Sleeping on the floor makes me feel better-rested

[zedrexvsyrex]

Hello all, I tried searching around on here to see if anyone has ever done something similar or mentioned it at all but I couldn’t really find anything so I thought I’d ask.

Basically, I wake up never really feeling fully rested, brain fog, tired, and in general I sleep extremely light; it feels more like a really long nap than actual sleep. I wake up at the slightest thing and haven’t had really vivid dreams in years. Well anyway just some background as to how I came to this: the floor to my room isn’t carpet, it’s solid, and I like to stretch just for range of motion but doing it on a hard surface hurts sometimes depending on how you’re stretching. I finally got a giant rug, with a really soft material. Sometimes when I’m just relaxing, I’ll sit down on the rug with my back on the wall and watch a video on my phone or read or something miscellaneous. I bring my pillows from my bed to make it a bit more comfortable if I’m lying down usually.

Well one time, it was nighttime and I fell asleep. I woke up the next morning feeling surprisingly more well-rested than I probably should have. I figured I just happened to get a good nights sleep somehow. But since then, there are numerous times this happened, some of them intentionally and pretty much every time I felt more rested. Whenever I do this, I sleep MUCH deeper, as in when I wake up, I am extremely disoriented and wondering what’s going on and where I am haha. And as previously mentioned, once I finally am fully awake, I’m not nearly as tired throughout the day. It feels like sleeping 7 hours on the floor is equivalent to 9 on a mattress. I don’t do it all the time just because I injured my back lifting something heavy 3 months ago and it exacerbates the issue, but mentally I feel better when I do.

Online searches unrelated to ME/CFS seem to say the same thing about better sleep on harder surfaces and sometimes the articles will mention or link actual studies. My brother actually started sleeping on the ground long before me, and said that once he got used to it, it was impossible to go back sleeping on his bed again until he got a new mattress (which feels more like a stone altar than an actual mattress if you ask me). He originally did it just because his first mattress had a dent in it and was giving him back problems, but I think those went away for him.

I know it sounds just ridiculous, but this is just something I’ve noticed with myself. I was wondering if any of you have ever done something like this and what you’re experiences were?

 

[Wishful]

Interesting. I don't know why it would work, but there are all sorts of possibilities, such as changed blood flow, more or less movement while sleeping, etc.
As for comfy rugs, try genuine wool ones, the kind you find in a store that specializes in them...and where the salespeople look at you as though they're judging whether your credit limit is high enough to buy one.

 

[marlunette]

I had a similar experience with a thin foam mat! A few months ago I went to bed with wet hair and I thought my mattress smelled funny after that. While I waited for some baking soda to absorb the smell I slept on the mat we had for guests. I woke up feeling more energized so I kept sleeping on the mat.

Now my husband and I have a firm 4" foam mattress. He thinks it helps his sleep and energy too, though he doesn't have ME/CFS.

 

[Bettie77]

Perhaps your mattress, pillow and combination of the two is not up to the standards of your body. If it is too hard or too soft, your body can't really relax. I prefer a really hard thick mattress with a hard, dense, thick pillow. My hubby sleeps on a wooden board with a thin soft mattress and a floppy, thin pillow.

And it could be your mattress is too warm (or too cold) to relax properly. Or it is located at the wrong part of the room (airflow, temperature, noise, sun/moon/street lights, etc.)

 

[Moof]

I think @Bettie77 is onto something there. Sleeping on a hard surface forces you to relax thoroughly, otherwise you'd be extremely uncomfortable. It always takes me longer to get to that deeply relaxed stage, so I am uncomfortable and fidgety for a while, but it's definitely worth it.

 

[sb4]

I have been sleeping on the floor for about half a year now with stints on and off before that. Thing is, I think most people who benefit from floor sleeping sleep on there back. I for some reason cannot so have to sleep on my side. I think laying on a hard surface on your back works because it forces you to sleep on your skeleton however on your side it is too uncomfortable as all the pressure is on your hip bone. So I need extra blankets on the floor and this the benefit of hardness is lost.

 

[helios]

ha, this is me too.People who have seen me do this find it bizarre. For me to fall asleep on the floor (no bedding but not hard floorboards) I need to be dead tired, and sleep on my stomach in winter and back in summer. Even when I am not fall down tired I can sleep on a couple of blankets on the floor and don't mind this at all. I have been sleeping on the floor off and on the last 6 mths especially when I am really zonked and/or Im next to heater in cold weather. I have a lot of trouble with sleeping as well, and sleeping in a bed with great mattress does not make much difference.

 

[zedrexvsyrex]

Hmm so it stopped feeling refreshing and then I went back to my normal bed, and it felt ridiculously soft and comfy. I slept well and thought maybe the whole floor thing was just a fluke for me, but then after a while, the mattress became less comfy. Switched back to the floor, and then I feel a bit better. I'm confuzzled. But then again, maybe it's just my bodily fluctuations with the the changing seasons up here or something. Or maybe it's just the switching itself. I'll have to see.

 

[Bettie77]

Or maybe both soft mattress and hard floor are outside your Goldilocks zone...