this post was submitted on 11 Jul 2025
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Unpopular Opinion

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... 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.

  1. 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.

  1. 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.

  1. 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.

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[–] Talaraine@fedia.io 28 points 4 days ago (3 children)

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.

[–] bobs_monkey@lemmy.zip 22 points 3 days ago (1 children)

I'm with ya, but if you have critters roaming around inside, you have bigger issues to address, like the critters roaming around inside.

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[–] klemptor@startrek.website 6 points 3 days ago

I like it to look nice and neat. Mess and disorder puts me on edge. I like the bed made with the pillows fluffed and throw pillows placed in a certain way. And I do feel like it's more comfortable to sleep in a bed that has been made, because the pillows are fluffed and all the sheets are smoothed out and evenly distributed between my husband and me. I do just get in bed and turn over, I don't rearrange anything, and instead of a blanket I have my hubby for knee support :)

[–] dan1101@lemmy.world 10 points 3 days ago (3 children)

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.

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[–] Pirky@lemmy.world 24 points 4 days ago (3 children)

Another reason: I tend to perspire in my sleep. And if I were to make my bed in the morning and cover up the sweaty sheets, that's a recipe for a real bad time when I go back to bed.
Gross as it may be, that's the life of a sweaty sleeper.

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[–] Zier@fedia.io 18 points 3 days ago (2 children)

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 not all Germans do this.

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.

[–] Imgonnatrythis@sh.itjust.works 15 points 3 days ago

If you're having orgies it's at least a few other people's business.

[–] Sc00ter@lemmy.zip 1 points 2 days ago

I feel this. Depending on the season, my wife and i have sheets, blanket(s) (sometimes weighted blanket for her restless legs), duvet cover, 6-10 pillows, an extra blanket across the foot of the bed. She yells at me for not making the bed. Ive come to doing the sheets, and duvet cover, and the 2 pillows we rest our heads on. I dont even want to do that much, but its the most ill do on this battle front.

[–] pishadoot@sh.itjust.works 7 points 3 days ago

Unpopular maybe, but I agree with you.

I leave my bedroom in the morning and don't really come back until I am ready to go to bed. So the appearance doesn't matter to me.

I prefer my bedding to be how I left it, not all flat and tucked in.

My partner disagrees, so the bed is usually made by them because even if I do it it's not up to standards and I get up and leave for work earlier anyways.

But I get it. The only reason I do it is to be nice to my partner, I could give two shits personally.

If I had an efficiency apartment or something I might do things differently because it's like, cluttered in the whole living space, but otherwise I think it's a waste of time unless you're trying to impress someone.

[–] kalpol@lemmy.ca 5 points 3 days ago (2 children)

Keeps the dust off your bed

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[–] JandroDelSol@lemmy.world 3 points 2 days ago

shameful cleaning ritual is a bit of a harsh descriptor, but hard agree with everything you said.

[–] southsamurai@sh.itjust.works 14 points 3 days ago (3 children)

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.

[–] srasmus@slrpnk.net 6 points 3 days ago (2 children)

You raise some valuable points. However, some comments seem to be conflating "making your bed" with "washing your linens", which I want to make clear is not what I'm saying. I am a sheet-washing proponent.

[–] overload@sopuli.xyz 2 points 2 days ago

I was going to argue against you but honestly if you had to pick one of these things, washing your sheets regularly is the one you should choose. I make my bed and change sheets once a week but you do you.

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[–] limer@lemmy.dbzer0.com 16 points 4 days ago (2 children)

I make the bed to prevent bugs and spiders from crawling into the sheets

[–] burntbacon@discuss.tchncs.de 1 points 2 days ago

Counterpoint: I had a grandmother who made the beds tighter than the mythical sailor's with their bouncy quarters, and was fastidious with her ritual of bed making as soon as you left the bed... and we still found scorpions on the regular.

Then she died, care of the house passed to the next generation (which was really my generation, since somehow that middle generation got the idea that kids were solely around at a vacation house to upkeep the house while said middle generation got to relax) and suddenly beds were rarely made. The amount of critters found in the beds went down. Maybe we were just better at cleaning the kitchen and making sure doors were closed, but I doubt it, considering dear grandma was like a beagle on a scent when it came to cleaning and making sure we didn't air condition the outside.

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[–] Wolf@lemmy.today 1 points 2 days ago (1 children)

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.

Lol, it's not about "laying perfectly supine", it's about what you are laying on. Yes, you will probably get a couple of small wrinkles by just getting in bed and getting comfortable, but if you never make your bed you will be laying on hundreds of very big wrinkles. To me the comfort level of laying in a made bed and a super messy one is night and day. If you can't tell a difference, consider yourself lucky.

Pro tip: instead of balling up your blankets for knee support, keep an extra pillow on your bed specifically for that purpose. I have an old "king size" pillow I use that supports me from balls to ankles. It has helped my back tremendously.

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[–] dragonlobster@programming.dev 6 points 3 days ago

I used to think like this but then at one point I looked at my bed and I can't stand it. It eventually reflects on how you treat the rest of your home and outside as well . If you find a 10 second task infuriating and pointless that's not too far off from thinking mopping , cleaning toilet , ironing clothes are a waste of time as well.

[–] Nikls94@lemmy.world 5 points 3 days ago

No matter how shitty my day is, at least the bed is made.

Also, the texture of the sheets on your body feels smoother if the bed was made hours before going to bed, than that feeling of untidy sheets. My sleeping position is sideways, the blanket below me, back is cold, feet over the edge, only one leg covered.

I air my bedsheets outside 3 days after changing them, I change them once a week. Also, my bed is for sleeping and the nasty only.

And from personal experience, partners who didn’t make their bed tended to not have their shit together, so I’m kind of biased.

[–] mrcleanup@lemmy.world 9 points 3 days ago

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.

[–] biofaust@lemmy.world 5 points 3 days ago (1 children)

It is also actually not healthy to make it right after you slept in it.

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[–] esc27@lemmy.world 5 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

The ritual of unmaking the bed can help some people, who experience difficulties sleeping, mentally prepare for sleep.

[–] wiase@discuss.online 8 points 3 days ago

This opinion is actuaöly very popular with me.

[–] Deflated0ne@lemmy.world 5 points 3 days ago

Most of our daily routines are.

[–] Revan343@lemmy.ca 4 points 3 days ago

It makes it more comfortable to sleep in.

More comfortable for the cat. She doesn't like it when it's a mess

[–] halferect@lemmy.world 0 points 1 day ago

You do you but making your bed will get you laid

[–] Drusas@fedia.io 10 points 3 days ago

It is actually generally better to not make your bed, particularly if you have asthma or allergies. Making the bed creates a warm, humid environment in which dust mites and bacteria better thrive.

[–] thatradomguy@lemmy.world 4 points 3 days ago

I'm with you here. It does look nicer when it's all "setup" but for its purpose, I agree... makes no sense if I'm going to be under the covers anyway. Society plays stupid games and well... you know the rest.

[–] partial_accumen@lemmy.world 8 points 3 days ago (3 children)

This take doesn't belong in Unpopular Opinions.

[–] burntbacon@discuss.tchncs.de 1 points 2 days ago

We really need a 'highly polarizing opinions' community, but I'm sure it would end up in flames too often to want to be a moderator there.

[–] Beacon@fedia.io 8 points 3 days ago

Judging by the number of opposing comments and their upvote count, you're wrong

[–] Mesophar@pawb.social 9 points 3 days ago

And here I came specifically to comment "now this is an actual unpopular opinion!"

[–] SonOfAntenora@lemmy.world 3 points 3 days ago

You don't need to remake the bed just for sitting on it, you just need to adjust the bed sheets for five seconds.

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