Thursday, February 3, 2011

Comfort Me

Rumor is, if you make your bed in the mornings, you're happier. 

I tried to figure out the source of this particular gaseous emanation from the volcano of science, but when I Googled "making your bed makes you happier" I got a pittance of information on bedmaking and a plethora of advice on how to please my wife.  Since I don't have a wife, this was less than 100% useful. So you will just have to take my word for it that the source of the rumor, like the sentient alien jumpsuit-clad empath, is out there somewhere.

I'm not a bed-maker, but I AM an inveterate tilter at the windmills of happiness, so I thought, hey, why not?  Especially since last winter's purchase of a down-filled comforter means that all I have to do to make the bed is pull the thing up toward the pillows.  Laziness AND happiness in one pneumatic menage a trois? WIN!

I tried it, but I forecasted failure.  I figured that making the bed, and thus symbolically denying myself the mythical midday nap/ noontime novel devouring, would depress me.  An unmade bed, this logic goes, is like an invitation to a really great party you hang on your refrigerator.  Your chance to samba til dawn may be weeks a way, but doggone it, you're envisioning it now!

Only, instead of engendering deprivation, making the bed filled me with pleasant, priggish complacency.  It was as if I'd sat on one of those artificial glove warmers and was subsequently perfused by a mild chemical coziness.   I may not have written a novel or saved the universe or won the Nobel Prize, but by golly, I had WREAKED MY WILL UPON THE WORLD.

I think I've been made.

4 comments:

Unknown said...

it is possible that i have watched too much 'clean house' but the science i have gleaned from said show says that making your bed is an easy way to make a rather large part of your room look cleaner. being in clean surroundings makes you happier than being in cluttered surroundings. frankly, i'm just content with the sense of accomplishment it gives me. yes, my bar is set very low.

Morgan said...

Then again, they also say that bedbugs and mites are more likely to thrive in a made bed, and that leaving your bed unmade might be physically healthier - I guess you have to decide between physical and mental health.

Anne said...

Well, I figure if you've got bedbugs you're in deeper shit than an unmade bed can remedy. Mites...hmmm. Right now I'm about half and half making and unmaking. If I'm not going to be at home to see it, why make it! But if I am home during the day, yes, Hana, I'm also hopping that low bar! Whee.

wombat said...

I make my bed every day so that I don't have to sleep in a sea of cat hair.