# Is it possible to sleep while floating on your back in water, without drowning? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 6, 2012, 6:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-possible-to-sleep-while-floating-on-your-back-in-water-without-drowning/633831 "2012-09-06T06:41:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![crow41798](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/bcef8e/32.png) [@crow41798](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crow41798)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2012, 6:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-possible-to-sleep-while-floating-on-your-back-in-water-without-drowning/633831/1 "2012-09-06T06:41:00Z")
I can easily float on my back, and breathe normally without my mouth or nose going below the water. Some people cannot do this and sink below the water when they breathe out. I know that the body paralyzes the muscles during REM sleep, at least I think it’s REM sleep. Would you drown floating on your back; assuming that the water is completely still, and you do not move much when sleeping? ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2012, 6:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-possible-to-sleep-while-floating-on-your-back-in-water-without-drowning/633831/2 "2012-09-06T06:53:04Z")
People lost at sea have reported doing this. They probably weren’t in a REM sleep state. In salt water they were more buoyant, so that might make it more possible. In any sleep state you’re likely to wake up if water starts going down your throat. ---
**Author:** ![TonySinclair](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/49beb7/32.png) [@TonySinclair](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TonySinclair)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2012, 6:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-possible-to-sleep-while-floating-on-your-back-in-water-without-drowning/633831/3 "2012-09-06T06:55:04Z")
I find it very hard to believe that you can sleep for more than a few minutes without moving your head at all. And once you move it, you disturb the equilibrium, and you’ll get water in your nose the next time you inhale. No way I can test any of that, because I sink like a rock in water, and I can’t sleep on my back even in a bed. ---
**Author:** ![bardos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bardos/32/1069_2.png) [@bardos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bardos)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2012, 9:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-possible-to-sleep-while-floating-on-your-back-in-water-without-drowning/633831/4 "2012-09-06T09:07:23Z")
I once fell asleep in a sensory deprivation tank while i was floating. The water had kilos and kilos of epsom salts so floating was a given. ---
**Author:** ![the\_diego](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7bcc69/32.png) [@the\_diego](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/the_diego)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2012, 9:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-possible-to-sleep-while-floating-on-your-back-in-water-without-drowning/633831/5 "2012-09-06T09:20:06Z")
> [@bardos](#): > > I once fell asleep in a sensory deprivation tank while i was floating. The water had kilos and kilos of epsom salts so floating was a given. I remember two ads in Time or some other weekly way back for “best possible nap.” There seemed to be a lot of inventiveness back then. One was the highly saline tub mentioned above. The sleeper was kept upright by currents running underneath (not sure how they fixed the head turning.) The other invention was a big opaque plastic inflatable canopy which the sleeper crawled into, lay down, and was drummed with a soft rhythm that mimicked being inside one’s mother’s womb. There was even a choice of supplementary sound (music, nature, ego-boosting pitches, etc.) The article was titled “A nap by any other name.” ---
**Author:** ![lieu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c2a13f/32.png) [@lieu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lieu)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2012, 12:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-possible-to-sleep-while-floating-on-your-back-in-water-without-drowning/633831/6 "2012-09-06T12:07:20Z")
[This guy](http://www.woodtv.com/dpps/entertainment/must_see_video/man-sleeping-in-river-mistaken-for-dead-ob12-jgr_4299609) certainly thinks so. ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2012, 12:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-possible-to-sleep-while-floating-on-your-back-in-water-without-drowning/633831/7 "2012-09-06T12:51:46Z")
> [@lieu](#): > > [This guy](http://www.woodtv.com/dpps/entertainment/must_see_video/man-sleeping-in-river-mistaken-for-dead-ob12-jgr_4299609) certainly thinks so. As does one of the people in the Comments section. ---
**Author:** ![Malthus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@Malthus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malthus)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2012, 1:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-possible-to-sleep-while-floating-on-your-back-in-water-without-drowning/633831/8 "2012-09-06T13:49:01Z")
Go to the Dead Sea. It’s easy there. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Vicullum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/6de8d8/32.png) [@Vicullum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Vicullum)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2012, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-possible-to-sleep-while-floating-on-your-back-in-water-without-drowning/633831/9 "2012-09-06T15:50:40Z")
Well, there’s [this story](http://m.spokesman.com/stories/1995/dec/08/marine-took-lickin-but-thanks-to-his-watch/) about a Marine who fell off an aircraft carrier back in 1995 and spent the next 2-and-a-half days floating in the ocean. Somehow, he was able to catch some zzz’s: > [@](#): > > The 20-year-old Marine lance corporal, who fell off of an aircraft carrier last week, last checked the watch about 30 hours into his misadventure, then drifted off to sleep and lost both the watch and the life preserver. > > “When I’d start to go under, I would take in water and it would wake me up,” said Mayo, now visiting his family in Osburn. “(Nearly) drowning is the worst feeling.” > > Mayo was later told that when Pakistani fishermen found him in the Gulf of Oman, he was treading water in his sleep. ---
**Author:** ![HoneyBadgerDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/honeybadgerdc/32/1033_2.png) [@HoneyBadgerDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HoneyBadgerDC)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2012, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-possible-to-sleep-while-floating-on-your-back-in-water-without-drowning/633831/10 "2012-09-06T15:54:52Z")
I have noticed since I have gotten older I am more bouyant and can fall asleep in the ocean while floating on my back, never for more than a few minutes or seconds but I have dozed off many times.