I have slept on the floor, on a futon, for several years now. I bought a Japanese heated table, and use a Korean chair designed for floor sitting. It has a back and is helping me strengthen my muscles. I started doing this as I am getting old and want to be able to get up off the floor. Bad knees limit the positions I can do but I do like the table
Yea I think just doing this would allow most old people in the West to maintain flexibility and some strength. Asian old people, especially traditional ones, don’t seem to have those issue we do in old age.
I slept on the floor for a time in my early 20s. No mattress, just a large fluffy blanket folded in half underneath. I actually did it as an experiment to see if I could get my cycles to sync up with the moon, as my makeshift bed was in a completely dark walk-in closet. It did not work but I still remember it being basically the best, most restful sleep I have ever gotten in my life. I told a few people about what I was doing and they seemed concerned that I was sleeping too long (I would naturally sleep approximately 9.5-10 hours this way, no alarms to wake me up) and that it wasn't good for me. Peer pressure pressured me to stop. I wish I could do it again though!
Interesting, I also spent a lot of time trying to sleep on the floor, futons, mats, etc. But while I prefer a very hard mattress by Western standards, I absolutely cannot sleep even on a thinner camping pad. I wake up every 30 minutes or so and am never fully rested.
It should be the norm for the first 2-3 weeks, but after that it should suddenly improve and you should be able to sleep without the problem for the full night.
I've been sitting on a small table as a makeshift "floor" for many months now, maybe around 6(?). This way I can "floor" sit, shift my body around and sit in various position, and still retain the ability to sit with my legs down if I feel like it. Oh, and I can use my desk no problems this way, too.
Even with my flexibility, already preferring to sit on the floor, and a young age on top etc it still took some effort and pains for the first few weeks until my muscles or body developed enough for it to not be as painful and straining, especially over many hours.
As for why I did it? I always hated chairs, as they always were uncomfortable to me, and I even spent a majority of my time sitting in the seiza position anyway when using a desk chair, lol.
I have grandchildren and play on the floor with them. I use a back-jack style floor sitting chair when we do LEGO or play chess. I am 76 and the back support is welcome. Essentially none of my familiar age mates floor sit. The floor is an unknown and unlisted country for them. I still downhill ski and the core exercise from that is useful.
You ask why do it at all, or what are the health benefits: moving about and getting blood flowing? But the very next section explains it perfectly to my mind, when only sitting on chairs and couches, we become too inflexible to actually get into most of the positions a human is supposed to. Surely this is where the "stiff old man" comes from. No thank you!
I've been sitting cross legged and otherwise pretended my couch was the floor for about two years now, but I'm still as inflexible as ever in the "sit upright with legs forward" and "anime girl" styles, so I will work on that going forward. Thanks for the inspiration!
I went from not being able to sit cross legged at all two years ago, to it now being my most comfortable position (although not indefinitely unfortunately). However I still wasn't close to sitting anything like seiza, but around Christmas I started sitting on lower and lower meditation benches. Within a month I could sit very comfortably for about 30 minutes on my lowest bench. I haven't really been keeping up the progression (I was actually doing this to be able to sit in meditation on my bench), but it would be fun to actually be able to sit seiza without support. Not sure how exactly to continue the progression though.
Also surprisingly this dramatically improved my deep squat! Don't know why I didn't expect this, guess I should have.
Btw you can see this in kids right, all kids sit in seiza and all sorts of other poses when you put them on the floor. I think you just lose the ability gradually by not using it over the years.
Yea my squat got the best it's ever been and I still mostly retain that ability, even though I never squat as in working out. But I can just rest in a squat for quite some time!
I think you're right about (failure of) retaining the flexibility, which is why doing it like this (sitting, getting up) is probably enough to retain the ability, no need to work out or stretch.
There are some differences in hip socket shape that allow Asians to squat more easily than caucasians, but mostly it's practice. Here's Grok's summary: https://grok.com/share/c2hhcmQtMg_1eab367e-7c7d-4304-898d-f81915242ac6 I found it interesting Seiza was used deliberately in social situations BECAUSE it makes your legs numb and stiff: harder to attack suddenly that way.
Great post. I also used to sit on the floor in my previous living arrangement, and have considered going back (I still sleep on the floor so I might as well sit on it, too). Getting a comfortable desk height and having a way to lounge comfortably while watching a show we're my two bugaboos.
My family thinks I'm weird for sitting cross legged on the floor. No particular reason other than trying to keep the ability to get off the floor.
I have slept on the floor, on a futon, for several years now. I bought a Japanese heated table, and use a Korean chair designed for floor sitting. It has a back and is helping me strengthen my muscles. I started doing this as I am getting old and want to be able to get up off the floor. Bad knees limit the positions I can do but I do like the table
Yea I think just doing this would allow most old people in the West to maintain flexibility and some strength. Asian old people, especially traditional ones, don’t seem to have those issue we do in old age.
Right when I'm in need of something new to obsess over. Nice!
Happy to be of service ;)
I slept on the floor for a time in my early 20s. No mattress, just a large fluffy blanket folded in half underneath. I actually did it as an experiment to see if I could get my cycles to sync up with the moon, as my makeshift bed was in a completely dark walk-in closet. It did not work but I still remember it being basically the best, most restful sleep I have ever gotten in my life. I told a few people about what I was doing and they seemed concerned that I was sleeping too long (I would naturally sleep approximately 9.5-10 hours this way, no alarms to wake me up) and that it wasn't good for me. Peer pressure pressured me to stop. I wish I could do it again though!
Interesting, I also spent a lot of time trying to sleep on the floor, futons, mats, etc. But while I prefer a very hard mattress by Western standards, I absolutely cannot sleep even on a thinner camping pad. I wake up every 30 minutes or so and am never fully rested.
It should be the norm for the first 2-3 weeks, but after that it should suddenly improve and you should be able to sleep without the problem for the full night.
My longest bout was several months (close to 6 I think) on one of those thin-ish sleeping pads, maybe 1 inch. Never really got used to it.
This is hardcore! I lived in Japan for two years and never got to this level. (Granted, I used Western-style seating arrangements most of the time).
I've been sitting on a small table as a makeshift "floor" for many months now, maybe around 6(?). This way I can "floor" sit, shift my body around and sit in various position, and still retain the ability to sit with my legs down if I feel like it. Oh, and I can use my desk no problems this way, too.
Even with my flexibility, already preferring to sit on the floor, and a young age on top etc it still took some effort and pains for the first few weeks until my muscles or body developed enough for it to not be as painful and straining, especially over many hours.
As for why I did it? I always hated chairs, as they always were uncomfortable to me, and I even spent a majority of my time sitting in the seiza position anyway when using a desk chair, lol.
Oh that's a smart idea!
I have grandchildren and play on the floor with them. I use a back-jack style floor sitting chair when we do LEGO or play chess. I am 76 and the back support is welcome. Essentially none of my familiar age mates floor sit. The floor is an unknown and unlisted country for them. I still downhill ski and the core exercise from that is useful.
You ask why do it at all, or what are the health benefits: moving about and getting blood flowing? But the very next section explains it perfectly to my mind, when only sitting on chairs and couches, we become too inflexible to actually get into most of the positions a human is supposed to. Surely this is where the "stiff old man" comes from. No thank you!
I've been sitting cross legged and otherwise pretended my couch was the floor for about two years now, but I'm still as inflexible as ever in the "sit upright with legs forward" and "anime girl" styles, so I will work on that going forward. Thanks for the inspiration!
Yea I guess the types of flexibility are just somewhat specific to the pose. If you never sit seiza, you won’t get the flexibility needed for it?
Yeah exactly, this has been my experience to a T.
I went from not being able to sit cross legged at all two years ago, to it now being my most comfortable position (although not indefinitely unfortunately). However I still wasn't close to sitting anything like seiza, but around Christmas I started sitting on lower and lower meditation benches. Within a month I could sit very comfortably for about 30 minutes on my lowest bench. I haven't really been keeping up the progression (I was actually doing this to be able to sit in meditation on my bench), but it would be fun to actually be able to sit seiza without support. Not sure how exactly to continue the progression though.
Also surprisingly this dramatically improved my deep squat! Don't know why I didn't expect this, guess I should have.
Btw you can see this in kids right, all kids sit in seiza and all sorts of other poses when you put them on the floor. I think you just lose the ability gradually by not using it over the years.
Yea my squat got the best it's ever been and I still mostly retain that ability, even though I never squat as in working out. But I can just rest in a squat for quite some time!
I think you're right about (failure of) retaining the flexibility, which is why doing it like this (sitting, getting up) is probably enough to retain the ability, no need to work out or stretch.
There are some differences in hip socket shape that allow Asians to squat more easily than caucasians, but mostly it's practice. Here's Grok's summary: https://grok.com/share/c2hhcmQtMg_1eab367e-7c7d-4304-898d-f81915242ac6 I found it interesting Seiza was used deliberately in social situations BECAUSE it makes your legs numb and stiff: harder to attack suddenly that way.
I always wondered if that difference is just habituation since childhood. Not sure.
I didn’t know that about seiza, makes sense I suppose. Kind of like shaking hands & bowing your head?
Great post. I also used to sit on the floor in my previous living arrangement, and have considered going back (I still sleep on the floor so I might as well sit on it, too). Getting a comfortable desk height and having a way to lounge comfortably while watching a show we're my two bugaboos.