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Upon waking up, my first instinct has always been to make my bed up first. This habit was first enforced by my mother when I was a child, and up until now, I would have advised anyone else to do the same.

However, even while making your bed first thing in the morning may make you feel motivated to take on your day, or simply make your home look more put together, one cleaning expert explains why you shouldn’t be doing that. While most of us have been told our entire lives to make our bed first thing in the morning- a recent myth-buster has put the belief to the test.

I am pretty fickle about cleanliness, but did not stumble upon Mrs. Ds cleaning reviews on Instagram until recently. She is a cleaning expert who creates videos with tips and tricks about cleaning. Part of what she does is bust old myths about cleaning, and in a recent video she brought up the common belief that our bed should be made first thing in the morning.

According to her, this is actually a bad habit. It might sound crazy, but hear her out. The reason she advises against it is that she says our beds need to breathe. “It seems a lot of people get up and make the bed straight away. This is something you need to stop doing,” wrote Mrs. D in an Instagram post. “Get out of bed and throw the duvet back and let your bed breathe.”

When we sleep, we sweat and shed dead skin. This can leave our bed damp and covered in bacteria. “During the night, we not only sweat, but we also shed skin, and this is a magnet for dust mites and bed bugs,” she says.

And science agrees with her. According to the BBC, researcher, Dr. Steven Pretlove conducted a study on making beds. He says, “We know that mites can only survive by taking in water from the atmosphere using small glands on the outside of their body,” he 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.”

I don’t know about you all, but I suddenly don’t feel so bad about waiting until later in the day to make my bed.