A little caution to those attempting to find the most efficient way to lie down catatonically for hours on end, you're slowly weakening your body.
The effects of this happen slowly over the course of years but you could potentially develop tight hips and a bad back, which can accelerate further mobility problems.
Common advice is to get up and move once an hour. Your productivity might dip but mental/physical health will benefit. Seating that forces you to change positions frequently (floor cushions) might be a save too.
Of course if your intent is to be inactive then all bets are off. Even if you're not I don't think those little nudges are that effective.
Personally I've been working lying down for 20 years, almost all day, almost every day. I only have back problems when I use beds that are not very firm.
I'm over 6 feet tall and weigh about 120 kg and I'm in my early 50's. I run 10kms (without stopping except for quick drinks) regularly, in 1:20. I can do bench press, shoulder press, lateral pull down, seated row and seated dip machines with the weight set to my bodyweight (about 4 sets of 8 reps each machine, ramping the weight).
I actually don't do a lot of exercise on the scale of things, and I can regain the above abilities within a month or so if I become totally inactive for a long period. I'm actually a fairly large person which helps with the weights but makes the running pretty rigorous.
Like most things, if you work your body regularly you will be fine. How you don't use your body when you're not exercising doesn't affect that.
There's evidence showing that exercise does not necessarily offset the damage caused by being sedentary all day. Running, lifting, etc. are good things for sure, but saying "if you work your body regularly you will be fine" is not a conclusion you should make at this point.
Everyone says that 'sitting is bad for you', and yeah, I can see being sedentary being bad for you, but if you get regular exercise, I don't buy it.
I feel like this is one of those things where they will later find out that some co-mingled variable is skewing results. See the studies years ago that said moderate drinking was good for you, but didn't control for socioeconomic status. Turns out the types of people who have a nice red with dinner every day are also high income and relatively health conscious.
Is there any hope besides choosing to stand in any situation where we would normally be sitting for a prolonged period of time?
I just got into a cardio routine for the first time in my life in the hopes of becoming healthier, and this has all but destroyed my optimism.
If not even exercise and a good diet can save your life if you are still sedentary, then the advice should be clarified to also suggest sitting as little as possible. I ended up believing that checking both those boxes was enough.
If you choose to start exercising you will improve your health, full stop. Being stuck in a chair all day isn't good, but there's no need to change your thinking about exercise. They seem to be two independent things.
From what I've read (I'm no kind of expert, so don't just trust my interpretation), is that sitting can interfere with your blood circulation. It constricts blood flow to your legs, and when you're sitting you aren't contracting your leg muscles which is part of what helps move blood around your lower body. It's not so much that sitting itself is bad for you; it's sitting for so long without moving.
So just... move around. I love having a sit/stand desk but if that isn't something you can do then just get in the habit of frequently getting up from your desk and walking around a bit. If you need to think about something, do it while you walk. Pretend you have a smoking habit and you need to get up for a cigarette every 20 or 30 minutes. Once you get used to frequently moving around you'll start to become sensitive to sitting down for too long. I can't sit through a movie at a movie theater anymore because I get this overwhelming urge to get up and move around.
For what it's worth I generally don't work laying down, am also around 6ft, weigh a lot less and would categorize your 10k pace as a brisk walk.
Set some goals and you'll be below 100kg and 60min in no time.
It's definitely not just a brisk walk. Walking at that speed for extended periods of time is likely going to be painful and most people probably couldn't do it.
The average speed of 6km/h is so slow I don't think most people would be capable of running like that. So a brisk walk, or running with intermediate walking is probably a more apt description.
The transition from walk to run occurs at about 13 minutes per mile. A 10km run in 1:20 is about 12 minutes 52 seconds per mile, which is extremely slow. This better be a recovery run or something, it’s barely enough to lift an average person out of a Zone 1 heart rate.
It's just that I remember a nice brisk 9k walk in hills which took 90mins. In 35c heat, with malaria.
Main point here is I wouldn't describe myself as anywhere near fit. And "most people" is not a healthy benchmark, sadly.
4.7 miles/hour is a pretty typical relaxed jogging speed. This is not a runner’s race pace, but it is faster than almost anyone’s long-distance “brisk walk”.
The idea was born because one of our inventors was rear ended on the freeway. He herniated L4-L5 and could no longer sit in a regular chair for more than 10 mins at a time or more than a few hours in a week. This included driven car so it was important to figure out how not to aggravate the injury while working.
Make that 30 years, early sixties, and about 75 kg, and it's me, except I've always absolutely loathed running.
I'm in fine shape, thank you, and my experience in general very much resembles yours.
Remember we already lie down for 8 hours a day while sleeping. It's restorative, not harmful.
What you do need to be careful of is generally weakened bones and muscles. But provided that you're getting up every hour to walk around for five minutes (and stretch, ideally), or at least every two hours, and you go to the gym moderately, then there's absolutely zero problem.
I'm pretty sure future generations that look back on the health foibles of our modern era will not conclude that the solution to the health problems caused by sitting and working on a computer all day was lying down and working on a computer all day.
Sleep is restorative. Lying down all day is not. Just ask literally any nurse.
But the question is whether lying down all day is better than sitting down all day, if you already have no choice but to work all day.
As long as you're taking breaks to be active, it's not harming you the way that sitting can do great harm to your back and shoulders and neck. That's the point.
We have lots of data on sitting all day because we have a large percentage of otherwise healthy adults who sit all day. We don't have the same data for lying down all day, because that's not a thing that healthy people generally do. "It's probably fine" isn't a wise conclusion to draw from this state of affairs.
I’m not sure about that. When my body gets tired of sitting all day my natural inclination is to go lie down for a bit somewhere. I’m inclined to think that a few million years of evolution gave us the right inclinations.
> Remember we already lie down for 8 hours a day while sleeping. It's restorative, not harmful.
Every morning when I wake up my back and hips are extremely tight and it takes me about 2 hours to loosen them up. However if I spend those two hours laying down waiting for my body to loosen on its own, I get up 2 hours later with the same problems.
I agree with you that sitting also causes the hips and back to get stiff and tight.
That's definitely not normal. Have you seen a doctor or physical therapist about that?
There are lots of possible causes, with possible fixes including a different mattress, changing your sleeping position/posture, specific stretches, and massaging specific muscles.
You should try a stiffer mattress / topper. I had the same problem because I was sinking, ending up with a weird hip angle. I discovered this once I went wild camping with some friends. Sleeping on a thin air mattress made me realize that.
I'm not saying you need even more restoration. Just that it's not harmful.
If lying down were harmful then we'd wake up in the morning with big problems.
Granted some people do wake up with problems but that's not normal, and often has to do with specific sleep posture problems (mattress too soft, stomach sleeping, sleeping too curled up, etc.).
That isn't the question though. 8 hours may not be harmful but does that mean 16 hours is also not harmful? What about 24 hours? Where is the line? Is there one?
tight hips and a bad back -> these occur because of sitting for a long time not lying down.
All my back problems have disappeared after WFH since now I can lie down and code. Also, I have observed, I move more lying down. Since one tends to shift position, legs and back more often on the bed without explicit mental effort.
A chair tends to confine you more like a straitjacket. 2 hours on a chair and my lower back aches.
My understanding was that tight hips were related to the position of the hips and legs while sitting for extended periods of time. I'd expect this wouldn't be as much of a problem in a laying down position.
Maybe someone with more knowledge on anatomy or physiology could chime in.
Honestly, when it comes to productivity, your working life is a marathon, not a sprint. Realistically you'll be sitting (or lying down, as it stands) until your mid to late sixties, even if right now you may be betting on early retirement. That retirement will be pretty shit if your body isn't up for doing stuff by then.
disclaimer: I haven't exercised regularly since the 'rona hit. Trying to go swimming a few times a week now at least, in theory the chlorine kills the virus well enough.
Get a bigger chair and arrange things so that you can wriggle some; curly legs under you or straighten out, lean left or right, etc. Static for too long is the problem; we're meant to move more but that need not require a lot more space.
I totally agree with the movement / wriggle throughout the day idea. When I'm in my Altwork, I use standing a couple times a day. I type with my back up and legs out or crossed or even hanging of the sides. When I do something like reading docs or watching videos I lean back more to get the weight off of my butt and lower back. Everyone tends to focus on the full recline mode but that is only one of the options.
My ideal would be to have a lie-down setup like this in which I spent ~1 hour max, then I get up and do some fairly strenuous exercise, take a walk, make lunch, etc, then lie back down for another hour.
I agree this would be probably overall negative if you lie in it for hours and hours all day.
> In no way is this a comparison to the Altwork Station, which has ten years of development, five generations of prototypes, and three generations of production hardware, all adding up to 80,000 hours of design and engineering. The creations themselves are apples and oranges...
Off-topic: Am I being overly sensitive today or could Altwork have responded better to this?
Don't get me wrong, I love the write-up going through the different prototypes, it was very insightful. But the above paragraph seems very defensive. Paul in no way attacked Altwork, merely stated that their products are beyond his budget at the moment. Instead of saying that Paul's DIY project is "in no way a comparison" to Altwork's products, they could have commended Paul on taking this project on in the first place, highlighting the difficulties it comes with and how their product solves them. Just seemed unnecessarily defensive.
Sorry if it came off defensive, it was supposed to be a compliment to Paul and recognition of the different stages of the projects. I didn't see it as Paul attacking us in any way. I added that line because I was worried that someone would think I was attacking Paul's work. Paul was clear about what he was doing, his limited tools and limited budget. Further, as someone who builds hardware, I know how tough it is to get anything to work at all but I also know not everyone get that.
Hey I'm the "Paul" you are talking about, I agree with you that the way the sentence was written could mean bad.
But honestly I don't think it is the case, I've talked with the CEO of Altwork a few weeks ago and honestly he was very nice and even helped me to improve a few parts of my setup.
I take the sentence as a mark of respect, but yeah could have been written in a less confusing way
I think it highlights something that is common in software engineering in general: it's incredibly easy to forget how much of development time is ultimately R&D.
Paul benefited from Altwork's ten years of development, protoypes, 80,000 hours bla bla bla. The existence of the Altwork station and especially the 3-8 generations means that Paul could essentially avoid all the ergonomic decisions and many of the technical ones too... until he comes across something that doesn't work for him. But it saves a lot of time having something to crib from!
In some ways this is like a code refactor - different tools, aiming to make it cheaper/more efficient, but using the R&D knowledge from previous iterations. Given the state of the software industry I'm just glad he didn't get tempted to use Svelte somehow.
Ah LAN parties, I always hoped one day I’d go to some sick LAN parties, dragging a rig, seeing tricked out computers, fragging noobs, meeting gamer girls, maybe seeing someone pour liquid nitrogen to cool down a monster CPU. Alas, by the time I reached the age where I would be able to go, they had mostly died out and became less glamorous.
Maybe one day the sounds of gaming rigs on LANs will roar back again, for the sake of nostalgia. Maybe some kind of Computers and Coffee type meetups where people show off their powerful rigs and their elite gaming skills on a LAN.
Amen. I went to my first and last Counter Strike LAN party back in 2007. A fond memory. Most of what you described happened, apart from the gamer girls bit. The defining map of that period was dust. In 2002 and 2003 I’d go to the local Internet cafes with schoolmates and play. It didn’t have the same feel though. There weren’t any mad tricked out rigs, and the older boys were prone to kicking you off if you pwned them too much. The defining map of that period was fy_poolday.
If I got the money I would host a massive LAN party in some kind of mansion, with different cash money tournaments for competitive games from all eras, a gaming rig competition where builders compete on performance and aesthetics, indie game developer showcase, catering, atmosphere models, DJs, a network operations center, and invite some celebrities as well... Would be sick.
This sounds a lot like Quakecon, haven't really followed it in 10 years but once a year in Texas there would be a massive lan with some tournaments and prizes for amateurs. You could BYOC and they'd have spots for you. Carmack would give the keynote speech sometimes as well.
I had been thinking of opening up a game store with a LAN / internet cafe segment (and a bar license, but only if you use your own keyboard / mouse, lol). I doubt it would be economically viable, so it's a thing for if / when I'm filthy rich. Ideally I wouldn't have to run it either. Anyway, lottery draw tomorrow, fingers crossed, lol.
My buddies and I still have an all day LAN party once a year. It’s one of my favorite traditions. We all bring our gaming PCs and way too much junk food and just play games all day. Luckily my wife supports the idea at least enough to take the kids for the day.
Pre-COVID I still had "LAN parties" but it was really just a good excuse to hang out for a weekend with my old high school friends in a rented AirBnB and play an irresponsible amount of games.
I've thought about doing this myself, but I get stuck on how to get everyone's PC to the location. Does everyone ship their stuff? Is the cost reasonable?
These days, my Macbook can quite easily handle any game I actually want to play, and I just bring a nice monitor and my gaming keyboard/mouse. All of it can fit in a duffel bag that I'm already packing with clothes anyway.
Here's my design for a lie down workstation I've used for weeks at a time.
1. open an ordinary laptop screen to 180 degrees.
2. Place the laptop face down on a desk with the laptop's screen hanging over the side of the desk.
3. Put a big heavy object on top of the laptop (I used a hug e book).
4. Plug in your peripherals and put them under your desk
5. lie down underneath your desk so you can see the monitor
6. rotate the display settings as necessary.
Advantages:
* lying on the floor is great for your back
Disadvantages:
* Make sure book is huge enough, otherwise laptop comes crashing down on your head.
* Monitor space is limited to a single laptop screen.
You may have fancier requirements that require a trip to the hardware store. OTOH, you might not. the real trick here is I only need one small monitor to do my job.
In a world where "lay down under your desk to work" is a choice you've made, I would argue for buying a glass-top desk with a monitor laying flat on it.
It can quite easily point downwards, and you don't have to worry about the whole thing falling down on you. Add wireless keyboard and mouse and you're done.
I think the main advantage of frazbin's setup as opposed to the other suggestions here is that it's the most frugal. If you only have a laptop, you don't need to buy neither an arm/handle nor a monitor. You only need the laptop, a table/desk (glass/opaque, doesn't matter), a keyboard, and something heavy to put on the laptop.
A split keyboard seems like the answer (just google image search it) so that your arms can rest at your side. I'd also use an external Apple trackpad or even a trackball. Much more compact.
This seems like the ultimate setup. I personally hate sitting at a desk.
I am in college, struggling to get on disability for scoliosis and chronic severe back pain. I can't sit down for more than 15 minutes at a time and lately even standing at my sit/stand desk causes too much pressure on my spine. I have to lay down most of the day and change positions every couple minutes. I am so afraid that I will never be able to work even a part time job because sitting at a desk for 20 hours a week would be torture. I really, really hope things like adaptable workstations like this improve in the future, because it's the only way someone with my issues will ever be able to work.
assuming you are in the USA: You can request accommodation without having formal Social Security disability benefits from not being able to work. In fact, your local workforce development department should probably even be able to pay for your accommodations.
Here is the biology as I understand it, it’s two key things: Part 1) Spine discs are the largest structure in the human body without a blood supply, & they get nourished by diffusion, generated by movement driven by muscle action. Part 2) In different positions the spine has different load pressures (see chart https://owsleychiro.com/positions-that-put-the-most-strain-o...).
In any higher pressure (non-lying down position) the problem then is simply the combo of higher pressure preventing diffusion and no movement increasing diffusion. Fix one, or the other or both.
Hunch is though 60 min straight without movement in any other non-lying down position is way too long. Sound right?
(me: bike accident, L2 compression fracture, now paying attention to my back) I am working on this too from another vector but get the lie-down desk angle, and at the moment it is credible to me.
Regarding lying down to work + body structures that "lack blood supply and are nourished by diffusion", a cautionary anecdote:
[TLDR: Typing for long periods while lying down with hands elevated above heart may cause an injury.]
A few years ago I built a lying down / "zero gravity" workstation. The position of my keyboard was very similar to the Altwork station, I.E. with arms bent at about 90 degrees with a keyboard and trackpad positioned above my body.
After a couple months of using it during full time working hours I developed severe pain in my wrists and forearms. This had never occurred before when using a conventional workstation / position. I soon became unable to type, and nearly any use of my hands resulted in intense pain. Writing code using a keyboard was out of the question.
After much reading during my forced hiatus, I came to a hypothesis: elevating my hands to type while on my back caused a decrease in diffusion of fluids to the non-vascular tissues of my forearms and hands, that is, the tendons and muscle fascia. While in this unlubricated, "dry" state, the small, continual movements of the tissues against each other (the motions of typing) led to the injury. I concluded it was tendonosis. (IANAD, but had no health insurance at the time.)
The injury took six months to fully heal, during which time I self-administered massage, myofascial release therapy, and grip strength training to increase circulation around the various tissues. For much of that time, I could barely work. Truly it was hell.
As for the workstation, I modified it to use a split keyboard (Ergodox EZ) that kept my hands below my heart (basically at my sides). But ultimately I abandoned the whole thing after failing to achieve a reasonable touch typing speed with the Ergodox.
My current workstation is based on an Ikea lounge chair and ottoman. Keyboard and trackpad extend from the side into my lap on a low-mounted, adjustable arm. The monitor is also on an arm, cantilevered out over the ottoman (and my legs) at a comfortable viewing angle and distance. This setup is certainly not as relaxing for the back as the previous zero gravity position, but in approximately three years of use I've had no further injuries from typing.
> At first, it seems like an easy, clear-cut problem to solve. We all use recliners, we all use desks, we all use chairs...surely, you can just take a part from this and a piece from that and call it done. Well, we tried all that and came up with prototypes that kind of worked, at best.
What about pointing a projector to the ceiling above the bed and using a split keyboard?
Another idea could be setting up a monitor with an arm[1] attached to some furniture or wall at the head of the bed.
Making use of the bed seems both easier and more space efficient.
Great question and I can say early on I and the other primary inventor really pondered "what is needed?" He felt it should be a chair that became a bed. I felt it should be a standing desk that became a "recliner with ottoman". As we started testing and getting feedback the big lesson was everyone wanted something a little different. At the end of the day we learned that laying down was only one of a variety work positions people wanted. Further, they wanted to change positions easily. The bed only solution took too long to set up and get out of.
I use the monitor arm over bed, with a wireless keyboard and trackball. It works and I can recommend it, but:
1. There is limited adjustment potential.
2. The keyboard is not positioned correctly in full supination and my typing error rate goes way up. A fully split design may help this.
3. It's not a good posture for focusing, although it's great for calm viewing.
For focusing I'd go for floor sitting with a lap desk to hold wireless peripherals, and anything that can elevate the screen. This method allows postural adjustment with deep stretches over the course of the day.
What kind of adjustment are you missing? Is is lack of degrees of freedom on the arm or is it the bed?
> 2. The keyboard is not positioned correctly in full supination and my typing error rate goes way up. A fully split design may help this.
I also think a fully split keyboard would be essential here. I don't think it'd be comfortable/ergonomic at all to have the keyboard over your body while typing. I think ideally the arms should be spread to a degree (maybe hands at half a foot distance from the legs) to more evenly distribute the body-weight on the bed.
> 3. It's not a good posture for focusing, although it's great for calm viewing.
Are you referring to how it's easier to doze off? Although, that would also be a problem when viewing.
This is probably the biggest issue which I think requires some kind of stand or other supporting equipment. Right now I prop up the keyboard in front of me using my arms and elbows or with the aid of a cushion or something on my chest.
Watching Netflix on Oculus Quest while in a completely supine position on my bed was revelatory. Finally I could see and hear content from my bed comfortably without fear of dropping anything on my face. Watching a TV from bed has always been hard as either I need to prop my head up to see over my feet or else my glasses are pushed by whatever I'm lying on if I lie on my side.
I have been working at a lie down desk for the last year since I was diagnosed with hip osteoarthritis. It is very simple and consists simply of a line of pillows that I lay on my belly on with extra pillows under my chest and elbows and I look directly at the monitor. I find it helps my posture elsewhere. The main problem is my elbows get sore sometimes.
I do this too...unfortunately I've developed tendonitis in my forearms as a result and try not to spend too much time this way. also I had a few months of neck issues.
being on your belly with your spine arced up slightly really does help the back through.
Nice exploration of an iterated design process. I love the "its ugly but the functions are there" stage; everything I build tops out there. Going on to make the simple and elegant design isn't necessary because I'm satisfied; or alternately because its good enough to be pressed into service and the next project demands attention.
It's good to see more of how that process goes and the kind of result looks to justify the effort in this case. that's a nifty solution.
This is certainly interesting especially since a lot of us are working from home and ergonomics improvements are welcome. But Lying down is good especially for those with spine problems but I find it problematic to work in more or less a supine position. Blood pressure lowers as compared to the sitting position and this can have effects on work performance and even induce sleepiness. Of course if one has constant back pain this tradeoff might be worth it.
Having said that, I sometimes work from bed and while it is comfy for a while I find that it weakens my body somewhat and try to avoid making a habit out of it.
> Orthostatic hypotension is defined as a decrease in systolic blood pressure of 20 mm Hg or a decrease in diastolic blood pressure of 10 mm Hg within three minutes of standing when compared with blood pressure from the sitting or supine position.
Most people, then, have less of a decrease in blood pressure than that between supine and standing.
Like many more people than I had assumed before reading this thread, I prefer to work lying down: because I get less sleepy that way. I have done so for >10 years, whenever I have the option.
You may be dealing with significant sleep deprivation, if you lying down affects you this way.
Not sleep deprived but use bed for sleep only. You working while lying down is more unusual, most people are the opposite but whatever floats your boat. For the average person it’s probably a bad idea and might weaken your body if you lie down too much. I am actually at a stand up desk a portion of the workday and I feel it has come with some positive effects, makes me more alert in the morning, my back feels better, etc
Yes, I agree with that and I could even say I'm more creative when sleepy. But when it comes to day to day work related tasks I'd always prefer to be fully alert.
I guess it would probably be cool to have a specially designed chair with attached gear etc., but I found I could achieve the same effect with my couch, a table for my computer, and a coffee table for my mouse. My keyboard just sits on my lap.
I've always found office chairs hideously uncomfortable, so it's been pretty great. The key seems to have been getting my reclining posture to be almost neutral, with my head up a bit. My monitor sits on the corner of the table so it's almost directly in my sight-line.
Because my body is totally relaxed I don't get the discomfort or tightness of sitting upright for extended periods. I have to remember to get up and move around regularly though, because there's no discomfort trigger.
Isn't this basically an adjustable bed + PC setup[1][2]? The fanciest kinds can raise back, raise knees and tilt the whole bed forward separately[3], so it's easy to stand up and also feels like a laid back chair than on a bed. Prices and features would vary between regions but I think leveraging these options might be faster and easier to further improve.
Due to my disability, I have times during the day where I need to use my computer laying down flat. I'm not really able to use a chair like this, but I've been wondering how to pull it off laying in bed.
Right now, it's just a MBP sitting on a laptop stand, with no other peripherals other than headphones/mic. I found a few different stands online but they are pretty expensive. It would be awesome if I could get a desktop setup going—rather than a laptop—that's still easy enough to move out of the way when not using it. But the setup has to be easy enough for my non-technical assistants to help me with.
I was wondering something while I saw images of people fully reclined with their arms in the air - wouldn't you drop the mouse on the floor quite easily?
I do care about ergonomics, and everyone comments that I hold a mouse a bit Strangely (kind of at an angle), but I just can't get used to a trackball :(
I've tried a few things, the first something like 20 years ago. More recently I stuck with it for a full week, but it still felt really awkward, and like I just couldn't be as accurate as with a mouse.
If you've any pointers (hur hur), they'd be much appreciated!
Critical to the experience was disabling the "Enhance Pointer Precision" setting on Windows, which ironically felt like it does the exact opposite of what it says.
I probably wouldn't use it for, say, competitive FPS games but for regular workflow stuff it's just great.
Hmm, I would have thought it would need to be quite a strong magnet to keep something the weight of a mouse attached - wouldn't it make it quite hard to actually move the mouse?
From their FAQ (basically magnet only holds mouse in place when not in the middle of mousepad):
WON'T THE KEYBOARD AND MOUSE FALL OFF THE DESK?
The desk has a layer of steel under its surface. Magnets on the keyboard and keypad hold them in position on the desk. We provide specialized magnet kits for standard Apple products and a general-purpose kit to accommodate other products. The mouse pad has a ring of steel on its outer edge but no steel in the center. This allows the user to slide the mouse easily when mousing and store the mouse anywhere on the edge of the pad when not in use.
Thanks, I don't know how I missed the FAQ - I was struggling to imagine a solution that wouldn't be annoying, but what they've come up with actually sounds pretty good.
I use two laptop stands to support a 4-foot board that I can slide over my bed (by 2-feet only). The board supports two 27" 4k monitors. One laptop stand has legs under the bed and an arm that extends over the bed. The other laptop stand holds a counter weight and clamp to make sure the board is stable. One of the 27" monitor is over the bed, the other is next to it but not over the bed.
A guideline I have held religiously for several years now is to not do anything in bed other than read and sleep (for more than one sense of 'sleep').
I often see people complain about having poor sleep, difficulty sleeping etc. I myself used to sometimes take 3-4 hours in bed to fall asleep, no matter how tired I was or what I did. But only using my bed for sleeping is part of what lets me now fall deeply asleep within 5 minutes of shutting my eyes.
I hope your sleep health is good, but if anybody reading this wonders why they have such a tough time falling asleep or waking up on time, I would recommend giving this strategy a shot.
I wonder how many people with the problem have tried actually reading a book when they want to sleep instead of computing through the night.
Another thing I like is to listen to audio (I like scary stories on youtube) while I lie down with my eyes closed. Gives me something to ponder before I get knocked out.
Funny enough audio is 50/50 for me. It can either lull me softly to sleep, or keep me awake by way of being too interesting. Not much middle ground. One thing that does show though is that everybody has their own needs and it's helpful to experiment until you find what works for you.
You first have to develop a sleeping problem, then this works like a charm. Just do the opposite of what they tell you to do for a better sleep, like don't use electronic devices in bed.
I passed half my university courses lying down I'm pretty sure. Using a small laptop (one of those tiny ones) on my chest + an external keyboard and mouse plugged into with the keyboard sitting on the groin area.
i'm actually using an ad-hoc 'lie-down' workstation,
only way to work for 7+ hours for me:
its essentially a monitor at an angle mounted above my bed,
cost nearly nothing to setup, looking way better than those exotic
chairs. it roughly looks like this https://twavllmount.files.wordpress.com/2014/06/9d555fd2-34a...
Me too. I almost became desperate enough to buy one several months ago when I was having difficulty standing all day, but I just could not part with the $8k. Biking, running, stretching and so on I want to believe help with the pain but if they do it makes so little difference that I cannot be sure.
I've looked into other workstations but most of them only go between sitting and reclining. Unfortunately, I think the ability to convert to a standing desk for pain relief will continue to be a necessity based on my experience with recliners (the only recliner I can actually sit in cost me quite a pretty penny), so a station with only two positions is no better than my standing desk now.
I can't wait until workstations like this one are affordable.
I've always thought that resting quarters shouldn't be used for anything else other than resting, so that our mind can go into "rest mode" when we are in resting quarters.
I won't pretend that EVERYONE "works" this way, but picking a resting position (lying down) to work sounds like a long term problem.
The effects of this happen slowly over the course of years but you could potentially develop tight hips and a bad back, which can accelerate further mobility problems.
Common advice is to get up and move once an hour. Your productivity might dip but mental/physical health will benefit. Seating that forces you to change positions frequently (floor cushions) might be a save too.