About a month ago I accidentally fell asleep on the floor and I actually woke up with my back feeling great. So I have started doing it more often but my SO HATES it. Thoughts?
August 25, 2025
Firstly, alcohol was not involved in me accidentally or purposely falling asleep on the floor.
Secondly, this is the best my back has felt in years, but my SO gets really upset when I don't sleep in the bed with her.
44 comments
Laying on your back on a hard surface feels amazing. It puts your spine into a natural position where a mattress can put extra strain on certain disks depending on the mattress
They make some super firm mattresses which might give you the support you need.
They also make some firm ones with thinner pillow tops on top. Bigger (often men) tend to be ok on the firm mattress, but smaller (often women) sometimes don’t have enough mass to sink into them at all. These combined options can help split the difference so you’re both ok in my experience.
Get a better bed frame with more slats and a more firm mattress. She probably thinks you’re trying to distance yourself from her and is taking it personally, my dude.
I would hate to be in a relationship where my SO dictates anything I do for myself. Fix my back, go to the gym, hang out with my buddies, do my hobbies…sounds exhausting.
Get her to join you doing something that will really fuck up her back and then show her a really cool trick to help her and bond over it on the floor together.
” . . so me doing something so my back feels better is making you upset? Is that what I am hearing?”
Had a professor in college who went off the grid and lived with a tribe in the middle of the Pacific for years. They all slept flat on the ground just like this, so he figured he needed to as well. Took a few days of discomfort, but once he got used to it, he said it was the best sleep of his life and he never felt better.
You need an extra firm mattress
Tell her there’s plenty of room for her on the floor.
I love sleeping on hard surfaces. I also prefer extra firm mattresses.
Your SO’s feelings on the matter seem irrelevant if it makes you feel better.
Have no clue my wife and I tend to be supportive of things that help each other’s health.
Back pain is one of the most significantly things that affects overall long term well being aren’t the benefits for your worth it over not sleeping in the same bed?
What does she hate about it?
My partner and I have a very non-traditional relationship in many ways including separate bedrooms. We have sleepovers 1-2x per week but I get great sleep alone too so we have adjusted to it.
That’s to say, you can have whatever kind of relationship you’d like.
Yep, beds are overhyped. The only issue with the floor is the dust that you breathe in.
I’ll be the substitute that sleeps in the bed with her. Problem solved.
If you don’t have one get a king bed with 2 twin mattresses. Get her whatever softness she wants, you get extra firm for you
You need a sleep number bed!!! Different firmness for your side and her side.
Communicate the benefits of sleeping on the ground:
Google it. There are plenty.
Then proceed to lose the argument.
I chose pain relief, comfort, temperature regulation, and the ability to get off the floor till i’m dead.
I don’t have an SO.
Most people have too soft of beds and too thick of pillows.
Just try not to eat too many spiders while you sleep
Man one of the best feelings for an aging man is laying down on freshly cleaned deep pile carpet to play with your kids or watch a movie and accidentally falling asleep at 5pm. I thought my dad was nuts for passing out mid afternoon when I was a kid, but it’s really the greatest. The only risk is if the toddlers don’t wake you up before they find the crayons or markers.
that’s crazy. any time i lay on the floor for more than 10 minutes, when I get up my ribcage is sore.
You’d think a SO would be happy you found a way to alleviate back pain.
sounds like you need one of those sleep number beds
Squishy beds allow positions of poor alignment to be comfortable. Sleeping on a hard surface, you can’t be all limbs every which way, you have to be in pretty neutral positions to be comfortable (I.e., flat on your back). I have always found that sleeping on the floor is a fantastic remedy for a bad back. Especially if your bed/box spring is old and likely has a depression in the middle where your hips are. Ow.
Floor gang!
Did you ask her any follow-up questions? She must have a reason why this is tough for her but I’m sure that it’s nothing nefarious.
I don’t know the two of you, but maybe she just needs a bit of time to process a change in your routine. I had the same thing happen with my wife. It took a while for her to see that sleeping on floor really helped when my back was really acting up.
Assuming that you won’t be sleeping on the floor all night, every night til the end of time, just compromise with her and keep working on it. Try going to bed together, cuddling for a while until she falls asleep and then move to the floor or give her a heads up in the evening that your back is a mess and you want to sleep on the floor.
Hard, low beds FTW. Best sleep, best back, best life. Get a real futon bed and sweeten the deal for her with heavenly doggy, the cartwheel, standing 69, … you get the idea.
Change your mattress .
When I was younger, my dad had a bad lower back and he started sleeping on the hardwood floor in the hallway to the bedrooms in our house. He swore by it.
Thinking back, it is really odd that we’d just walk by him in the hallway sleeping (he worked shift work).
Buy her a body pillow.
Have her try sleeping on the floor with you. Your health comes first
Thoughts on what?
Pretty common actually, floors can have somewhat better support then older mattresses/bedframes
I sleep on a hard mattress for more than a decade by now. I get back pains on soft hotel mattresses.
That’s why my partner and I just bought the most firm mattress that they sold at the local mattress store.
It’s almost as hard as hardwood floor, but with just enough “softness” to make it comfortable. Sitting down, your butt barely sinks in, and yet, when you lay down, it’s a “aaahhhh” moment every day.
Get a split king mattress and get extra/firm on your side and whatever she wants on hers.
Get a Traditional tatami mattress for the floor.
Get a firmer mattress and sleep on it without a pillow.
Plywood under your half of the bed.
I love sleeping on hard surfaces. I definitely sleep better. Not sure how big a difference it does on my back. But I always buy hard mattresses.
I used to love sleeping on the floor. We had a thin futon we got from a Chinese grocery store and would sleep on the floor once a week or so. We got a firm mattress and don’t do it at much anymore. But I’ll still lie flat on a yoga mat sometimes when watching TV or just to unwind. It’s great to stretch your back out from too much sitting in a chair.
Former military, father of two here. I take floor naps all the time. They’re fantastic.
I have a sheet of 3/4 plywood between my mattress and box spring, definitely helps. I have q terrible back and find sleeping on a hard surface is the best thing. Maybe put one under your side of the bed and not hers?
44 comments
Laying on your back on a hard surface feels amazing. It puts your spine into a natural position where a mattress can put extra strain on certain disks depending on the mattress
They make some super firm mattresses which might give you the support you need.
They also make some firm ones with thinner pillow tops on top. Bigger (often men) tend to be ok on the firm mattress, but smaller (often women) sometimes don’t have enough mass to sink into them at all. These combined options can help split the difference so you’re both ok in my experience.
Get a better bed frame with more slats and a more firm mattress. She probably thinks you’re trying to distance yourself from her and is taking it personally, my dude.
I would hate to be in a relationship where my SO dictates anything I do for myself. Fix my back, go to the gym, hang out with my buddies, do my hobbies…sounds exhausting.
Get her to join you doing something that will really fuck up her back and then show her a really cool trick to help her and bond over it on the floor together.
” . . so me doing something so my back feels better is making you upset? Is that what I am hearing?”
https://preview.redd.it/fbb23hcdn6lf1.jpeg?width=901&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=79fbc1221b824f8f4638cfbd7014665730ad5059
Had a professor in college who went off the grid and lived with a tribe in the middle of the Pacific for years. They all slept flat on the ground just like this, so he figured he needed to as well. Took a few days of discomfort, but once he got used to it, he said it was the best sleep of his life and he never felt better.
You need an extra firm mattress
Tell her there’s plenty of room for her on the floor.
I love sleeping on hard surfaces. I also prefer extra firm mattresses.
Your SO’s feelings on the matter seem irrelevant if it makes you feel better.
Have no clue my wife and I tend to be supportive of things that help each other’s health.
Back pain is one of the most significantly things that affects overall long term well being aren’t the benefits for your worth it over not sleeping in the same bed?
What does she hate about it?
My partner and I have a very non-traditional relationship in many ways including separate bedrooms. We have sleepovers 1-2x per week but I get great sleep alone too so we have adjusted to it.
That’s to say, you can have whatever kind of relationship you’d like.
Yep, beds are overhyped. The only issue with the floor is the dust that you breathe in.
I’ll be the substitute that sleeps in the bed with her. Problem solved.
If you don’t have one get a king bed with 2 twin mattresses. Get her whatever softness she wants, you get extra firm for you
You need a sleep number bed!!! Different firmness for your side and her side.
Communicate the benefits of sleeping on the ground:
Google it. There are plenty.
Then proceed to lose the argument.
I chose pain relief, comfort, temperature regulation, and the ability to get off the floor till i’m dead.
I don’t have an SO.
Most people have too soft of beds and too thick of pillows.
Just try not to eat too many spiders while you sleep
Man one of the best feelings for an aging man is laying down on freshly cleaned deep pile carpet to play with your kids or watch a movie and accidentally falling asleep at 5pm. I thought my dad was nuts for passing out mid afternoon when I was a kid, but it’s really the greatest. The only risk is if the toddlers don’t wake you up before they find the crayons or markers.
that’s crazy. any time i lay on the floor for more than 10 minutes, when I get up my ribcage is sore.
You’d think a SO would be happy you found a way to alleviate back pain.
sounds like you need one of those sleep number beds
Squishy beds allow positions of poor alignment to be comfortable. Sleeping on a hard surface, you can’t be all limbs every which way, you have to be in pretty neutral positions to be comfortable (I.e., flat on your back). I have always found that sleeping on the floor is a fantastic remedy for a bad back. Especially if your bed/box spring is old and likely has a depression in the middle where your hips are. Ow.
Floor gang!
Did you ask her any follow-up questions? She must have a reason why this is tough for her but I’m sure that it’s nothing nefarious.
I don’t know the two of you, but maybe she just needs a bit of time to process a change in your routine. I had the same thing happen with my wife. It took a while for her to see that sleeping on floor really helped when my back was really acting up.
Assuming that you won’t be sleeping on the floor all night, every night til the end of time, just compromise with her and keep working on it. Try going to bed together, cuddling for a while until she falls asleep and then move to the floor or give her a heads up in the evening that your back is a mess and you want to sleep on the floor.
Hard, low beds FTW. Best sleep, best back, best life. Get a real futon bed and sweeten the deal for her with heavenly doggy, the cartwheel, standing 69, … you get the idea.
Change your mattress .
When I was younger, my dad had a bad lower back and he started sleeping on the hardwood floor in the hallway to the bedrooms in our house. He swore by it.
Thinking back, it is really odd that we’d just walk by him in the hallway sleeping (he worked shift work).
Buy her a body pillow.
Have her try sleeping on the floor with you. Your health comes first
Thoughts on what?
Pretty common actually, floors can have somewhat better support then older mattresses/bedframes
I sleep on a hard mattress for more than a decade by now. I get back pains on soft hotel mattresses.
That’s why my partner and I just bought the most firm mattress that they sold at the local mattress store.
It’s almost as hard as hardwood floor, but with just enough “softness” to make it comfortable. Sitting down, your butt barely sinks in, and yet, when you lay down, it’s a “aaahhhh” moment every day.
Get a split king mattress and get extra/firm on your side and whatever she wants on hers.
Get a Traditional tatami mattress for the floor.
Get a firmer mattress and sleep on it without a pillow.
Plywood under your half of the bed.
I love sleeping on hard surfaces. I definitely sleep better. Not sure how big a difference it does on my back. But I always buy hard mattresses.
I used to love sleeping on the floor. We had a thin futon we got from a Chinese grocery store and would sleep on the floor once a week or so. We got a firm mattress and don’t do it at much anymore. But I’ll still lie flat on a yoga mat sometimes when watching TV or just to unwind. It’s great to stretch your back out from too much sitting in a chair.
Former military, father of two here. I take floor naps all the time. They’re fantastic.
https://preview.redd.it/ho19qwup67lf1.jpeg?width=1179&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=63e26c522d843e8309ad810ebc828ef0f9f0d32d
I have a sheet of 3/4 plywood between my mattress and box spring, definitely helps. I have q terrible back and find sleeping on a hard surface is the best thing. Maybe put one under your side of the bed and not hers?