I’m not crazy about recliners, but my pedicurist has one in her salon that is insanely comfortable. It is a La-Z-Boy, and it’s kind of smallish. It rocks (in more ways than one). And it is so incredibly soft and supportive.
I have known people who started sleeping in recliners due to back problems, or recovering from surgery, or something like that, and never returned to sleeping in their beds.
I am a troubled and inconsistent sleeper, and sometimes I dread going to bed, like tonight.
This chair is so comfortable… Holy cow, I have been fantasizing about it. Although I don’t have any idea how I could fit one into this apartment.
What are your experiences with sleeping in recliners instead of in bed?
Occasionally, I do this because of my acid reflux. I do it if I need to stay in a semi-upright position to keep stomach contents going into my esophagus, but I’m drowsy enough that I can’t wait the hours it takes to digest and then get to a flat bed.
Fun fact; I believe it was either Air France or SwissAir that discovered in the 1990s that the human body is most relaxed in a position that is nearly flat but not completely flat, and then designed their first class seats to go to that angle.
This is how Piper Dad slept in his latter years. At one point he told me that he hadn’t slept in his bed for months. Not associated with surgery or back issues; he just found it more comfortable.
One of my uncles has slept exclusively in a recliner for probably ten years now, due to chronic back problems and several back surgeries. He’s around 80 years old, and I imagine that he may well never sleep in a bed again.
In the last few years, my dad has gone through stretches (weeks to even months at a time) when he’s slept in the recliner in the living room, due to health issues (mostly recovering from injuries or surgeries). But, he’s always been very happy to be able to sleep in a bed again, as he doesn’t sleep as well in a recliner.
I slept in a recliner after hip replacement surgery, but as a side sleeper it’s not as comfortable for me, so I’m back in my bed, with a very-low-rise wedge pillow.
I have a La-Z-Boy, but it doesn’t rock. I fall asleep in it, but I don’t intentionally sleep there instead of in bed. There have been times lately, due to arthritis in my hip, when I have considered it, since the only position I could get fully comfortable in was in the recliner, but there were too many logistical issues to do it ad hoc – moving my CPAP, getting additional bedding out from somewhere, and so on. Now that my physical therapy has alleviated the pain quite a lot, I can sleep in bed fine most of the time.
My biggest complaint against the recliner is that I bought it to read in, but found that I can’t read well while my feet are up because I have to bend my neck forward to see the book (or hold the book way up in front of my eyes). Then my neck gets tired and I want to lean back and close my eyes. I can read when I’m sitting upright, but then I don’t get the advantage of having my feet up.
My answer to the OP question is “no”, I always sleep in my bed, but I do somewhat understand the OP’s sleeping issues. It’s just that for me, it’s not an issue per se, I just accept the fact that I sleep intermittently, which I’ve been told is symptomatic of age (I’m young at heart, though! ). So while I don’t nap in a recliner, I might lie down in bed for a moment and then wake up to discover that it’s several hours later. Or, conversely, I might wake up in the middle of the night and decide that a bottle of Coke and watching a movie in bed on my tablet is just the thing.
In my advanced years as no longer a pup, my sleep habits are definitely not the conventional ones of young dogs or people, but I’m fine with it, because we live in a world that is pretty much active 24x7. It’s not 1940 where I need to go to a movie theater to watch a movie, and thanks to the wonders of the internet, I can be a nuisance on the SDMB at any hour of night or day!
I’ve certainly fallen asleep in mine (an Ekornes with a separate ottoman), but always wake up with a sore neck from inadequate neck support. My real bed with real pillows never has that problem.
The same happens when I travel on an airliner. The semi-upright seats almost work for sleeping. The fully lie-flat beds work great.
I could imagine somebody with back or shoulder problems, or obesity, preferring a recliner. That’s not me.
Yet. I remain open minded, but not interested. Yet.
I had Covid last month and had to do this. I don’t have a Recliner, but I slept upright on my couch to achieve the next best I could do. It wasn’t marvellously comfortable, or successful, but lying on my bed was out of the question.
I’ve tried when I’ve had restless nights, but it never seemed to work. Yet when reading, I’ve often nodded off in my recliner.
A big reason that I wouldn’t - the recliner is electric and it takes for-freekin’-ever to go from recline to upright. So if I woke with bladder urgency, it could be really, really bad. I’ll never got a powered recliner ever again.
My dad did for years and years. But I don’t know why. I sort of just think he was to lazy to go to bed. Maybe it was a health issue, or he was more comfortable. I think though, he just didn’t care.
I’m quite a restless sleeper. And I’m caught in a cycle where managing to stay in bed until 3:30am is a good night. And then of course I’m falling asleep by 7pm. It sucks.
If I may make a suggestion, Get a Kindle e reader. They make a stand to hold the reader in a position for comfortable reading without you having to hold it. And that make a remote page turner as well. Just click the button in your hand and the page changes.
Kindle Unlimited is about $30 a month and lots of books to read.
My wife doesn’t regularly sleep in the recliner, but will sometimes fall asleep there while watching TV in the evening, then wakes up and comes to bed in the middle of the night. Or conversely, if she wakes up in the middle of the night and can’t get back to sleep, she’ll go sleep in the recliner with the TV on so that she doesn’t wake me up. But it’s not like a replacement for a regular bed.
). So while I don’t nap in a recliner, I might lie down in bed for a moment and then wake up to discover that it’s several hours later. Or, conversely, I might wake up in the middle of the night and decide that a bottle of Coke and watching a movie in bed on my tablet is just the thing.