I Slept on a Hardwood Floor For a Week (and You Should Try It Too)

For the first week, before my bed arrived… What was I supposed to do?

Because my old apartment was fully furnished, and the new room super unfurnished, I had to buy a whole life’s worth of furniture. Or at least a bedroom’s worth.

So I started to look online…

It was tempting to buy a nice bed. I heard a lot about Casper, maybe just because their advertising is so good. A queen bed there would be $600, plus $250 for the bedframe… even with the current Steem pump, even if I could “afford” it, it felt excessive.

Amazon offered me a better deal on a cheap mattress:

No bedframe yet - I’ll figure that out soon - but at less than half the price of the cheapest Casper mattress (as well as most other boutique brands I looked at), and tons of 4/5 star reviews, this seemed like the best value option.

By the time that I came to this conclusion, three days had gone by. And the “two day” shipping would actually take four days, not arriving until the weekend.

Hence the sleeping on the floor.

But - WAIT!

Before I continue with that story, let’s take a quick look at Stoicism. This philosophy has gained a lot of momentum in the Silicon Valley mediaspace - and I’m warming up to it in my own way.

Like meditation/buddhism - I find Stoicism useful, but I don’t buy into every single word of it. I have my own take on the idea. Let’s dig into it:

Stoicism and You

Stoicism is a philosophy that suggests voluntary suffering is the key to avoiding involuntary suffering.

_{This guy, Seneca, is the “Top Dog” famous philosopher behind Stoicism. Source: Daily Stoic}

It’s all about being willing to experience mild discomfort on a regular basis - for example, to resist that craving for a candy bar because it’s Tuesday morning - so that one can avoid major discomfort. Like, less candy bars now to avoid Type 2 Diabetes later.

It’s pretty easy to point out unhealthy pleasures like candy and go - yea, ok, avoid that stuff. But the real Stoic mindset is more extreme.

All that furniture in your house - what if you didn’t use any of it for two days? No sofa, no bed, no chair. Just sitting on the floor, or reclined against a wall.

All of that food in your fridge - what if, after this round of groceries, you are only allowed to eat rice and beans for the next 3 days? No cheating. Would you die?

With clothing - what if you can’t dress up for a month? What if, for one entire month, all you are allowed to wear is plain grey/white/black shirts/pants that are as boring as possible?

The whole idea is to identify aspects of life that we think we derive happiness from, and then to go without those. This accomplishes one of two things:

(1) You realize the thing does not increase your happiness. For example, many you do the “only rice and beans for three days” experiment and realize that you enjoy eating simple food - you liked not constantly deciding between options and healthy vs. unhealthy choices. Rice and beans was simple and filling.

(2) You realize that the thing does increase your happiness, but it’s not so bad to go without it. For example I sure do enjoy having a comfortable bed… but I’ve been sleeping on a hardwood floor for the last four nights and I feel great.

Sleeping on a Hardwood Floor

Not a bare floor. That would be brutal. I have one blanket beneath me and three more above me for warmth. One pillow for my hips, and one for my head. That is it.

The first few days, it was a huge adjustment. I had to lay on my back because if I tried to lay on my side, my hip would start to really hurt against the hard floor. With no flexibility like a mattress has, the floor remorselessly dug into my bones.

It wasn’t long before my hip was way bruised up. Sleeping on my side went from unpleasant to completely impossible.

Supposedly sleeping on your back is amazing for your posture and physical health. It puts your spine into good alignment, and 8 hours of that per night is amazing for retaining that healthy back.

But I can never sleep on my back in a bed. On my side is so much more comfortable for me that it never felt like a real option. No matter how much I intend to sleep on my back, within five minutes I have to roll to my side so I can actually sleep.

The hardwood floor taught me to sleep on my back. Lol. There was no other option. That might have been the first night I actually slept 5+ hours on my back, never switching to my side. Day 1 and I was already learning.

Days 2 and 3 were the hardest. My body was all achey and mildly bruised up from the wooden floor. Each night I couldn’t sleep well, maybe only 4-5 hours of shitty sleep per night.

But the weird thing was that, when the night was over, the pain didn’t feel stressful. I wasn’t worried - and I’m a worrier about any physical pains I get. For some reason all of these bruises and mild joint aches felt kinda good, like after a workout.

It felt like I was productively hurting, not hurting in an injurous way.

Last night was night 4. For the first time, I felt less bruised up. In fact, my body felt adjusted - like it realized, “ok, we’re sleeping on a hardwood floor now - I can handle that.”

Overall: Sleeping on a Hardwood Floor is Cool

I may make this a regular thing. Maybe at the start of each month I’ll do a 3-5 day spree of sleeping on the floor.

The one bad thing with this is that I do NOT get to enjoy the comfort of a mattress. The floor will never feel like laying in a soft bed. It feels healthy, but it is not relaxing in the way a soft mattress is. Also, I need a bed cuz if I’m dating someone, I think they will want that lol.

So it’s not a permanent thing - and I am excited for my bed to arrive - but I do genuinely think I will choose to repeat this experiment in the future.

Give it a try if you dare. It takes a few days - I’d recommend a minimum of 4, since night 4 was the first one that felt good to me.