​Make Your Bed to Start the Day Off Right

It can be a morning ritual, a mechanical gesture or even a real chore. But making a bed says more than we think about our quality of sleep and our relationship to rest ... Making a bed is a good habit to take up or to resume!

Add a thoughtful making of the bed to your morning routine. Open your window to refresh your bedroom upon rising, and open up your bedding to do the same. After you are finished with breakfast, toilet and dressing, fluff your pillows and comforter and make your bed for the day.

To start your day in a good mood, ritualizing the stages of getting up is also a good idea. If you have a blanket or throw at the foot of your bed, unfold it and lie on the floor. Stretch in a lying position, breathe deeply, take a moment to reflect on your sleep and dreams. Then ventilate your room and proceed as above with breakfast and preparing your day.

A feeling of neatness

A made bed immediately gives a feeling of organization in a bedroom; an unmade bed the opposite. Starting the day off right with a task completed mentally prepares you for what lies ahead. It is a simple habit that takes less than a minute, but once it is integrated into the morning routine, it encourages us to continue with the other tasks that will have to be accomplished during the day. From a psychological point of view, after making our bed, our mind will be more serene and we will have the impression of finding ourselves better organized and prepared for the day.

Conversely, an unmade bed is like a sink full of dirty dishes. You feel a bit lazy in the morning for not doing it and it puts a bad mood at the end of your day when you arrive at the unmade bed. The evening should be conducive to relaxation and good feelings after a busy day; the thought of an unmade bed awaiting just might interfere with those good feelings.

Having made your bed in the morning, you will arrive home from whatever your day has been, knowing that your bed is waiting for you for a good night's sleep. In addition, lying in a bed that has been made encourages the well-being necessary for letting go and falling asleep.

Finally, making your bed preserves your privacy. Even if the bedroom is an intimate place that others don’t usually visit, in family life it is normal that the bedrooms are visible and accessible. Even if you just throw the comforter and arrange it correctly, it's a quick and easy way to preserve your privacy and keep an image of an ordered life.

Maintain your bedding

Making the bed also has an impact on hygiene. During the night we sweat, we spread dead skins, microbes and bacteria on our bedding, and thus contribute to the development of fungi and the proliferation of mites, which can promote infections and allergies. There are several approaches for dealing with this very real situation.

• Wash your sheets once a week, and more if necessary (specially pillowcases):
  • Certain fabrics are hot water friendly (Polyester)
  • Hotels wash their bedding with extreme hot water and bleach

• Some Downlite fabrics and fillings are antimicrobial treated or permanently integrated (Look for AAFA bedding).

• Air out your room every day, with the bed wide open. Making your bed as soon as you wake up can trap moisture in the sheets, pillows, mattress pad and mattress, to the delight of dust mites. Airing the bed helps wick away this moisture and reduces the proliferation of mites.

• Choose natural materials that help reduce sweating; products treated against mites are available for both the mattress and pillows.

• Tuck in the bed. Fold the bottom of the sheet up under the mattress for the day.

• Massage your pillows. Over time, polyester will divot and flatten, as it tends to stick to itself. Fluff your pillows daily and put them in the dryer once a month. Swedish massage your pillow (mash it up), shake it up and down, distributing the filling.

• Fluff the comforters/duvet inserts. As with your pillows, your quilt will benefit from a good shaking at least once a week. This helps keep the filling properly distributed, even if your comforter is quilted.

If you would like any help or professional advice before ordering your bedding, you may contact our customer service representatives by phone or email, and they will assist you in your decision-making.