Want to get a better night’s sleep every night? Try making your bed every morning. That’s just one of the valuable pieces of advice in this article from Mother Nature Network, highlighting some surprising ways that making your bed can make for a happier life.
Last year, Naval Adm. William H. McRaven – the man who commanded the SEAL team that hunted for Osama bin Laden – gave University of Texas graduates some unusual advice during his commencement speech: If you want to change the world, start by making your bed.
He acknowledges that this statement may seem “a little ridiculous,” but says, “the wisdom of this simple act has been proven to [him] many times over.”
Indeed, while making the bed may take just a minute or two each morning, the payoff is long-lasting and surprisingly far-reaching.
So if making your mother proud isn’t motivation enough to get you to smooth the sheets and fluff the pillows, maybe these reasons will be.
First, it helps you start the day off right. Completing the simple chore of making your bed can be the start of a productive day.
“If you make your bed every morning, you will have accomplished the first task of the day,” says McRaven. “It will give you a small sense of pride, and it will encourage you to do another task and another and another. By the end of the day, that one task completed will have turned into many tasks completed.”
In a survey of 68,000 people by Hunch.com, 71% of bed-makers consider themselves to be happy people while 62% of non-bed-makers say they’re unhappy. According to the survey, bed-makers are also more likely to own a home, like their jobs, and exercise regularly.
“When I’ve asked people what happiness-project resolution has made a big difference in their happiness, many people cite the modest ‘Make your bed,’” writes Gretchen Rubin, author of the bestselling book “The Happiness Project.”
A National Sleep Foundation survey found that people who make their beds every day or almost every day were 19% more likely to report getting a good night’s sleep than those who don’t make their beds.
