Why should you make your bed?
There are people who say that making the bed does not make any sense, because you are going to make it at night, anyway. However, doing so has many more benefits than just having a clean room. Making your bed helps you start the day in an organized way that in turn prepares you to make the most of the rest of your day.
According to McRaven, making the bed is equivalent to establishing an intention to do the things that give you an orderly, successful, responsible and balanced life. In addition, through the few studies that exist on the matter, it has been shown that both having it and seeing it can have a relaxing effect.
Studies to date are primarily based on anecdotal evidence that seems to suggest that making the bed has benefits including a feeling of accomplishment, better quality of sleep, a sense of calm, better organization, deeper concentration, and reduced stress.
These studies have found strong evidence that there is a real link between living an organized and distraction-free life that helps productivity, concentration, and stress reduction. That is to say: calm house, calm mind. In older people, living in a clean environment was found to improve brain functions as well as quality of life.
Instead, studies point out that clutter impedes information processing, which is even more relevant when thinking that cluttered people are, for obvious reasons, less likely to make their beds.
Neat and hygienic people tend to control their impulses better and are more conscious and goal oriented. Similarly, they pay more attention to manners and social norms.
The bed and the dream
However, the impact of making the bed is not limited to order and clarity of mind, but to the quality of sleep. Poor sleep affects health, the ability to react quickly and creatively, and to solve problems. So, if making the bed helps to improve the quality of sleep, its advantages go beyond what we thought.
Seeing a made bed not only sends a signal to the brain that it is time to start the day, but at night, it makes going to sleep more pleasant. Remember that sleep hygiene includes anything that distracts at bedtime, such as noise, stress, light, and of course, disorder.
The dark side
Nothing in life is completely good and making your bed is no exception. Bed making, despite its benefits, has potential downsides, as an unmade bed – clutter, in general – could be associated with creativity.
When analyzing people with clean desks, for example, it was found that there is a correlation between creative thinking and cluttered desks. However, tidy people proved to be more generous, traditional, and wiser decision makers.
Hygiene could also have an impact. Twenty years ago a study was carried out in which it was concluded that a bed has a greater capacity to harbor germs, while an untended one, as it allows the sun and air to filter, creates a more hostile environment.