Making your bed is undoubtedly the most universally recommended gesture... and the most universally contested by some of the researchers who have looked into it.
On the one hand, a Kelton study carried out for the American bedding brand OnePoll established that around 71% of people who make their bed every morning report being happier, while those who do not say they are 62% more likely to feel disorganized in their day. The idea behind this figure: accomplishing a first task, tiny but concrete, as soon as you wake up, creates a psychological ripple effect that would encourage you to follow up with other successes. This is also the central argument of Admiral William McRaven's famous speech at the University of Texas in 2014, which went viral, where he explained that making his bed every morning was the first task he was taught in the special forces, precisely for this reason.
On the other hand, a British researcher from Kingston University, Doctor Stephen Pretlove, introduced a serious grain of sand into this beautiful motivational mechanism. According to his work, relayed in particular by the BBC, a bed made every morning would trap the body humidity released during the night under the sheets and the duvet, creating a hot and humid environment particularly favorable to the proliferation of dust mites. Conversely, a bed unmade for a few minutes, while the humidity evaporates in the open air, would limit their development. Enough to transform a symbolic gesture of hygiene into a slight health paradox.

What this task actually involves

Making your bed involves putting the bedding back in order after getting up: pulling out the fitted sheet, replacing the flat sheet or duvet cover, tapping and straightening the pillows, then smoothing everything for a clean result. A quick task, around 5 minutes, but daily, which makes it one of the most regular habits of home maintenance.

Tips and tricks for reconciling motivation and hygiene

The compromise most often recommended by specialists is to leave the bed in the open air for a few minutes before doing so: simply fold down the duvet at the foot of the bed when getting up, take care of something else (breakfast, shower, getting dressed), then return to make the bed once a little fresh air has passed through the room. This small delay is enough to significantly limit trapped humidity, without giving up the motivating gesture of a tidy room.
Ventilating the bedroom by opening the window for a few minutes each morning, with the bedding uncovered, further reinforces this effect and contributes more widely to the quality of indoor air, a subject too often neglected in domestic maintenance.
Finally, to transform this little ritual into a real McRaven-style motivational lever, it is better to consider it as a starting point rather than an end in itself: a made bed is not a goal, it is the first check mark on a list which then continues with the rest of the day.

Making your bed remains a good reflex, provided you first let the sheets breathe for a few minutes. Between the psychological benefit documented by studies on morning productivity and the warning from Kingston researchers about dust mites, there is no real contradiction: just a question of timing.