For many years, medical experts have been trying to find a perfect answer to the question “Sleeping on the Floor: Bad or Good?”. While many people highly recommend this way of sleep, some even criticize it. That’s why it is viewed as a controversial issue. As Doctor Mark Queralt stated, there has not been any firm evidence against or for sleeping on the floor.
Is Sleeping On The Floor Good or Bad?
In this article, let’s find out the pros and cons of sleeping on the ground. In addition, we will discover who should avoid this way of sleep and how we can get the most of the floor sleeping option.
Sleeping On The Floor Truly Does Good For Us?
Have you ever wondered why Japanese sleep on the floors? There must be some reasons for this habit. Especially in Asian countries, it is common to rest on the floor with or without a mattress. So, let’s discover the benefits of ground sleeping. This option has many surprising advantages that we hardly know before.
Positive Health Effects
Sleeping on the floor brings you many great health benefits
It is undeniable that sleeping on the ground brings about a variety of health benefits. The most apparent effect is pain relief. Though there is not any scientific proof for this claim yet, many people have witnessed the positive outcomes, especially for back pain. In addition, sleeping on the floor helps to prevent certain medical conditions. It is shown that floor-sleepers stand a lower risk of scoliosis – an abnormal curve of the spines.
Blood Circulation
Researchers have found out that sleeping on the floor significantly contributes to better blood circulation. As your back comes into contact with the floor, your spine will be kept aligned. Thus, it supports the blood flow throughout the body. That’s why people sleeping on the floor are less likely to suffer from back, neck, or even joint pain. For people who try floor sleeping for the first time, they also report that their back pain has unexpectedly disappeared.
Natural Posture
When lying on our soft bed, we easily get used to misaligned positions. Bad posture is way more serious than you may think. In the long-run, it develops into bad sleeping habits, leading to further adverse health effects.
Sleeping on the floor can help our body adapt to neutral posture, thus supporting the better function of joints, muscles, and especially the nervous system. Though the hard surface may make you feel uncomfortable at first, your body is lined up much better.
Sleep Quality
Many people said that they had better rest and tended to get up easier when lying on the floor. In other words, sleeping on the floor gives us a decent amount of sleep. Probably because sleeping on the bed is too comfortable for us to wake up. For an extended period, we become familiar with the habit of oversleeping. While sleeping on the ground seems a little uncomfortable, it does good for the better sleep quality.
Sleeping on the floor also provides us cooler air, which does good for our sleep quality and benefits our respiratory system. When sleeping on a memory foam mattress, we sometimes experience “hot sleep.” Besides, the rise in our body temperature is the cause of sweating while sleeping. If you ever wake up in the middle of the night due to this incident, then you should give a try to sleeping on the ground.
Positive Motivational Change
Despite seeming unrelated, floor sleeping does have a connection with motivation. We are so familiar with lying in our comfy bed, thus sleeping on the hard floor is a real challenge. Once you make it, you will feel a profound sense of change. Such motivational change does wonders for your behaviours, your habits, and even your life.
If you want to find out more about this result, there is a popular Reddit thread about sleeping on the floor. You will be surprised at how this change of sleep positively affects the original poster’s life (OP).
The Drawbacks Of Sleeping On The Floor
While floor sleeping does offer many outstanding advantages, it has some drawbacks as well. Here are some apparent cons of sleeping on the floor:
Hygiene
We know that the floor is not always perfectly clean. Thus, sleeping on the ground can make us easily exposed to the accumulated dust and dirt particles. Needless to say, such things do considerable harm to our respiratory system. Additionally, bed bugs are also a concern for ground-sleepers. That’s why it is essential to do the routine cleaning for your room.
Allergic Reactions
If you sleep with a mattress placed on the floor, you may have unwanted allergic reactions. The lack of airflow leads to the heat buildup, which forms a layer of mold beneath the mattress. Some people have reported having serious allergic reactions due to floor sleeping. Runny nose, sneezing, itchy eyes, coughing are some common symptoms.
Weather Conditions
Sleeping on the floor seems to be unsuitable for winter or cold days at all. Lying on the cool surface with low outdoor temperature is clearly not a good choice for your health. It even worsens your health conditions with far-reaching consequences. For example, the cold floor quickly reduces your body heat, making hypothermia likelier to happen.
Unwanted Health Effects
Doctors stated that not everyone could benefit from sleeping on the floor. In some circumstances, it even makes things worse. They claim that ground sleeping can hit some pressure points, like heels, tailbone, and shoulder blades, resulting in muscle loss. Besides, one theory stated that sleeping on the ground eventually does harm to your joints over time. It is not a big deal for short-time floor sleeping experience, yet the risk increases gradually.
Who Should Not Sleep On The Floor?
As we said previously, floor sleeping is not for everybody. If you are under one of these circumstances, you should think carefully about the cons. Asking for the doctor’s advice is necessary as well:
- Side-sleepers: If you tend to sleep on your sides, then sleeping on the floor may not be a good choice for you. It can cause you serious aches and pains, especially in the shoulders and hips.
Side sleepers can have the shoulder and hip pains
- Older adults: Aging makes our bones weaker and causes muscle and fat loss. Therefore, the joints are exposed to much more strain when lying on the floor, making it extremely uneasy to sleep.
- Cold sleepers: If your body is prone to getting cold, you should avoid sleeping on the floor. For people having type 2 diabetes, anemia, and hypothyroidism, floor sleeping even makes them feel colder. However, it is still possible to sleep on the floor if you prepare a good-quality heat-preserving bedding and warm sleeping clothes.
- Who have limited mobility: If you need help when sitting down or standing up, then floor sleeping is not suitable at all. Falling on the hard surface of the floor can cause severe injuries. So, it is best to sleep on the bed instead if you are of this type.
How To Sleep On The Floor In The Right Way?
Switching to floor sleeping is not easy at all, as we have been used to our comfy bed for years. This change requires a great deal of time and patience day by day. Here we have some basic tips for starter floor-sleepers.
- Be mentally prepared: In the first few nights, you will certainly feel uneasy about sleeping on the floor. It is common to feel some aches as well. However, as long as you are healthy enough, it will not be a long-time concern. You just need some time for your body to be familiar with this change of habit.
- Choose the right surface: Sleeping on the floor does not necessarily mean that you lie directly on the floor. For more comfort, you can try a variety of mattress choices, such as yoga mat, futon, Japanese tatami, a sleeping bag. You can rest assured that the benefits will not be lost, while you can have better night’s sleep.
A Japanese tatami is a great starter pack for floor sleeping
- Pillows: It is best to use only a single pad when you sleep on the floor. Though some people say that no pillow is better, it can be inconvenient for those who are used to sleeping with pillows. As you want to achieve better alignment, a bunch of pillows certainly does nothing good. Therefore, using just a thin pad to support your head and neck is enough.
Conclusion
So far, we have found out many aspects of sleeping on the floor: pros and cons, types of person to avoid it, and proper ways for the ideal floor-sleeping. It is hard to give specific advice or find a perfect answer to the question “Sleeping on the Floor: Bad or Good?”. After all, it all depends on your health conditions and experiences. But if you can, why not try this new way of sleeping once? Who knows it may give you a change for the better or some unexpected benefits.
We would love to hear your thoughts. If you have any questions or anything to share with us about floor sleeping, do not hesitate to leave us a comment!
