I Made My Bed Every Day For a Month to See If The Hype Was Legit

You know how your healthy friends are always saying things like "I didn't know I was feeling bad until I stopped [eating fast food, drinking tequila every day, bathing in dairy, etc.], and now I feel so much better"? It was like that for me and the tidy, tucked sheets of my daily-made bed.

I didn't realise how the slightest bit of disheveled linens and throw pillows could impact how I felt — not just about the organisation and cleanliness of my room. When my bed wasn't made, my mood, energy levels, and overall mental health seemed to decline slightly — and when it was, I noticed a subtle but significant shift toward feeling better.

Do you ever walk into a messy house or room and think "MY LIFE IS OUT OF CONTROL" or "I AM A DISASTER!" when really the only thing that's off is the mess? That was me. Making the bed gave me a baseline sense of control over my life; it sounds silly, but it helped me channel some of my inner power, which bled into other areas of life, work, etc.

When my bed was tidy, I wanted the rest of the room to match it, so everything else was kept cleaner. Also, after making my bed, I felt like I was more on top of my sh*t — which prompted me to remember to take my probiotic, get the dog out for a brisk, fresh 30-minute walk (great for me, too!), and eat something healthy before tackling the day's challenges.

It's a common adage that one good choice begets another, and it's really true. I learned this extensively through that book I read (The Power of Habit — highly recommend TBH) and learned it IRL when I tried it myself. Starting small with one task like making the bed allowed me to have that sense of victory, which in a funny way was an empowering self-esteem boost that I channelled into even more good habits.

Is my room like a suite at the Four Seasons? No (not yet, at least), but I love it so much more now, and it feels like a peaceful respite versus "the room I sleep in." I feel more relaxed, and I can come into my room if I feel a twinge of anxiety or stress to decompress, disconnect, diffuse my essential oils, snuggle my puppy, meditate, and read.

Of course, I could do those things before the bed was made, but it actually is *so* much better when the bed is made and the room is tidy; I was able to really see this firsthand by committing to a full month of bed-making.

OK, maybe this is placebo (but even still, righteous): I'm somehow sleeping better, more deeply, and more comfortably. Getting into a tidy bed somehow made it easier to slip into a deep, restorative slumber. I did a little digging to see if there's any science to back this and found a couple things that are correlated:

• The American Academy of Sleep Medicine found that hoarders don't sleep well. The author reported that cluttered and unusable bedrooms increased risk of cognitive dysfunction, depression, stress, and worsened sleep quality. Obviously, I'm not a hoarder (that's a real disorder), but the findings show that messy bed may be linked to low-quality (or lack of) zzz's.
• A survey by the National Sleep Foundation (NSF) found that among the 1,500 participants, "respondents who say they make their bed every day are 19 percent more likely to say they get a good night's sleep every night than those who don't."

Obviously, we're not working with clinical research that solidifies making beds definitely guarantees better sleep, but hey, there's no harm in trying. It definitely worked for me.