I was perusing some polls and quizzes on our new website recently, when I came across an interesting question about people who tuck in the top sheet on their beds, as opposed to those who leave the top sheet untucked, or go sheet-less altogether. I will reserve my own opinion until the end but, needless to say, the tucking results surprised me.
As I often do, I first shared the findings with my friends on Facebook to see what my go-to 100-person focus group had to say. I instantly sparked all sorts of sheet talking. My friend Bonnie fired the first salvo, questioning whether anyone but tucking “hotel maids” actually tucked in their sheets. As a mom of three busy kids, there probably isn’t a lot of time for tucking in her house. So, I wondered, could there be a correlation with parenthood or gender?
The data tell us that parents, as a group, are evenly split on the subject, although we do see evidence that age is a factor – Grandparents are more likely to tuck. The child-less are less likely to tuck or have any kind of sheet at all.
But, there is a distinct difference between women and men.
Men and dads are much more likely to prefer their sheet untucked. Bonnie, it seems, is an outlier. There are indeed far more mother tuckers in the world. My friend Michelle said she insists on tucking so much that her husband Dave looks at her like she’s “former military.”
On the other hand, not nearly as much tucking goes on in my friend Jim’s bed, which he attributes to his height. A tucked sheet is a “foot trap for taller people,” he says. Could height be the answer? Perhaps. My friend Cynthia quickly spoke up in support of Jim’s theory, identifying herself as a short, little tucker.
Here’s what the numbers say about height:
While it looks like taller people are slightly more likely to go untucked, the variance is negligible. Take my friend Rob who, at 6’6,’’ is one of the tallest tuckers I know. He likes to pull his sheets “up high and cozy to [his] neck.” Obviously, you can’t be up to your neck in sheet, he says, and then have your foot “bust out from the bottom.” What’s Rob’s solution? A larger 7-ft bed, which is ideal for tucking.
Last but definitely not least, my dear friends Sarah and Martha, who happen to be sisters, raise the prospect of whether our tucking preference is hereditary. Like me, neither Sarah nor Martha put up with any sheet whatsoever, preferring instead to sleep with only a duvet and duvet cover. That’s right. No sheet!
