As a woman, I have been taught all my life that wearing a bra is the “proper” thing to do. Wearing a bra under your clothing keeps you looking attractive, put-together, and just all around more appropriate. Well, we’re calling malarkey.

This pro-bra message has been preached to women worldwide for centuries. With this antiqued expectation in mind, it shouldn’t surprise anyone that this symbol of femininity is now a normal, daily part of most women’s routines. But you may be surprised to hear that there are some unexpected benefits to ditching your brassiere every once and a while — or for good! Here are nine ways your health, your life, and your breasts can improve by saying adieu to your trusty old bra.

1. Improve Your Breast Shape

Contrary to what we might believe, not wearing a bra doesn’t cause your breasts to sag. In fact, a long-running French study has proven that bras most likely have the opposite effect, causing breasts to lose their shape over time. According to the study, the “support” of bras weakens the muscles in the chest, making the breasts droop.

To keep your breasts rounder and perkier, it’s actually best to let them do their own thing! Your bra is just keeping you back from even more beautiful breasts, truth be told.

2. Get a Better Night’s Sleep

Woman sleeping in all white.WikiMedia

We’ve known for some time that sleeping with your bra on isn’t something scientists approve of. Rumors of this habit causing breast cancer have spread from this notion, but this severe consequence is highly unlikely and has never been proven true. However, it has been proven that wearing a bra to bed is more likely to cause discomfort and disturb your sleep cycle!

Furthermore, even if you don’t wear a bra at night, your undergarment might still be impacting your circadian rhythms, as demonstrated by this study, and keeping you from getting a full night’s sleep.

Sleep or a cute, lacy bra? Um, sleep, please. Sleep definitely wins.

3. Boost Your Circulation

The study mentioned above briefly covers the effects of clothing (especially tighter clothing) on bodily circulation. We’ll save you the skimming — frequently wearing tight clothing, especially tight bras, is not so good for your circulation.

All that tightness and squeezing around your chest can slow your circulation by compressing your major blood vessels. This has actually been proven to create cardiovascular issues down the road, which your favorite push-up is just not worth.

4. Improve Your Breast Health

The same French study that proved going bra-less improves perkiness has also proven that, on the whole, bras are not fatally bad for your health. Basically, they’re not going to cause breast cancer all on their own; there are many genetic and environmental factors at play when it comes to that.

However, not wearing a bra WILL improve your breast health in other ways! Besides improving blood flow, sweat and dirt are no longer trapped against the skin by your tight bra. This makes infections, rashes, and acne less likely on your breasts.

This is especially true is you wear bras that don’t fit quite right. Bras that don’t have the right fit, or have painful underwire, are going to cause shortness of breath, chest pains, and all sorts of discomfort. You COULD skip the step of finding an appropriately fitting bra and just not wear one at all, just saying.

5. Save Some Money

Let’s face it, bras are expensive! Especially nice, comfortable, stylish ones. No matter what amount of money you spend on bra – whether it’s $20, $50, or $100 – consider that money saved is money earned. Whatever money you would have spent on a frilly new bra can be pocketed for another time or spent on something more important to you!

6. Encourage Healthy Breast Tissue

As a part of the 15-year study previously mentioned, scientists have found that wearing a bra may be hindering your ability to grow healthy breast tissue. Healthy breast tissue is important for so many reasons; obviously, healthy tissue will decrease (but not totally prevent) your chance for various breast diseases, such as breast cancer.

Breast tissue that’s healthy will also support breasts more and help breast muscles strengthen – and, as we learned, this leads to naturally larger, stronger, rounder, and perkier breasts.

7. Comfort

Funny Friends gif.Teen

For many ladies, this could be the biggest reason to nix your bra: comfort. Seriously, is there any greater feeling of relief than taking off your bra after a long day? It is sweet, sweet freedom. Especially if we wear lacy, itchy, or tight bras, the daily discomfort can be enough to distract you all day long.

A quick fix? Taking a bra-cation, if you will. All comfort, all the time.

What do you think? Do these health benefits tempt you enough to consider ditching your bra? Share your thoughts in the comments section below.