# Can humans sleep with their heads erect? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 30, 2006, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-humans-sleep-with-their-heads-erect/378482 "2006-10-30T20:36:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![zeno](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zeno/32/15040_2.png) [@zeno](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zeno)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2006, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-humans-sleep-with-their-heads-erect/378482/1 "2006-10-30T20:36:43Z")
If it’s not clear, I simply mean without resting their heads on anything. I’m having an argument about this. I say no. ---
**Author:** ![StinkyBurrito](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b9e5f3/32.png) [@StinkyBurrito](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StinkyBurrito)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2006, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-humans-sleep-with-their-heads-erect/378482/2 "2006-10-30T20:41:33Z")
I would venture to say yes. I know that I have fallen asleep at work with my right hand on my mouse and my left hand on ctrl+c just sitting there like I am working. Don’t tell my boss. ---
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2006, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-humans-sleep-with-their-heads-erect/378482/3 "2006-10-30T20:42:01Z")
Hell, you can sleep while walking. Soldiers often talk of falling asleep while marching. Example: > [@](#): > > That night we spent the time looking for an Uhlan regiment, but didn’t get in touch with them, and every time we stopped we fell asleep; in fact we slept while we were marching, and consequently kept falling over. [Cite](http://www.firstworldwar.com/diaries/retreatfrommons.htm) ---
**Author:** ![TonyF](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/9de053/32.png) [@TonyF](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TonyF)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2006, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-humans-sleep-with-their-heads-erect/378482/4 "2006-10-30T20:42:11Z")
I’ve fallen asleep that way countless times… but generally my head falls forward at some point (usually because I fall asleep that way in cars). It’s terrible sleep, but it’s there. I’ve even remembered dreaming. ---
**Author:** ![UncleRojelio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/unclerojelio/32/3160_2.png) [@UncleRojelio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UncleRojelio)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2006, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-humans-sleep-with-their-heads-erect/378482/5 "2006-10-30T20:47:23Z")
I’m doing it right now. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Iggins](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Iggins](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Iggins)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2006, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-humans-sleep-with-their-heads-erect/378482/6 "2006-10-30T20:51:35Z")
I wake up every morning… oh wait… ---
**Author:** ![Geek\_Mecha](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ecae2f/32.png) [@Geek\_Mecha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Geek_Mecha)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2006, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-humans-sleep-with-their-heads-erect/378482/7 "2006-10-30T21:12:38Z")
In my experience, you can fall asleep sitting up with your head erect, but not with any regularity. I slept that way during my bus commutes to and from school for many years. Also in my experience, the lighter the sleep, the greater the chance of staying upright. ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2006, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-humans-sleep-with-their-heads-erect/378482/8 "2006-10-30T21:23:20Z")
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn writes in _The Gulag Archipelago_ about a prisoner that learned to sleep sitting up, head up, on a stool in his cell sufficient to fool the guards into believing he was still awake. (Sleep deprivation was part of the “interrogation techniques” used to extract confessions from prisoners of SMERSH and the Gulag system.) This is clearly an exceptional case, though, and it’s unclear what stage of sleep he attained. Generally speaking, a full relaxation (voluntary or involuntary) of the muscles results in the head falling forward or to one side (hence, the inability of infants and sufferers of neuromuscular diseases to effect a head-up posture). This seems to be pretty common in land mammals–even unglates that sleep in an erect body posture typically bow their heads when at rest)–but other erect stance animals (turkeys, for instance) sleep with heads erect. I’d say that it’s one of the many penalties for these gignormous brains we haul around. Stranger ---
**Author:** ![pendgwen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3da27b/32.png) [@pendgwen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pendgwen)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2006, 11:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-humans-sleep-with-their-heads-erect/378482/9 "2006-10-30T23:30:58Z")
Certainly. I used to do this all the time in church. If you’re going to do it deliberately rather than, say accidentally falling asleep in class, you can deliberately adopt a balanced posture so that when you fall asleep your head doesn’t flop and wake you up. ---
**Author:** ![spingears](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ebca7d/32.png) [@spingears](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/spingears)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2006, 12:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-humans-sleep-with-their-heads-erect/378482/10 "2006-10-31T00:48:15Z")
[QUOTE=zeno] If it’s not clear, I simply mean without resting their heads on anything. I’m having an argument about this. I say no. [/QUOTE] I worked several double shifts and went to sleep on my feet. Therefore I know it is possible. Your are on auto pilot till something gives and you awake with a start. I took some citrated caffeine and when it kicked in I was WIDE AWAKE ! ---
**Author:** ![JpnDude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/838e76/32.png) [@JpnDude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JpnDude)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2006, 1:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-humans-sleep-with-their-heads-erect/378482/11 "2006-10-31T01:59:05Z")
You should see most of the seated commuters in trains during a Tokyo morning rush. They, or shall I say “WE”, usually sleep sitting upright. However, for some, the head eventually tilts to one side. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2006, 9:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-humans-sleep-with-their-heads-erect/378482/12 "2006-10-31T09:45:01Z")
Yep, I’ve done it. ---
**Author:** ![Sonia\_Montdore](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/90ced4/32.png) [@Sonia\_Montdore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sonia_Montdore)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2006, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-humans-sleep-with-their-heads-erect/378482/13 "2006-10-31T23:37:32Z")
The daughters of George III and Queen Charlotte used to have to stand behind their mother’s chair at royal receptions for hours at a time. Court etiquette prohibited the princesses from sitting. It’s said they learned to sleep while standing: [The Royal Scribe](http://www.etoile.co.uk/Columns/RoyalScribe/040315.html) ---
**Author:** ![Regallag\_The\_Axe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/regallag_the_axe/32/445_2.png) [@Regallag\_The\_Axe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Regallag_The_Axe)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2006, 12:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-humans-sleep-with-their-heads-erect/378482/14 "2006-11-01T00:23:02Z")
When I was in high school I used to constantly fall asleep with my head erect. The subsequent tilting of the head was usually enough to make me awake with a falling sensation. ---
**Author:** ![Chouinard\_Fan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a88e57/32.png) [@Chouinard\_Fan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chouinard_Fan)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2006, 8:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-humans-sleep-with-their-heads-erect/378482/15 "2006-11-01T08:24:07Z")
[QUOTE=Regallag\_The\_Axe] When I was in high school I used to constantly fall asleep with my head erect. The subsequent tilting of the head was usually enough to make me awake with a falling sensation. [/QUOTE] My father falls asleep driving, none of the ‘buzz you to wake you up’ devices work 'cause his head doesn’t fall backwards. We used to have to take turns in thefront seat talking to him to keep him interested and elbow him when he fell asleep. It was hard to do, his head didn’t move at all, you really had/have to watch his eyes. I can’t personally fall asleep with my head up, no matter how much I wish I could, but I did fall asleep marching w/ ~30lbs. once. I fell asleep as my left foot went forward in the stride and I awoke when it struck the ground, I wobbled, but didn’t eat pavement… ---
**Author:** ![Cardinal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cardinal/32/4000_2.png) [@Cardinal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cardinal)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2006, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-humans-sleep-with-their-heads-erect/378482/16 "2006-11-11T15:37:50Z")
Yeah, he’s really good at that head-erect thing. In the first few seconds his head doesn’t really move at all. “Is he drifting toward the line because you just drift when you drive, or because he’s asleep? No, he corrected it. Wait, this time I think he’s going to touch the line!” [taps shoulder, wakes driver.] ---
**Author:** ![FRDE](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e68b1a/32.png) [@FRDE](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FRDE)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2006, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-humans-sleep-with-their-heads-erect/378482/17 "2006-11-11T18:48:14Z")
Flop houses used to have ropes - the punters would sleep standing up, although I doubt that their heads were erect.