Don’t Worry About Making Your Bed – It’s Bad For Your Health

Leaving your bed unmade can be good if you’re an allergy sufferer.

Making your bed each morning is probably a habit that you don’t even think about. Sure it makes your house look tidy, but it may be healthier to leave it looking messy. Research has shown that dust mite numbers are higher in beds that are made each morning and that can be bad news for allergy sufferers.

There are thought to be approximately 1.5 million dust mites keeping you company in your bed each night. Dust mites thrive in a moist, warm environment. They survive and multiply in higher numbers in this type of environment. Unless you live in a very cold climate, each night in your sleep you release some perspiration into your sheets and mattress. If you make your bed as soon as you get up each morning, the moisture gets trapped all day, and provides the perfect breeding ground for dust mites.

Leaving your bed unmade helps to air it out. Moisture evaporates off the sheets and mattress. The mites become dehydrated and eventually die. You can’t get rid of all dust mites, but reducing their numbers can help relieve allergy symptoms such as eczema, hay fever, sinusitis and asthma. It is also important to change your sheets frequently, and vacuum your mattress.

If you are a neat and tidy person, just the thought of leaving your bed unmade can be unsettling. It is possible to fold the covers in a neat manner, so that the bed has a chance to air out, but doesn’t look like it’s just played host to a slumber party.

It is also important to remember that the health of your immune system is the greatest determinant of whether or not you have allergies. All of us are exposed to dust mites, but not everyone reacts to them adversely. Leaky gut, food sensitivities and nutrient deficiencies are the biggest drivers of dust mite allergies.

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