This Study Could Explain Why You Steal The Covers At Night

I am a notorious cover stealer while asleep.

Every time a friend visited me in college, I'd have to go an entire weekend listening to them complain about how I left them sleeping cold and coverless in my twin XL bed.

Just this past weekend, my mom and I shared a hotel bed for my cousin's graduation, and she woke me up in a RAGE to show me how I had stolen literally all of the covers off her.

Needless to say, this is an ~especially~ sore subject for my boyfriend, who is left sleeping cold and sheet-less as a result of my cover thievery more than any of the aforementioned people.

I wish I wasn't this way. I really do. I mean, I'm not a MONSTER here. I don't want to be leaving my loved ones shivering in the cold in the dead of the night. But I can't help it! As soon as I fall asleep, I grab those sheets and tuck myself into a nice, little linen cocoon.

A new study of over 2,000 individuals by Best Mattress Brand has managed to come up with a possible reason for why I'm such a cover stealer.

People who had bedtime companions growing up tend to steal the covers more than others.

People who slept with bedtime companions dolls, such as dolls and blankies and teddy bears, are prone to having all sorts of problems when it comes to sleeping as an adult, like stealing the covers.

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Out of adults who tended to steal the covers, 35 percent of them slept with a doll growing up and 31 percent of them slept with a teddy bear. Though, the study didn't find a clear reason as to why.

But you see, when I was growing up, I slept with a teddy bear. And when I wasn't sleeping with a teddy bear, I was sleeping with my parents.

The point is, I was always holding on to something while I was falling asleep. Now, as an adult, I fall asleep holding on to the covers. I hold them close to my chest just like my held my stuffed animals or my parents.

This is all fine until I fall asleep and start to toss and turn (a very common problem for well over half of people who slept with a bedtime companion, as you can see on the chart). Then, I start taking the sheets over with me, away from whomever I'm sharing my bed with.


All I've got to say is, at least I didn't take the whole teddy bear habit into my adult years.

Having a bedtime buddy stops being cool as you get older.

Yeah, we all had a toy or something we slept with when we were little, and it was cool, but most of us let that stay in the past.

Others... not so much.

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All I can say is, thank GOD not many people still sleep with a special blanket or a doll (only 2 percent and 1 percent still report they do, respectively) because those two items REALLY seem to piss people's partners off. Thirty percent of people even gave their partners who slept with dolls an ultimatum about the doll.

Honestly, though, I don't really understand why that is. Maybe the special blanket hasn't been washed in forever? That'd be gross.

Some people get so annoyed by their partners' sleeping habits that they really DUMP them.

What habits are so bad your partner would actually dump you for? Check it out for yourself below.

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A number of people said they'd actually dump a partner who slept with a special blanket (9.3 percent), a doll (17.4 percent), a stuffed animal (9.8 percent), a teddy bear (10.3 percent), and a pet (5.6 percent).

I really think it's important to take into account the contrast between the amount of people who said they would break up with someone and the amount of people who actually did follow through with that, as the percentage of people who actually broke up with someone over this was pretty low. (Though, that might be because they never really encountered that problem before.)

I may just be a lousy, former-stuffed-animal-owning, current-bed-cover-stealing jerk here, but I have a feeling these people are all talk no game.

Regardless, maybe it's time everyone puts all their old bedtime buddies to rest.

Citations: Bedtime Companions (Best Mattress Brand)