From a very young age, you’ve heard this exhortation: make your bed! In reality, making your bed first thing in the morning isn’t necessarily a healthy move for your well-being.
Not making your bed, the new health move?
Science is on the side of people who hate making their bed! Indeed, researchers from Kingston University in the United Kingdom found that making your bed in the morning promotes the presence of bacteria and dust mites in your bed.
Making your bed promotes allergies
A bed harbors about 1.5 million dust mites. These microscopic arachnids — part of the spider family — are harmless, but more and more people are allergic to them. Moreover, even if you’re not allergic, dust mites contribute to certain respiratory problems: coughing, asthma… and skin issues like eczema and hives.
By making your bed in the morning, you let the dust mites and other bacteria multiply in a warm, humid environment, which is precisely what they thrive on. Even in winter, our mattress and sheets remain damp with sweat when we get up. If you make your bed, you trap the bedding and stop it from breathing, allowing those critters to multiply.
The right move? It’s better to leave the duvet at the foot of the bed to let the sheets and mattress breathe, all day long. You can make your bed… in the evening, a few hours before you go to bed, if you enjoy sleeping in a neatly made bed!
How to prevent dust mites?
Similarly, to avoid the proliferation of bacteria and dust mites in your bed, here are a few good practices. Open up your bedroom to the air for about ten minutes in the morning: “such a simple gesture helps dust mites dehydrate and die,” says Stephen Pretlove, the study’s director. However, don’t leave the window open all day, as that could raise the humidity in your room. It’s also best not to overheat your bedroom: 16°C (about 60°F) is the right temperature for good sleep and to discourage the little critters from sharing your bed with you.
Additionally, it’s advised to regularly air out your mattress (monthly in summer, for example) and/or give it a vacuum to remove dust, which dust mites love. Likewise, avoid objects that trap dust, such as stuffed animals, or piling on pillows in your bed. Vacuum your bedroom and under your bed regularly as well.
Finally, wash your sheets at 60°C every one to two weeks (dust mites die at 55°C). For duvets and blankets, wash them preferably with seasonal changes. Who said that not making your bed was a lazy habit?!
