Make your bed; change your entire day. It almost sounds too easy. While many quick fixes don’t live up to the hype, research shows that the simple act of making your bed is a true game-changer.
Starting your day by making your bed can actually mean you’ll sleep better that night. A National Sleep Foundation survey found that those participants who regularly made their beds were 19 percent more likely to report getting a good night’s sleep and sleeping longer.
And the benefits go far beyond a better night’s sleep. Another survey found that 71 percent of bed-makers say that they are happy, while 62 percent of non bed-makers say that they’re unhappy. Still not convinced? According to Psychology Today, “Bed makers are also more likely to like their jobs, own a home, exercise regularly, and feel well rested, whereas non-bed-makers hate their jobs, rent apartments, avoid the gym, and wake up tired.”
Bed-makers are generally a get-up-and-go type of bunch, and that carries over into every part of their lives. “If you make your bed every morning, you will have accomplished the first task of the day,” said U.S. Navy Admiral William H. McRaven in his 2014 commencement speech at the University of Texas. It’s all about creating a positive habit. “Making your bed every morning is correlated with better productivity, a greater sense of well-being, and stronger skills at sticking with a budget,” writes Pulitzer Prize-winning author Charles Duhigg in The Power of Habit. He argues that “those initial shifts start chain reactions that help other good habits take hold.”
30 seconds of tidying for a serious life transformation? Seems simple enough. But surprisingly, only 27 percent of people actually make their beds every morning. If you’re in the unmade majority, it only takes about two months to establish a new habit, so get started today (or tomorrow morning) by making the bed. Pretty soon, it will be part of a new routine, and a very productive, and well-rested, new you.
Do you buy into making your bed for a better day? Tell us in the comments!
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Written by: Virginia Van Zanten
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14 Comments
Flawed logic in connecting the two.
Can one editor take an epidemiology class, please.
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