I’ll be sleeping in a mummy sleeping bag instead of my bed for the next thirty days. I got the idea from one of my recent articles, about some passionate skydivers who lived without many of the usual creature comforts, like beds, so that they could afford to skydive.
I have many reasons for trying this myself. First, I’ve never slept in a sleeping bag. I’ve never even been camping. I’d like to see what it’s like to sleep on a hard surface night after night. I want to go hiking out west in the future, and I’d also like to be able to take trips where I camp out instead of staying in a hotel. Not only would camping save money, but I think I might enjoy it more than Red Roof Inn. So I’d like to sleep this way just because I never have, and I’m curious about what it’s like.
I also want to find out whether I need a bed at all. Until recently, sleeping in a bed was something I saw as a basic necessity of life. It can’t be true. I don’t know the history of sleep, but I’ll guess that for most of human history, there weren’t any mattresses. And everyone knows that the Japanese traditionally slept on tatami or futons.
But most people don’t sleep that way any more, and even the Japanese (except for some in the older generation) prefer soft, comfy, western style beds. So why would I want to forgo obviously superior bed technology? Well, maybe it’s not that great. I’ve met people who swear they love sleeping on the floor and do so regularly. I also knew someone who had back pain that was made better only by sleeping on a hard surface. It would be too easy to assume that a bed is a better choice for sleeping. I’ve never slept anywhere else, so I really don’t know.
I’m not unhappy with my bed. I seem to sleep okay in it — at least, whatever sleep problems I have from time to time don’t seem to have anything to do with the bed itself. You might say I’ve been reasonably satisfied with my bed for the last 28 years. Which is exactly why it’s time to try something different. Being reasonably satisfied isn’t good enough for me. I want to be ecstatic about everything in my life! And I never tire of trying to find better ways to do things, even things that are fine. I like to ask the questions that nobody ever asks, and one of those questions is “Why do I sleep in a bed every night instead of something else?”
Another reason I might want to forgo a bed is connected with minimalism. I’m not a minimalist per se. I don’t obsess over the number of objects I own. I don’t believe in reduction for the sake of reduction — I’m not interested in saving energy, resources, or money. I definitely want to maximize my enjoyment of life, whether that requires one hundred belongings or one hundred thousand.
But the fact is that most belongings are just a burden. It’s a burden when we have too much stuff, and often it isn’t the best stuff, or it’s stuff we don’t use or care about very much. The more I declutter, the lighter I feel. The more I eliminate all but my favorite things, all but the absolute best things, the happier I am. Consequently, my apartment is very spare. Maybe that makes me a minimalist, even though I want to maximize my happiness. Maybe you could call me a selectivist.
It would be really convenient if my life didn’t require a bed. When I moved into my place over two years ago it took a lot of time and effort to get a bed over there. I had to borrow a pickup truck — and not everyone has a friend with one — and I had to break my back carrying it into my apartment. It was also expensive. I briefly considered buying a hammock instead of a bed, because the price would be the same, and it would be easier to transport. Even then, I was questioning whether a bed was necessary. But I didn’t know whether I would like a hammock, and I didn’t want to take the risk. How stupid. I bet I would have learned a lot. Anyway, a hammock with a stand may be less hardware than a bed and box springs, but a sleeping bag is simplicity itself.
You might wonder, what’s the big deal if you have to move some heavy stuff once every few years? Well, anytime I daydream of living somewhere besides northern Ohio, I think of the burden of moving furniture, including that largest and heaviest piece of furniture I own, my bed. That bed really ties me down. Under the mindset that a bed is an essential part of life, it’s a lot harder to just pick up and move. I could imagine spending a few years moving around the country frequently, experiencing different environments. Maybe I’ll live in North Carolina for a few months, working on my freefall skills in a wind tunnel every day, then I’ll go spend some time in some other states I want to see. If I had to ensure I had a comfortable bed every place I went, it would be much more expensive and cumbersome to travel. On the other hand, if I knew I could rely on a comfortable bed that rolls up into a little ball, I could sleep almost anywhere. Including outdoors.
So I’m going to sleep in a mummy sleeping bag for the next thirty days. I’ll post regular updates to let you know how it works out.
2 Comments
Ever since your post on your skydiver friends, I’ve been considering the ideas behind beds. It’s pretty interesting. I can vouch for beds are a bit overrated and whenever my back hurts I scramble to a good place on the floor.
A documentary involving Jack White, “It Might Get Loud”, talks about how he foregoes having a bed as a teenager so that he could handle having multiple instruments in his tiny room. I dream of finding passion like that!
I agree, I like the idea of having a passion so strong that you forgo a bed, but strangely I’m also attracted to the idea of just not needing a bed in the first place. It just started feeling like a burden to own one and depend on one for a good night’s sleep. When I look at the world and the way we live, I see a lot of excesses, and a lot of things that just aren’t questioned. We work really hard to afford enormous structures that we fill with furniture and gizmos and maybe we really just need a nice corner on the floor to sleep on every night. I don’t see any of the “excess” as a moral issue like the eco-freaks do; I’m glad we live in a society where we can have all this stuff. But I still wonder how necessary it all is.
I never saw that film. Looks interesting!