… 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.
Same argument could be made for sweeping/vacuuming the floor or combing your hair. It will just get messy again.
For me making the bed makes things a little nicer and gets me rolling on doing other tasks. First accomplishment of the day and it takes 10 seconds.
Also and maybe more importantly, it will keep dust and spiders and other insects off the sheets I lay on/in. If you’ve ever got dressed or folded laundry in a sunny room yoh will see how much dust everyday moving around generates. Those dust particles are skin cells (human and animal), bits of fabric, hair, and plastic microparticles since so many clothes are made from plastic.
I like sleeping with spiders tyvm
I thought the one thing to worry about with the bedsheets is not to grow a large population of mites in them. So you mainly want to keep it ventilated.
This opinion is actuaöly very popular with me.
I had one of those sleep number mattresses once, they have inflatable air bags inside so they zip open and you can get at all the layers of foam too. If you saw how much moisture gets trapped in there you’d do like I do and turn your covers down for the day so everything can dry and air out.
Making your bed all nice and tight just traps a whole lot of moisture.
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 have cats, if I don’t pull up the covers then I get to sleep with tiny grains of cat litter.
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
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.
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.
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?
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.
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
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!”
Generally I agree, and am so deep in the habit of not making my bed that it’s never a thought in my mind. That said, if you or someone you might be sharing the room with is experiencing any kind of hard emotional state and feeling overstimulated, then making the bed as well as other general cleanup can make the space less noisy. In that context it can be therapeutic.
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.
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.
I like to be able to sit or lie on my bed after a long day without it being lumpy.
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.
tl;dr
make your bed
Not making a bed is not equivalent to passing out on a bed in what ever unkempt state it seems to be in.
I sleep in a hammock and so “making my bed” is just "shove all the blankets into hammock so they’re off the floor. I’ll have to rearrange them over myself when I go to bed, anyway.
Back when I slept in a bed I never made it, either, unless I was expecting company. If they were sleeping over I’d pull out fresh sheets. If we were just hanging out in my room, I’d pull the comforter flat.
Oh, and I never got the hang of flat sheets. I kick them off in the night, unless they’re my only blanket.
What made you prefer a hammock over a mattress?
It’s more comfortable and easier to clean. Comfort-wise, it cradles my joints so my hips aren’t sore in the morning. Clean-wise, if, say, my dog wakes me up my vomiting on my chest (to pick a random example), I can toss the whole hammock into the wash and pull out my spare. A decent hammock setup also cost me maybe $200, including the stand.
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.
This take doesn’t belong in Unpopular Opinions.
Judging by the number of opposing comments and their upvote count, you’re wrong
And here I came specifically to comment “now this is an actual unpopular opinion!”
