I not only had to wonder if it was more than just an optics thing, but make sure that if it wasn’t, I was following best practices. See, if there were reasons to do it beyond those you listed, it would shift priorities, as well as maybe changing when and how I did the job.
Comfort is only part of it, though it isz a factor when a person can’t shift their own linens.
See, those folds of fabric can, and do, apply pressure to skin differently than flat sections. So remaking a patient’s bed becomes a necessity. Matter of fact, it becomes necessary to check their linens while performing care, though that’s tangential.
Secondary to that is dislodging anything on the sheets. This includes, but is not limited to, particles of dirt, dead skin, lint, items dropped previous to the bed check, and more. That’s the factor that matters most for people that can make their own beds. You don’t really realize how much stuff is on the sheets just from one night of use unless you make beds regularly.
There’s a sub-reason to that as well. Evaluation. While a lot of people do change sheets on a schedule, often timed with laundry day or days, there may be need to change sheets in between times. No way to be aware of that necessity if it’s from an unknown cause unless you check the sheets. And there’s no better way to check them than the process of making a bed. Smoothing things out allows to to both visually and tactilely examine the condition of the sheets.
Now, I can almost guarantee someone reading this is thinking “but I don’t do anything nasty in my sheets”. Yes, you do. Promise. Everyone does, they just don’t know it. Even climbing in fresh out of the shower and not moving after, you’re leaving stuff behind when you climb out again. May take longer to build up, but it’s there.
All those little bits you leave behind are food. Food for something. Mites, bacteria, fungi, whatever. So no matter how clean you are, making your bed at least decreases what’s left behind.
Making a bed properly does take time. Not a whole lot, and practice makes it faster, but it’s more than just throwing the top sheets back in place.
So, I would encourage folks to take the time to at least smooth their sheets out a little before they climb in, if nothing else.
You raise some valuable points. However, some comments seem to be conflating “making your bed” with “washing your linens”, which I want to make clear is not what I’m saying. I am a sheet-washing proponent.
I was going to argue against you but honestly if you had to pick one of these things, washing your sheets regularly is the one you should choose. I make my bed and change sheets once a week but you do you.
No, the usual cycle most people run is changing their sheets weekly, assuming nothing makes it necessary sooner. It does vary some, I’ve seen households that change sheets monthly or less often, but damn.
Making the bed is a daily task, and that’s the assumption I was working on in the comment
Not making a bed is not equivalent to passing out on a bed in what ever unkempt state it seems to be in.
tl;dr
make your bed
But if there was someone I trust enough to be in my bedroom, I’m not going to waste my time convincing you that I do not, in fact, sleep in my bed.
If this is really how you feel, then I suppose I can’t dispute you. But this is like saying, “why would I comb my hair? Anyone I want to talk to is okay talking to me as I am.”
Sure… But most people care about things like this. Maybe not explicitly - most people don’t explicitly think to themselves “ugh, an unmade bed. What a loser.” But on a subconscious emotional level, this is essentially what is happening. As a society, we’ve decided a made bed looks better than an unmade bed. That you have failed to make your bed prior to someone entering your bedroom indicates a lack of willingness or ability to confirm to social norms. This, then, typically corresponds to individuals with low social status, and lowers others’ opinions of you. Again, this happens on an entirely emotional, subconscious level for almost everyone most of the time. But the fact is, it happens.
Hence, when I’m going to have guests in my bedroom, I make my bed. I don’t make my bed every day - I just don’t care that much. But I will 100% make my bed if I’m expecting someone else to see it, just like I would sweep the floors and comb my hair.
I kinda agree but for me and I think almost all of my friends it’s the opposite. It feels like they’re making the house “fake clean” like we’re not just hanging out and this is some big event for me to be over. It’s like how it would be weird to make your bed before your brother walks into the room, you’re not trying to impress anyone that’s just your room.
Those are the only reasons you’ve ever heard?
I can’t speak for others, but my sleep is not clean. I can wake up with half the pillows I started with, and the duvet sometimes spun a 180, so the buttons are up by my head. Ive woken up with my arm inside the duvet cover.
My making the bed resets all that. Gets the pillows off the floor or out from behind the headboard, and it turns the duvet round again so I can just flick one corner open and climb in of an evening.Also when Ive lived with dogs and cats. It kept their hair from getting between the duvet and bedsheet, coz I really enjoy the idea of pets using my bed when I’m not.
Also it stops sex sweat from being in the sleep zone
