Why You Should Never Make Your Bed in The Morning

And other morning routine ideas explored.

All over the internet there are articles on how to fix all of your problems with a few “easy” additions to your morning routine.

If it was easy for everyone to do all of the recommended things on these morning listicles, we’d all be doing them already. We’d all be much more productive, successful and have no more problems. Right?

I used to sometimes get up really early and go running before my kids woke up. Now I feel lucky when I go to bed feeling bone tired and wake up feeling marginally better.

Which is why I see these morning routine listicles all over Medium and want to hit something, hard. Mostly my pillow — with my aching head.

Let’s dismantle some of these recommendations for magical morning routines and give them a reality check:

Life is not a one-size-fits-all garment.

Routines for increasing productivity and success put people under pressure to be doing more than they already are, which might lead to short-term productivity, but in the long term is more likely to lead to burnout.

The internet is similarly littered with articles from people who have pushed themselves too hard and realized that productivity is not everything in life.

Don’t feel pressure to implement a bunch of changes to your morning routine, if you struggle even to stick with one. Try something new for a couple of weeks and if it works, add in something else if it’s doable. Don’t berate yourself for skipping a day of meditation or yoga or whatever else you are trying to achieve. You’re not a machine.

You should never make your bed in the morning.

I have to take issue with the recommendation to always make your bed in the morning. It features high up on most people’s lists as part of their morning routine. But you should NEVER do it, for one main reason:

• House dust mites LOVE that you just pulled your covers over your slightly moist mattress. Housework (and health) experts will tell you to air your bed in the morning, not make it tidy and ready for the next night (of bug-infested sleep).

A study from Kingston University found that dust mites can’t survive in the dry environment of an unmade bed.

“Something as simple as leaving a bed unmade during the day can remove moisture from the sheets and mattress so the mites will dehydrate and eventually die.”

— Dr Stephen Pretlove, Kingston University

Don’t make your bed in the morning unless you want to share it every night with some hungry house dust mites. Instead, turn down your top cover, or comforter and leave your bed exposed to the air.

Rehydrating is good.

I have to agree with this one. It makes a lot of sense. Just make sure you test the glass of “water” beside your bed before you down the lot. Last night’s gin & tonic before breakfast could do more harm than good.

Winston Churchill famously started his day with a cigar and whiskey. I’m not promoting that as a healthy habit to take up, but it demonstrates that you can perform at a high level without restricting yourself to a limited range of behaviors.

Conformity is not for everyone. Some of us like to swim against the tide. It might take us longer to get where we want to go, but we’ll have some fun on the journey. Water is great, we need it for survival. But if your morning coffee makes you feel good, enjoy it without guilt.

“Even bad coffee is better than no coffee at all.”

— David Lynch, surrealist filmmaker

Set your alarm for an hour earlier in the morning.

If you’re young, and childless, this is a great idea. You have all the time in the world at your disposal. You might not realize it yet, but you have. If you have kids, this is the one that makes you roll your eyes every time.

My kids never sleep once I’m awake, I swear. If I wake super early and try to sneak to the bathroom, I will hear a “Hi mum,” emerging from the depths of their bedroom before I get past their door.

When my big kids were younger and I was so much younger, I used to get up at 5.30am to shower and style my hair and pack lunches, kiss my husband while he slept, before quietly leaving the house, and dropping my kids off at their daycare, and commuting to the hospital where I worked.

Now, if I manage to eat breakfast before leaving for work, it’s a good day.

I have a theory that time compresses as you leave your twenties behind and begins to accelerate to a screaming pace as you approach your half-century. If you’re a forty-something parent of young children, you will know exactly what I mean. Don’t save sleep for when you’re dead. Enjoy it now.

Read for ten minutes.

If you’re not already reading for substantially more than ten minutes every day, starting a routine of reading for ten minutes in the morning is not going to massively enhance your life. Or even your day. Especially if you are not discerning about the content you are reading.

Consuming quality content, not just quantity, should be a goal. If you have time to do that in your morning without feeling pressured, then go for it. If the morning doesn’t work for you, fit it in elsewhere during your busy day. Maybe if you feel inclined to switch on the television, leave your book by the remote control, and pick that up instead.

Having a cozy reading nook to relax in will help to make this habit even more tempting.

Drink a “healthy” mug of hot water and lemon?

No, just no. And here’s why:

Drinking lemon water regularly can cause enamel erosion or tooth decay because of the acid in the citrus fruit. Too much lemon water can also lead to heartburn, nausea, vomiting, and other gastroesophageal reflux symptoms.

This is one myth that has been debunked but still gains support. It’s vital to fact-check before taking health advice from the internet. Check your sources and cross-check with medical advice.

Lemon juice doesn’t rid your body of toxins, and it doesn’t suppress your appetite more than plain old water can.

The only things in your body that are going to get rid of toxins are your liver and kidneys. And they don’t need help. Certainly not from hot lemon water anyway. Save the lemon for your gin and tonic!

Do it your way.

You probably already know what makes you feel good. You should make your perfect morning routine all about you.

The old adage, “early to bed, early to rise makes a man healthy, and wise”, probably still rings with truth. But don’t feel pressurized into a level of activity with your morning routine that will almost certainly lead to burnout, taking all of your precious spare time, in the morning or at any time of the day with it.

Human life is not all about productivity. I know it’s one of those buzzwords that many a clickbait article contains. But is it really something we want to aspire to, at the expense of something a little more fun?

Where does coffee in bed with your partner fit into these morning routines? Or kissing, sex, and other essential things. Are we all becoming more productive at the expense of living our lives? Do we feel the need to work like machines to compete with the computers and robots that are taking over our jobs and our everyday lives?

Perhaps there is an element of truth to that. If there is, it’s something I will fight against tooth and nail. I’m no more a machine than I am a creature of habit. I like random, I thrive on unpredictable.

Where is the room for spontaneity in the rigid structure of a dictated morning routine schedule? It works for some people. I know it does, and I applaud them for their exemplary productivity levels.

I’ll be over here snuggling under the covers with my son while you’re busy firing out your next book about productivity. And I’m okay with that.

“When you arise in the morning, think of what a precious privilege it is to be alive — to breathe, to think, to enjoy, to love.”

— Marcus Aurelius

If you haven’t yet figured out your own perfect morning, you could try emulating a great creative from the past:

Classic composer, Ludwig van Beethoven (1770–1827)

Washing and bathing were among the most pressing necessities of Beethoven’s life. After counting out precisely 60 coffee beans for his morning coffee, he would pour large pitchers of water over his hands, bellowing up and down the scale or sometimes humming loudly to himself. Then he would stride around his room with rolling eyes, jot something down, then resume his pouring of water and loud singing.

Or a more modern-day genius:

Legendary feminist journalist, Gloria Steinem

The NYC-based feminist icon revealed she often ‘wakes up in a panic’ because her life is ‘organised by deadlines and events.’

She starts the day off by catching up on the news in her bathroom whilst she gets ready, according to The Sunday Times. She then tucks into scrambled eggs for breakfast before heading off to her favorite deli in Upper East Side Manhattan to get a chai latte. After that? Appointments and meetings.

Final thoughts

You can choose to be different and do your own thing. If you need to up your game, the morning routine that works for you is the one that feels right and doesn’t make you dread waking up altogether. Life is not a one-size-fits-all garment. Do enjoy and be inspired by morning routine listicles. Some of them have great ideas and recommendations, like this one by Tim Denning.

But whatever you do, please don’t ever make your bed!

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