Sleeping poorly? Sore neck, back or shoulders? Difficulty settling in for bed?

I’ll be the first to tell you I am not a medical professional, so if you’re looking for medical advice, go see a doctor. Otherwise, here is what I’ve learned from spending approximately one third of this human life asleep:

Sometimes, the bed doesn’t cut it.

The first time I woke up to find my partner sleeping on the floor like a blanket burrito next to the bed, I was more than a little confused. Was he mad at me? Was he upset about something?

As it turned out, no, he wasn’t. He was having trouble sleeping, and moving to the ground was his solution.

Over time, I would become used to what I thought of as his strange occasional penchant for sleeping on the floor, and I would even join him once in a while.

Later, as months of travel in Nepal (where typical beds are often wooden pallets topped by a thin, thin cushion) taught me to be more flexible in my sleeping arrangements, I came to appreciate the advantages of a hard surface over a bed.

Maybe there was something to this “strange habit.”

Recently while visiting a friend, I found myself tossing and turning in her guest bed, despite being exhausted from my overnight bus the night before. Remembering a recent visit to my parents’ one-bedroom apartment—where I had also made myself a blanket burrito on the floor—I moved from the too-soft mattress to the ground below it, and fell asleep almost instantly.

Be it camping, traveling abroad or occupying my friend’s guest room, I’ve often found I sleep harder, fall asleep faster and wake up with less soreness when I sleep on the hard ground.

I’d bet you anything this will be the next big trend.

Am I going to forego beds for life, now? Hardly, nothing so extreme. Neither will I hesitate, however, to move to the floor when the occasion calls for it.

So, what’s stopping you? Drag that blanket onto the floor, and give it a go!

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Relephant Read:

Trouble Falling Asleep? Try This.

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Author: Toby Israel

Images: Ryan Ritchie/Flickr // KariHak/Flickr

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