Due to a series of unforeseen circumstances in combination with my ever-peculiar whims, I have decided to experiment with sleeping on the floor.
First impressions: I can’t believe how much space is freed up by not having a bed in the room, its fantastic!!! As far as the quality of my sleep (I’ve only tried it for 3 nights so far) I’ve rested just as well as usual, and have not noticed any discomfort (either at night or subsequently) whatsoever. Currently my setup is as follows
carpeted room
very thin foam exercise mat under me (b/c carpet is a bit itchy to sleep directly on)
duvet on top
3 pillows (thought I wonder what sleeping without pillows is like???)
So due to my initially positive experience, I am inclined to carry on this experiment for a good while longer so that I can begin to formulate more solid conclusions about longer-term feasibility. I must say that I find the entire experience very ‘Zen’ (proper usage?) , in so far as I am becoming more aware of what is ‘necessary’ in my life to achieve contentment. Indeed sleeping on the floor, for me, has become as fascinating a philosophical experiment as it has been a pragmatic one. (perhaps I ‘shat the bed’, grammatically, in that last sentence, but hopefully this pun makes up for it).
So does anyone else happen to have floor-sleeping experience they would like to share? Any tips for the ideal setup? Knowledge of the medical benefits or issues that might arise from short-term or long-term floor-sleeping? Is this practice prevalent in any contemporary or historical cultures/countries?
The one lesson I’ve learn t so far: To avoid getting bopped on the head, disable your robotic alarm clock prior to falling asleep :smack: (http://www.clocky.net/)
The reason I do not sleep on the floor is because in the winter, even here in Central Illinois, it’s noticeably drafty down on the floor. Get back to us in January, eh?
I slept on the floor, or on a low futon frame, for many years. I prefer it to a bed, but my partner doesn’t, so there you have it. I particularly like folding the futon up in the morning and moving it out of the way.
I slept on the floor for seven years (on a Japanese style futon.) Was perfectly comfortable and didn’t seem to have any downside, really. Still, it’s probably a better solution when you have a tatami floor.
I have a friend who does because she has a lot of trouble sleeping and for some reason, sleeping on the floor works for her. Not this bunny. I’d rather go to the barn and sleep on a few bales of hay.
At the beginning of my junior year in college, my roommate hurt her back helping some other people move furniture around. She had to sleep on the bottom bunk for a while, but I wasn’t coordinated enough to get up to the top bunk, so we had the guys from down the hall put that mattress on the floor, and I slept there. It was fine - the beds were basically planks of wood anyway, so it wasn’t any less comfortable. I did come down with a cold after about two days, but that was probably unrelated.
I haven’t slept on the floor at home in years, but when camping I found it much harder to get up (as in didn’t want to, not physically unable to) from sleeping on an air mattress than it is with a cot.
Actually I seem to remember the same thing when I did sleep on the floor, and that was with no padding (cough I was cleaning my room and too tired to finish. My preferred method of ‘cleaning’ was pile everything on my bed and then put it away.)
Eleanor of Aquitaine: Storing stuff under the bed doesn’t strike me as overly practical, but perhaps its b/c most of my stuff is just too small to be able to easily retrieve from under a bed.
Tom Tildrum: You raise an interesting point. Unfortunately my yellow lab passed away 1.5 yrs ago so its no longer an issue. Though I would imagine she would have curled up next to me and slept through the night without disturbing me, as she prove she could do when she used to sneak onto my bed. Dunno if the random dog hairs in the carpet would have bugged me though? anyways, its sadly moot.
My mother went through a stage of having us sleep on the floor on foam rubber mattresses. She would buy the plain 4-inch foam slabs and sew cotton covers for them. I can’t remember now where she bought it, discount or hardware stores, I think. What she bought was something like the stuff sold here http://www.foamrubber.com/
This kind of mattress is a lot more “extreme” than sleeping on a futon, even more extreme than a futon mattress without a frame.
I developed pretty bad scoliosis when I got to be a teenager (after the floor sleeping phase). I don’t think the floor sleeping caused it, but clearly it wasn’t a miracle preventive cure for future back problems. It may be responsible for my powerful intellect and dazzling wit, however .
One thing she did that was cool was cut up an extra one of the slabs, cover the pieces in bright colored fabric, and make a set of blocks for my little brother to build stuff with.
I’ve slept on the floor for decades, and I would never go back to a bed. I’m in my 50’s now, and do not suffer from the back troubles common to people my age. I’m convinced it’s because I don’t spend 8 hours a day with no real back support.
I sleep on a floor mat with a sheet on it, and a sheet and blankets if need be over me. No pillow.
That’s very ‘Edmond Dantes’ of you…I’m fascinated. Decades…do you have a bed in your home? Do you have an SO who also adores the floor? What made you “nest” on the floor in the first place?
Sorry for Hijack.
No bed, no SO. I do have a futon for overnight guests.
I started 30 years ago when I had tuberculous and could not sleep in the summer heat. One night I got up, took a shower, and collapsed on my bedroom floor. I slept for six hours.
The next night when I couldn’t fall asleep in bed, I went to the floor and slept there. The next day I bought a floor mat and have been sleeping on one ever since.
I slept on the floor for over a year after I put my back out - way longer than it took my back to heal… I just used a sheet on the carpet and a light blanket with only one pillow. I’d think using 3 pillows would be pretty awkward, though.
I still had the bed, but that became a great place to put everything! By the end of it, I could probably have got rid of the wardrobe!
I did it again for several months a little later, just because I liked it.
And there you have it! That’s interesting! Having recently been on a retreat for 2 weeks where I was sleeping on basically an army cot, I felt very “simple” and oddly comfortable. I wouldn’t be able to convince Mrs.P to go along with it, but it’s still interesting to think about…