Many people have been in a rough spot where they can’t get to their comfy bed at home and gotta crash on someone’s couch. Sometimes we find that perfect spot on the couch and just decide not to move and to let the Z’s catch you while sitting upright. Most people know that feeling of waking up from a nap on the couch and feeling just great, but there is a comparison that can be drawn between just sleeping a couple of extra hours and waking up in the morning in your actual bed. When you wake up on a couch, stretch out and stand, and your back is aching like crazy, and you feel like you hadn’t slept a minute, it’s weird!

If you think about it, we spend the majority of our sleeping time in a bed, and we wake up in the morning completely regular. Even if you only sleep a couple of hours, you usually don’t wake up aching or hurting; you just feel tired throughout the day. I think this has to do with how much room you have to move. When you sleep on a bed, no matter the size, you have room to move or roll, and there’s usually nothing preventing you from moving. It’s a nice, flat, and comfy surface that allows your body to naturally move and adjust with no restraint. Plus, you get a pillow that keeps your neck and spine straight while you’re lying down, whether you’re on your side or your back. Most of the time, when your back hurts in the morning, it is because you slept at a weird angle, or maybe you weren’t on your pillow, or your back was twisted in a weird way that stopped you from moving. When you think about it the couch is the exact thing that would cause that.

Couches are really the most awkward thing to sleep on if you look at how they’re built. They’re usually not flat and have little humps to sit on; sometimes they are angled upward, there’s no space to roll on the surface, and the back of the couch restricts movement while you’re sleeping. When you have a pillow, it may feel more comfy as you fall asleep, but it doesn’t really help once you wake up; you’re still sore and aching. Couches are always the backup, but we fail to see that there are better options to wake up to. Honestly, I’d rather sleep on the carpet floor than on the couch. I feel much better waking up after sleeping on the floor, which I think has to do with the amount of room to move and keeping your spine straight.

Although Couches are designed to be comfy and may seem like a good substitute to get a good night’s rest, their design is meant for sitting, which makes sleeping on them bad for your body while asleep. Then, when you look at beds, their flat and cushioned structure allows your body to keep a good natural position, straightening your spine, and the size of the bed allows your body to naturally adjust at night, unlike the fixed structure of the couch.