Why do we need mattresses?

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Cornfed
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Re: Why do we need mattresses?

Post by Cornfed »

ChefCalvin wrote:That depends on the mattress, I think. And health. I mean, there are people with all kinds of back problems (just look up scoliosis on Wikipedia). And if this is anything to go by, most people are side sleepers, and they wouldn't feel too comfortable without a mattress.
What I do know is that sleeping on the naked floor is far from comfortable. Or a naked bed platform for that matter.
Have you spent any length of time getting used to it?
MrMan
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Re: Why do we need mattresses?

Post by MrMan »

I recently went to visit my wife's relatives. Part of that involved spending a couple of nights on the floor at a relative's house. I'd almost slept on a mattress, one of three, next to a bunch of other visiting relatives, but I preferred the place with the floor because of the lack of cats and dogs walking around and the only sit-down toilet I'd seen for 100 miles in the bathroom.

But sleeping on the floor is uncomfortable. Between laying on the floor on my side to sleep and sitting Indian style for way too long, my hips were sore.

A futon or similar cushion on the floor can be comfortable to sleep on. I had an uncomfortble mattress once that was too hard. I got a memory foam topper for it. The height was good for offering some variety the love life with the missus, kind of like risers on a bed. It also made for a comfortable mat on the floor to sleep on. The problem is it was too unweildy to fold up, and might rip if you tried, so you don't get the advantage of floor space you get with a mattress or bad that is easy to remove from the floor.

A mattress that doesn't lay on the floor like with the conventional western bed insulates against cold coming up from the floor in colder climates. You can also store stuff under the bed.
MrMan
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Re: Why do we need mattresses?

Post by MrMan »

Cornfed wrote:
January 4th, 2016, 11:44 pm
When I lived in China I hassled my employers to get me a mattress, but by the time they even found out what this was I found I didn't need one. In China you sleep on a fabric-covered hard board. If you put a quilt under you, you get used to sleeping like this in about two weeks. This invites the question - Why did we in the West ever need mattresses in the first place? It seems that for a long time we have found them one of the essentials of life. Just as people in other countries have found clothes essential even in a warm climate, we have found mattresses essential, even when it turns out you don't need them to sleep. The historical record shows that people in Europe always required some soft thing to sleep on, even if they were starving, had to spend their last penny on a mattress and the mattresses were riddled with lice and such. They thought they needed it just like they needed food and clothing. Why?
I thought that hard board thing that looks like a mattress in China was considered a mattress. I got flown over to China for a job interview and to demonstrate my teaching skills, etc. They lowballed me on the salary before I got there, and said they might be able to work something out. I got an email about low salaries later, and went with another employer.

They put me up in a room that was like a hotel. It was nice. But that bed sure was very uncomfortable. I had to put blankets and pillows down to make a bad. I saw some of the faculty accommodations, and I bruised my knuckles feeling the bed with them a bit too hard.

I don't think we need western style mattresses. I have wondered why we need a bed raised up and why we can't put pads on the floor. In the winter, especially if you are on the first floor on the slab in a cold climate, I get it, but why have it in the tropics? I know some older Koreans would sleep on stone on the floor. Not my thing. I guess it is good if you are going to ride a camel or horse all over the wilderness if you can sleep on the ground. But the ground is not as hard as some floors, either. And if you can dig out a place for your hip and have a pillow, it's probably not that bad. I don't really have to be Ghengis Khan, riding from place to place and sleeping all over the place. But he probably had a pretty nice cushy tent as he rose in power.

I've slept on sofa cushions on the floor before. It's not too bad. Putting them on the floor allowed me to stretch out. That's when I was young. It seems like as you get older, weird muscles can get tired. Sometimes by ankles feel a little fatigued and I have to pad below them with blankets to feel more comfortable to sleep.

If I lived in China, I'd definitely have to get a decent pad to sleep on.
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