Why you should never make your bed

Experts recommend leaving your bed unmade for the entire day. Photo / iStock

This story is a republished version of a 2015 article.

It's a victory for the lazy among us - leaving your bed unmade is actually better for you and makes for a cleaner, healthier home.

Why? Dust mites - or rather, reducing their number in your bed.

It is estimated as many as 1.5million microscopic mites are crawling around in the average bed, feeding off shed skin cells on our sheets.

The poo they leave behind in the bed can irritate dust allergies and cause illness such as asthama when inhaled.

It is estimated as many as 1.5million microscopic mites are crawling around in the average bed. Photo / iStock

As we sweat and roll around during the night, our skin is flaking off everywhere, the sheets are dampening, and the mites are having a feast.

In the morning, if we pull up the sheets and make our beds immediately, all of the skin scales, sweat and mites will be trapped underneath.

However, if the bed is left unmade, the mites, the scales, the sweat, all of it, will be exposed to fresh air and light.

"We know that mites can only survive by taking in water from the atmosphere using small glands on the outside of their body," Dr. Stephen Pretlove of Kingston University's School of Architecture said.

"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."

Experts recommend leaving your bed unmade for the entire day - yes, the entire day - instead making it when you get home later on.

By that point, many of the mites will have died an unceremonious death.

So hurrah for unmade beds and here's hoping the science will be in soon on the benefits of leaving the vacuuming for another day.