Make Your Bed

This old wives' tale stretches centuries back. It says that you should make your bed every day and keep it tidy or else something will see the unmade bed as an invitation to sleep in it. This "something" changes depending on the region and sometimes on what the person listening to the tale fears. It can be some type of fiend or horrifying monster, or it can be as simple as bugs and other types of animals often found creepy.
Obviously this story is most often told to children as a way of getting them to make their beds in the mornings every day. Though most people stop believing in the tale as they grow older, in some cases the fear still lingers even in adulthood.
While it probably started as something told by parents or grandparents to children in lower and middle class families, in the current day the tale has also become popular among the upper class. In this more modern society a lot of nobility and others of the upper echelon have noticed an increasing laziness in their children that are so dependent on servants doing everything for them. That is why many parents of such children have started making sure that they start doing their own chores, and this tale is helpful in one aspect of it when the kids complain. There are also more variations related to various household chores because of this reason.

Historical Basis

There is no proof of this being something that has happened consistently enough for there to be any true historical basis behind the old wives' tale. There have been instances of people heading to bed in the evening and finding something in their bed that shouldn't be there. This is not dependent on the bed being unmade, however, and really doesn't have anything to do with the tale.