Is the British Medical Journal article on sleeping without a bed serious or parody?

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Simfish
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This article is actually quite hilarious and I can't figure out whether it's a parody or not:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1119282/. It actually got in the British Medical Journal for some reason.

But intuitively speaking, it does make a lot of sense.
 
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Simfish said:
This article is actually quite hilarious and I can't figure out whether it's a parody or not:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1119282/. It actually got in the British Medical Journal for some reason.

But intuitively speaking, it does make a lot of sense.
Looks like the BMJ allows just about anything.
 
Simfish said:
Haha though, it's peer-reviewed with an acceptance rate of 7%.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BMJ
That's not even a study to be peer reviewed, it must be in some area of the journal where people can submit opinion pieces that don't go through peer review. Or perhaps what they call peer review is what other magazines call editorial review.
 
Do they not take into account at all the fact they have a shorter life, the may not complain as much as us. If they get back problems they may die because they can't hunt or gather as well as before. It seems more like bad guess work than science
 
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My cousin studied for a year in Japan and got used to to sleeping on the floor. When she returned she wanted to continue the practice but discovered there are more insects here.

My 13 yo daughter has slept on the floor by choice for years.
 
Want the best night's sleep you'll ever have? Try a night in the bath, no water of course.
 
Kawakaze said:
Want the best night's sleep you'll ever have? Try a night in the bath, no water of course.
I have and I don't recommend it.
 
Evo said:
I have and I don't recommend it.

I'll second that. I'm a bit too tall for the tub - and it's cold.

I can honestly say the thought of observing how a tribal person or an ape sleeps to prevent back pain never occurred to me.
 
Gorillas construct "beds" to sleep in at the end of the day. They gather vegetation around them in trees or on the ground. Gorillas construct a new nest each night because they travel to different locations during the day foraging. The daily construction of new nests also helps avoid parasites that may nest in the bedding.

http://www.seaworld.org/animal-info/info-books/gorilla/behavior.htm
 
Evo said:
http://www.seaworld.org/animal-info/info-books/gorilla/behavior.htm

Considering the bed bug problem in the US, I guess you can learn from a gorilla.
 
The human spine may not NEED a bed, but some padding like a futon, and a pillow or cervical roll is ideal. Avoiding insects in the USA is good, but if you live in South America, you're avoiding nastier things than bedbugs! Same in most of Africa, and much of Asia. For the majority of the world that lives side-by-side with deadly reptiles and insects, sleeping on the ground is just not the best choice. In fact, ideally you want some mosquito netting with that rope cot.
 
i seem to recall that asians who squat like that have better hip and leg mechanics to accommodate it, but that it really is hard on their knees.

i always sleep on my side, with a very flat pillow, and don't understand how folks can stand doing it on their backs or with a huge pillow cranking their neck up.

bigger problems for we civilized people may be all the sitting. it shortens anterior muscle groups like the iliopsoas and puts weight on the sciatic nerves.