Upon waking up in the morning, what is the first thing you do? Making your bed first thing in the morning can benefit both you and your lifestyle more than you think. Making your bed right after you wake up may seem small, but it is an important action that will reflect in your personal space and state of mind. Our days are unpredictable. Some days everything seems to be going right and others turn into a complete disaster. When days of disaster strike, it is a comforting and dependable thought to know our clean ready-made beds are waiting for us at home. Having a clean bed provides a relaxed and welcoming atmosphere that will encourage you to keep the rest of your room tidy.
According to a survey from OnePoll and Sleepopolis, people who make their beds regularly tend to be morning people who wake up without an alarm. They also tend to be more social, high maintenance, confident and adventurous. The survey from Sleepopolis also found that bed makers have 50 percent more sex and sleep better than non-bed makers. Former U.S. Navy Admiral SEAL and author of the book Make Your Bed…Little Things Can Change Your Life…and Maybe the World, stated in a commencement speech at the University of Texas, “If you make your bed every morning, you will have accomplished the first task of the day. It will give you a small sense of pride, and it will encourage you to do another task, and another, and another. And by the end of the day that one task completed will have turned into many tasks completed”. I know personally, to feel productive I need to accomplish at least one thing in my first hour of the day. Once I gain the momentum and start feeling productive it is much easier for me to continue throughout my daily set of tasks.
Some might argue, what is the point of making your bed if you’re just going to get right back into it? For people rushing out the door in the morning, making their bed might seem like a dull or irrelevant task that gets in the way of getting their busy workday started. Aussie blogger and writer for CNBC and Business Insider, Tim Denning, argues that making your bed in the morning is pointless. In his article, Denning states that as the day progresses your energy levels get lower so it is important to not waste your fresh mind and valuable energy on pointless goals that give you no momentum. Denning concludes that it is important to put your valuable energy in the morning towards a task that will make you feel fulfilled and proud of yourself.
It most certainly is important to complete tasks that make you feel successful and proud of yourself. However, making your bed goes a long way towards achieving these feelings of fulfillment. The research concludes that making our beds impacts our mental health. According to a survey on Hunch.com with over 68,000 participants, 59 percent of people don’t make their beds, 27% do, and 12% pay a housekeeper to do it. Here is the real kicker: 71% of bedmakers consider themselves happy, while 62% of non-bedmakers consider themselves unhappy. Bedmakers are also more likely to exercise, like their jobs, and feel well-rested while non-bedmakers are more likely to dislike their job, avoid exercise, and wake up tired. It is not that non-bed makers cannot be happy or successful, but good habits will naturally follow once you decide to make organization and cleanliness a part of your routine. If you think about it, you have nothing to lose from creating a productive morning routine.