My little 2-year-old niece fell asleep on the couch yesterday, and there was a big fuss about putting a pillow next to her so she wouldn’t fall off. It basically made me wonder the above question.
Thanks.
Sometimes adults do fall out of bed. My husband has landed with a thud a few times. Maybe he realized who he was next to and tried to escape.
Hmm, maybe all the fuss is just because a small child has a greater risk of getting injured. Or a semi-awake child will roll over too far because they do not realize the consequences of leaving the bed. An groggy adult is more likely to catch his or herself without realizing it, perhaps because of the unconscious memory of a long-ago fall.
I thought I had fallen out of bed this past weekend, but actually I had just kicked all my covers off as I was really feeling sick. I realized that if I had fallen out of bed, I would have knocked over my nightstand and likely bumped my head something awful.
Actually, a small child has less to worry about, since their smaller mass means that they will not hit as hard as an adult. If you don’t believe this, try falling on your face the way a one year old does. However, possibly the biggest fear that a baby is born with is the “fear of falling”, so falling off the couch or out of bed can be an emotional experience.
It has been my experience that adults don’t fall out of bed. They are able to sense where the edge is and avoid getting too close. sugaree’s husband seems to defy this, which I can’t explain any other way than to say “the exception proves the rule”. 
My God. My husband’s a freak. I gotta rethink this whole reproduction thing.
Compare the ratio of heights:
kid:sofa is NOT the same as adult:bed, unless you sleep in the top bunk. If my bed was as high to me as a sofa is to a 2-year-old, I’d want some pillows on the floor, too, thank you very much, if I couldn’t get a bed rail.
He’s not too freaky, or at least not a unique freak, sugaree. I can’t say that it happens often, but I’d estimate that I fall out of bed about once every two years or so. Did so when I was a child, continue to do so as an adult.
Almost more distressing is when I wake up in the morning completely turned around and facing in the wrong direction in bed.
My wife managed to fall out of bed just last week. Bruised her cheek on the way down, and made an incredible thudding sound. It’s not a habit with her, just once every five or six years.
I’m guessing that not falling out of bed is learned behavior, like toilet training.
Why was there a “big fuss”? How crazy is that? To answer your question, no I have never fallen out of bed. if I did I’d be embarrassed if a big fuss w ensied.
A friend of mine fell out of bed and broke his nose. Your husband isn’t the only one.
WAG – adults fall out of bed less often because we don’t sleep as heavily as children who’ve been running around like Muppets on speed whenever they aren’t stuck in a desk at school. I worked at a daycare cener years ago and when the little ones nodded off, they were practically comatose. Meanwhile, I’ll wake up if I think I hear my cat chewing on a houseplant.
You know what I fell out of my bed about six months ago. IT hurt really bad cause I fell on my arm. But I have not done that since the early eighties. I agree with the person who said its because adults don’t sleep like children do.
I think it might also have to do with what goes on in your REM state of sleep. Your cycle gets longer and longer the longer you sleep so if you hit a REM state thats like an hour you might be inclined to move around in your bed if its an active dream and them fall off.
Adults certainly do fall out of bed, especially older adults in hospitals. This is such a common occurrence that “fell out of bed” is abbreviated in medical records as FOOB.
My mom fell out of bed a couple years ago, at home. She just happened to get too close to the edge while moving around in her sleep. She banged her arm up, but recovered quite well for being in her 70s.
I always wondered about that, if people fall out of bed or not. I once built a loft in a studio for my bed, for more floor space. I put two desks under the loft, that’s how much more space I had.
Anyway, when I built the loft I didn’t put any guard rails up (or bumpers, or whatevers) to keep me in the bed. I just figured that I hadn’t ever fallen out of bed and that I’d be fine.
Sometimes I would think about if I rolled off the edge, what would I hit. That’s why I left all my clothes all over the floor, to cushion any possible fall, yeah, that’s it.
I also slept on the side by the wall, so if I did roll off the bed, I might roll into the wall instead of off the bed.
Anyway, I never fell out of bed, but I can hear the high pitch whine from the TV set, so we all have our own little eccentricities (sp) or not.
-Sandwriter
Actually, those old people with FOOB injuries for the most part fell while trying to get out of bed while awake. Actually falling out of bed is pretty unusual in adults, particularly in hospitals where the beds have rails.
Lazier?
When I was 18, I fell out of my bunk in Great Lakes. Good thing I had been issued the bottom bunk but I ended up bumping into the wastebasket. What a racket!
Well, to push the question a bit, why do people fall out of bed at all?
Is this a function of dreaming or perhaps how “deeply” one is asleep (assuming a deep sleeper will not be moving as much and hence not fall out of bed? - of course this refutes ‘Eats Crayons’’ theory, which I like)
I have a sense that children fall out of bed more than adults so perhaps there is an element of experience involved here.
To show my Canadian roots and use a hockey example; much like a goaltender learns to use visual and sensory clues to know how much net is showing behind him/her, perhaps we use unconcisous clues like feeling the edge of the bed with our arms to sense when its time to roll back to the middle of the bed.
I like this question.
I hate to raise this from the dead, but I thought of something- my husband’s doctor believes that he is at risk for sleep apnea. I am supposed to be monitering his breathing as he sleeps (think about this one). Maybe there is a connection between this and his rare midnight tumbles.