Under the Covers - Round 2 - Tucked or Flapping in the Breeze?

Updated on November 06, 2012
H.G. asks from Mount Joy, PA
30 answers

So the burning question of top sheet or not has been answered (although I didn't tally to see which camp won). In reading the responses, I was left with another burning question: When you make a bed (or get into it to sleep) do you tuck the blanket or sheets and blankets in at the bottom?

What I gathered from the other question was that a lot of people sleep with completely un-tucked sheets and/or blankets. Can this be true? Are people in this country become so uncivilized as to not tuck anything into the bottom of their beds? Horrors! And if the answer to this is affirmative, then one must assume that the hospital corner of our mothers' day has gone by the wayside as well. If this is so, then I shall sleep nary a wink tonight.

Say it isn't so. Restore my faith in humankind. Do your blankets/sheets get tucked in at the bottom or do they flap in the breeze?

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So What Happened?

Wow - quite enlightening! From skimming over most of the answers, it seems that I and the other "Hospital Corner" tuckers are in the minority. When I say tucked, I am talking about the top sheet (if one is used) and possibly a light blanket but not the top comforter - that just gets set over the top of everything. To be fair, it seems that men are the most likely suspect when it comes to kicking the tucked part out. In my defense, my DH and I sleep in separate beds (that's a post for another day, I'm sure) so his preference plays no part in my bed. I should say, however, that his sheets stay tucked in his bed for the most part.

For Riley and anyone else who missed the original post: http://www.mamapedia.com/questions/16512896796968812545
Thanks for all the interesting dinner conversation this will provide for my family.

Featured Answers

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S.R.

answers from El Paso on

This topic makes me sad... :( I ALWAYS tuck the sheets in and do hospital corners. "Then what happens," you may ask. Why, then my husband gets in bed and on his side INTENTIONALLY untucks it.... AAAHHHHH!!! THE SYMMETRY IS GONE!!! As a result of his un-tucking (combined with the fact that he rolls around like an alligator trying to drown its prey) my side eventually becomes untucked and I CANNOT sleep like that... So, every few nights I end up having to fix my side (and his if he's not there yet!)

2 moms found this helpful

L.L.

answers from Rochester on

I do "hospital" corners, as you put it. I know how to do it all fancy, too, and I love the look and feel of it. :) I guess I'm civilized!! Lol.

2 moms found this helpful

C.V.

answers from Columbia on

We tuck at the bottom. I don't like the sheets/blankets to feel loose. And hubs steals the blankets.

2 moms found this helpful

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R.J.

answers from Seattle on

I haven't been on here much lately... Where's the top sheet Q? Soooo not finding it! (Watch it be 3 Q's down and I'm blind).
--------
I'm ex-military. I CAN 90 degree corner fold both top and bottom.

I don't.

I have a fitted bottom sheet.
I have a duvet wrapped down comforter, 2 actually.
That I curl up in and is never tucked in.

In the morning I just loft the comforter and Voila! Finìs.

Both get washed once a week.

My feet always poke out.

((BTW... In the military we often slept on TOP of our bedding (in sweats) to keep from messing up the bedding. Reveille. Up. Out the door for formation to run in 30 seconds. We DID have to remake those sheets once a week when we washed them. And weekends were extra awesome for getting to sleep INSIDE our beds. So PERSONALLY I'm thrilled I can sleep inside my bed, loft the comforter, and be walking downstairs in 40 seconds instead of 30.))

3 moms found this helpful
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A.G.

answers from Chicago on

LONG LIVE HOSPITAL CORNERS!!! I think of my mom and grandma every time I put fresh sheets and blankets on the bed. I taught my BFF about the corners the other day!!

Sheets and blankets are tucked in. They come undone on my husband's side, but who cares? As long as my side stays tucked, life is good!

I didn't answer your previous question, but we are a top sheet family here!

3 moms found this helpful

S.G.

answers from Grand Forks on

Tucked, with hospital corners, and the top sheet folded down six inches over the blankets and comforter at the top. My mom was a stickler for a properly made bed, then I spent seven years in air cadets as a teen. At air cadet camp if you didn't make your bed properly you had to do push ups. My husband also needs the bed to be made, or he can't sleep.

3 moms found this helpful

V.K.

answers from Minneapolis on

If my husband had his way... They would be tucked in.

I can't sleep like that. I need the blankets bunched up around me so I can twist and turn and (as mu husband puts it) do the blanket death roll... Which is essential like the crocodile death roll except I use my body to wrap the blankets around me repeatedly. Then my husband wakes up freezing and mad, unwraps the blankets in a sleepy mad state, and goes back to bed. In my defense I do not realize I am doing it. Again, this is why we have started sleeping with different blankets

2 moms found this helpful
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D.K.

answers from Cincinnati on

We tuck in the sheet or blanket that is closest to our bodies using hospital corners when we make the bed. Half the blankets get tucked using hospital corners. The other half and the quilt are tucked only into the end of the bed. Our bed is sleigh style, so no choice but to tuck. My side stays tucked at the feet, unless my husband pulls them off of me in the middle of the night. His side almost always needs to be retucked in the morning. My side stays tucked provided my husband doesn't steal the covers. On very cold nights, I've woken up with almost all the covers laying on the floor on my husband's side. Then he has the blanket closest to our bodies wrapped around him like a sardine. It is a mystery how he does this. When spring arrives, he does the opposite and I get his half of the blankets thrown on me. I wake up feeling cooked. So, that would be a yes to tucking.

2 moms found this helpful
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I.G.

answers from Seattle on

No tucking at my house. No top sheets and no tucking. Call us heathens.

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B.

answers from Augusta on

tucked, how does anyone sleep with sheets untucked at the bottom? I'd have to completely remake my bed every morning, the bottom of my sheet would be at the top or side of the bed. in the summer I sleep with my right leg stuck out the side and on top so untucking the bottom is not necessary to stick feet out.
Do people that sleep with them untucked sleep stone still?

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A.M.

answers from Phoenix on

I can't stand tucked blankets. I like to be able to pull my feet out at night. When I sleep somewhere with tucked sheets (hotel, hospital, in-laws), the first thing I do when I get in bed is pull all the blankets from being tucked.

2 moms found this helpful

S.T.

answers from Washington DC on

i just can't figure out hospital corners!
but i do tuck the sheets. i get how uncomfortable it is to have one's feet constricted, and i do loosen 'em up when i get in so my piggies can flop around at will, but i don't get making the bed and NOT tucking things in neatly.
when i was a single young 'un i was totally in the camp of 'why make it? i'm just going to mess it up again.' but then i lived with a fellow who absolutely could not sleep unless he climbed into a smoothly-made bed, and out of consideration for him i got in the habit. and it stuck. now it feels so nice to me that i could never go back to the rumpled way, even to the point of NOT tucking my sheets.
no flapping here!
:) khairete
S.

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L.K.

answers from Kansas City on

Nope, tucked in here. Of course I am a nurse and those hospital corners are habit!

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C.B.

answers from Boston on

I am from northern Europe where most people each have their own personal down comforter that is not tucked in but your sort of roll yourself into it like a burrito when cold, or lay it half over you when it is warmer (although we sleep with the windows open most nights so it is cold in the bedroom). Hotels also have a comforter per person on the beds there. We also do not "make" the bed but just open the comforter over the foot end or over the balcony outside to air out the bed. I do not understand the American need for immediately closed and tucked beds right after getting up, I prefer to air out my bed and get back into a clean smelling cool bed at night.

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K.O.

answers from Atlanta on

Amusing post writing - made me smile.

my sheets and blankets are tucked in at the bottom (hospital corners) and stay that way. They are also tucked in around the edges when I make the bed, but those come out when we go to sleep, or I wouldn't be able to kick my feet out. My bedspread is untucked completely.

2 moms found this helpful

K.I.

answers from Los Angeles on

Tucked top sheet for sure!

Untucked quilt and blanket....the husband requires ability to throw off covers onto me or the middle of the bed. Freak!

1 mom found this helpful
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S.L.

answers from Green Bay on

Oh, I can't sleep with the sheets tucked in. I have to have the sheets tucked around my feet. So no hospital corners in my house.

1 mom found this helpful
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L.M.

answers from Chicago on

I'm cracking up! You are too funny :) Glad to see you have electricity and are doing well out there in NJ.

My husband and I are opposite. He likes just a comforter that he wraps himself up in like a burrito, with feet sticking out the end. Ugh! Even when it's cold here in Chicago. I can't stand it.

I, on the other hand, like a neat bed - with the sheet firmly tucked in and a blanket or two over it. I don't like my feet to hang out because they get so cold. If for some reason the sheet becomes untucked and my feet are exposed, I will wake up and have to fix the problem immediately.

Plus, I hate when he is lying on top of my sheets (makes me feel closterphobic) so half my bed is made nicely and the other half is a pile of comforter.

1 mom found this helpful
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S.H.

answers from Honolulu on

Okay, how's about this:

My side of the bed: tucked in. I only tuck in the flat sheet/top sheet. Not blankets.
Hubby's side of the bed: Not tucked in.

That is really, what I do. Per our preferences. And its fine and a simple solution.

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L.F.

answers from San Francisco on

I tuck it in.when I first make the bed in the morning. But if it untucks in the night, I leave it and deal with it later.

1 mom found this helpful
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K.L.

answers from Savannah on

My side of sheets is tucked, while my husband keeps his untucked. I can't stand when the sheets go all over the place from not being anchored down, where my husband has to have his feet sticking out of the bed. When I put fresh linens on the bed, I Tuck both sides, and my husband will pull it out to go to bed. I don't usually retuck until I change the sheets, unless they are hanging weird and fall below the comforter.

As for blankets, We only use a comforter, which does not get tucked under the mattress. If it was cold enough that both of us wanted an extra blanket, Then I would put it under the comforter, tucked with the sheets, but usually only one of the other will want an extra blanket, so it goes on top of that person's side while sleeping, and folded and the end of the bed when made.

1 mom found this helpful

G.W.

answers from Dallas on

I tuck and use a top sheet, call me crazy :-)

1 mom found this helpful

J.C.

answers from Columbus on

Yeah, my husband is too kicky. His side of the bed - always untucked. He just kicks at it until it untucks anyway. I always tuck my side. If I didn't, he'd hog all the bedding onto his side.

1 mom found this helpful

V.W.

answers from Jacksonville on

Tucked. With hospital corners. And I have taught my kids how to do it, too.

Husband's side never STAYS that way... he always sticks his feet out and wraps them around the sheet (so they are on top) and he fights with it until the sides pull out... I guess he has hot feet. lol

ETA: Ohh Sherri G. You are so like me. I have to have the sheet folded down over the quilt several inches too. I never measured it before, but I'm guessing 6 inches sounds about right. :)

1 mom found this helpful

B.C.

answers from Norfolk on

They get tucked in at the very bottom but the sides are open.
My feet always get very warm when I'm sleeping and have been escape artists as far back as I can remember.
I get cozy and warm under the blanket then my feet peek out round the side edge near the bottom.
My husband will cover them up if he gets up for something but even deeply in sleep, they'll be right out again within a few minutes.

1 mom found this helpful
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B.P.

answers from Cleveland on

Victoria are we with the same guys and sisters separated at birth?? Lol i do the death roll and freeze my guy almost every i do not know im doing it until he yells at me n takes em back n puts his arms around me in turn freezing me n it's a bad cycle n he isn't having the separate blanket thing at all

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S.S.

answers from Binghamton on

Not to blow your mind or anything, but we sleep with a duvet which has a removable cover I wash every week like you wash your sheets. It does not tuck in at all. One flick of the wrist and the bed is made beautifully, we have all kinds of pretty covers for a new look each week, and you never wake up with a sheet all scrunched around your feet.
That said, I can make a hospital corner that you could bounch the proverbial quarter off. But I love, love, love my duvet. And my husband has his very own, so no more midnight wrestling matches in vain hopes of getting a piece of the blankets.

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L.H.

answers from New York on

Yep, everyone's different. Our house is even worse. My son sleeps like I grew up sleeping and prefer sleeping with the bottom tucked in and the sides loose. (Sorry, I gave up on hospital corners...My dad would have a fit, especially when he used to bound quarters on the bed to make sure everything was pulled tight...military.) MIL doesn't use a top sheet, because she says it reminds her to much of a hospital. She doesn't like the sheet tucked in at the bottom, because she says it pulls the feet down. (How many people sleep on their backs? Not in our house. We're all side sleepers, so there should be no problem with the sheet tucked in!) Hubby and I have split the bed...one of MIL's unsavory ideas. (Hubby is an insomniac regardless.) I sleep with my feet tucked in and one side loose. The other side is folded under. Why? Because hubby uses the "sausage roll technique." (lol, something else for you to think about.) The "sausage roll technique" is to swaddle yourself in the blankets until you look like a "human sausage." He doesn't use a top sheet, what a pain when it comes time to wash the linens. His feet are loose and his body is completely rolled up in the blankets....some of his blankets fall off in the middle of the night and I wind up throwing them back on top of him after I've tripped on my way to the potty. (lol, just like a kid.)

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P.K.

answers from New York on

No tucking here. I like my feet out as does my husband.

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A.V.

answers from Washington DC on

A lot of the time our sheets start out tucked in but don't stay that way. The fitted sheet stays fitted but the flat sheet depends on whether or not one of us pulled up the sheet just a little farther in the night. I don't routinely remake my bed in the AM, either. Shhh.

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