This is the straw that broke the camel’s back; I hurt my lower back again! I was at the gym, using the leg press, and I apparently went into lumbar kyphosis, rounding of the low back, and sure enough my lower back started killing me as soon as I stood up. I’ve hurt my back many times before, and I’m sure that I’ll be fine in a few days.
Why is this the straw that broke the camel’s back? For the last 3 weeks I’ve been sleeping on a mattress, and I’ve had enough. I’m going back to the floor. I started sleeping on the floor this past summer and fell in love with it. The only downside is that it kills my shoulders, but it completely eliminated all of my back pain; quite the double edged sword. I typically sleep on my side so there’s always pressure on my shoulders which causes me pain throughout the day. But shoulder pain be damned, I’ll take shoulder pain any day over back pain. I’ve had back issues for awhile; bulging discs in my cervical and thoracic spine that cause occasional numbness and pain in my hands and arms, and I’ve had low back pain for years.
Why does sleeping on a mattress cause back pain? Lying on such a soft surface allows my vertebrae to expand and take up fluid during the night. This is the reason why you’re taller in the morning. Try it, measure your height when you get out of bed in the morning and then again before you go to bed. I’m about half an inch shorter by the end of the day. I literally can’t bend over in the morning if I slept on a mattress the night before, and it takes hours for my back to feel normal. I have zero back issues when I sleep on the floor. I hop off the floor and am good to go for the day.
If you have back or neck pain, why not try it? I’ll admit, the first night sucked, and I don’t think I slept at all. It took about three days to get comfortable with sleeping on the floor. I suppose I should clarify, I do not sleep directly on the floor; I sleep on a yoga mat on a floor with carpet. I don’t need the yoga mat anymore though; a blanket on a floor with carpet is quite comfy for me.
Be prepared to take shit from everyone though. People will think that you are insane. On one occasion my roommate’s girlfriend checked out my sleeping area, a yoga mat in a closest, and was absolutely shocked; non-stop laughter ensued. My family thinks I’m crazy for it, but what else is new? For whatever reason people have a hard time imagining not sleeping on a mattress.
John Durant wrote about this awhile back on his site, check it out:
Side note: If you’re a young bachelor like myself, good luck bringing young ladies home! lol. It’s probably best to go to their place. Kudos if you pull it off though!
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