h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/4181629.stm

I've been doing this for over ten years for this very reason! How come they've only just caught on?

its amazing the tripe they come up with some time; It is something I've heard from a lot of 'older' people, that they leave the bed unmaid till early/late afternoon to 'let the bed breath' as they put it I do the same..... though I generlaly make it just before I crawl back into it

I wouldn't say "tripe", but more "stating the obvious"!! Habits of the old 'uns have a lot more sense than people realise. Especially when you consider the dust they had to put up with: open fires, dusty roads (like the one I live in - unmade ), no vacuum cleaners but the beating of carpets & rugs, etc.

Quite a few years back there was a theory that the allergies were being caused by double glazing & central heating, i.e. too warm, no fresh air & nowhere for the "dust" to escape!

When you say "scientists a decade behind" - I'd like to take this slightly off the current topic. My daugher is losing her job in about 6 months time due to the labs she is working for at present closing. The reason? Industry, who sponsor these labs, isn't prepared to wait 10 years for the research results to come to fruition. This is not the fault of the scientists - research takes alot longer than people realise (it is NOT an overnight thing), however industry wants to make money now & seemingly, in this case, not invest.

Well, at least I've let off some

Thats why I air my duvets every week.

I read obvious reseach every week in new Scientist, sometimes its funny, sometimes you wonder where they got the grant from.

I thought the asthma and allergy groups have also been saying this for year.

I generally leave my bed unmade for a bit when I get up because I need a a fag, check the cats are ok and 10 minutes to get my head straight.

But I do pull the duvet bag across the bed as otherwise the cats would sit on the sheet and cover it in cat hairs (if I am unlucky it could be a furrball too )

However I do like to get into a freshly made bed at night so I always sort it out in the early evening, so if I have a drink I can just fall into a neat bed

I get up, and push the covers to the end of bed. Then they stay there until I get back in later. I also don't have curtains to get in the way of the light that dustmites hate, and I open a window, as they don't like cold either.

I do sometimes make it again if I'm having a bath immediately before bedtime, but other than that it's only covered if I've just changed the sheets.

Mort - can't you try shutting the bedroom door? Although I assume as you're happy for cats to be in the bedroom, you don't have any worreis about allergies.

I am one of those daft people that doesn't own cats - they totally rule me!

They are 15 and 16 now, and they lived in studio flats/bedsits when they were younger and got used to having access to the bed as there was no way to seperate them from it.

When I got a large flat I shut them out the bedroom and I got no sleep as they kept trying to dig there way in. I cracked after one night and gave up after that!! I like waking up and having the cats cuddling up though - makes living alone less lonely so I put up with the occasional sick on the duvet and cat hair up my nose

Have to say it took me a while to work out what was meant by an "unmade bed". To me, that means a bed where the bedclothes are just tumbled any old how, and I would have thought your average bedmite would love all that undisturbed moisture and darkness.

*Airing* a bed is essential before it's made, and this involves shaking all the bedding, making the bed, and then pulling the top layers right back to expose the bottom sheet. Everything dries off and cools down and you don't re-make the bed for at least, ooh, an hour. (At Guide camp, all bedding is aired every morning and we *always* have to explain why we're doing it - it's clearly gone right out of fashion.)

Presumably this is what the scientists are on about. The rise of the duvet (or continental quilt, as we used to call it) clearly = the demise of the stuff that Britain is made of.

Good to know I now get Brownie points for being a lazy slut around the house, though

I hang my duvet outside for a morning (as long as there is no rain) when I change the cover - I do the same for my 's duvet

Don't think I'm doing bad for a guide who stayed as long as it took to join & then opted out

When I was at boarding school we had to take the duvets off the bed and stick them on a chair outside our little bedroom/cubicles as soon as we got up. They didn't get put back until after we'd dressed and had breakfast.

And yet when I was in the army cadets we had to make our beds as soon as we got up

Now, it's rare to see the bed made properly

I am totally obsessed with duvets being straight and everything just right (think it is part of my OCD tendencies) but having a guest in it for the last month drove me nuts. He got told off many times for ruffling up the sheets and leaving the duvet lopsided A crime!

Because of this I frequently have to shake my duvet out - but it is more to make sure the cover is on straight rather than the purpose of freshening it up

I am actually hell to live with!!

*Note to self*

Don't move in with Mort, she's hell to live with.

I reckon we've all noted it now