Hammock Experiment Update

Wow, I can’t believe I’m four nights into my week-long sleeping in a hammock experiment!

Perfectly hung! That lump is my sheet, all tucked away neatly. 🙂

I am an extraordinarily poor sleeper and have been keeping track of my sleep for years. An average night for me is 5 out of 10 (1 being the worst, 10 being the best). If I score a 6 or 7, it’s worth a celebration, but a 3-4 is more common and I get way too many 2s. Well…

First night in the hammock was a solid 9/10.

Second night was a 10/10. I was on fire the next day!

Third night was a 8.5/10, just because I’d slept so much the night before that I woke up waaaay too early.

Fourth night (last night) was a 9/10.

These numbers are amazing.

I pretty much hate the going to bed in the hammock part. I can’t easily get comfortable to read but I don’t want to read in a chair first because a part of my winding down process is getting all comfy in bed and then reading until I get sleepy. If I have to do the hammock jig-a-jig at the point where I’m getting sleepy, then that can set back my falling asleep time as the getting comfy process wakes me up.

Falling asleep in the hammock also isn’t easy. I try to get comfortable on my back, but then my body doesn’t know that it’s time to sleep for the whole night. So I have to find a position on my side that is comfortable.

But then, when I find that sweet spot, that’s it. I lose consciousness and I float off into the best part of sleeping in a hammock.

The best part of sleeping in a hammock? Waking up in the absolute most perfect position to be floating freely and comfortably, free of any aches and pains, and with seven to nine hours of truly restorative sleep behind me. Mornings in the hammock are the best.

I’ve been getting up earlier than I have been for months despite going to bed at the same time, have an incredible amount of get-up-and-go in the mornings, haven’t needed a nap, am way more productive at work, and have started to eat better. That’s how important a good night of sleep is to one’s health!

One additional benefit of sleeping in the hammock that is definitely part of how soundly I’m sleeping is that not using a pillow, not moving around so much, and not overheating means that I don’t lose my sleep mask during the night. So I’m not woken up by the sun. But the hammock gets one hundred percent of the credit for keeping me asleep to the point where I would be woken up by the sun if I didn’t have my sleep mask on.

So I’m definitely finishing off the week. Do I believe at this point that I could sleep in a hammock forever? I really don’t know, but I think that once I figure out the bedtime routine, it’ll be much easier and I’ll be more open to continuing the experiment long-term.

(Another can’t believe it moment: I’m at the five-month anniversary of adopting Bonita!).

5 thoughts on “Hammock Experiment Update

  1. I read in my Poang chair until I fall asleep for about 3 hours. When I wake up I hit the bathroom then go to bed for another 6 hours. I wonder if that would work for you?

    • Definitely not. 🙂 I really need a solid stretch that is ideally seven hours long. Any time napping in a chair would not count for the night.

  2. Rae, when sleeping in a hammock for seven or eight hours a night for a large number of nights, do you feel that it affects your posture or spine in any way?

  3. It will be interesting to see what happens when you next sleep in your bed. Will the routine of finally being able to sleep seven plus hours continue or ??

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