Left/right lay preference, handedness, and scoliosis

[Latherdome]

Those who’ve replied: check yourself in mirror: which if either shoulder droops any, and how does it correlate to preferred lay?


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[wienerman]

Those who’ve replied: check yourself in mirror: which if either shoulder droops any, and who does it correlate to preferred lay?

in mirror, neither side droops. when sitting my spine curves and I lean left, its uncomfortable to sit up and painful to lean right. in the hammock, both right and left lays are painful, or at least uncomfortable, but I tend to collapse into the head right/feet left position more naturally.

[bigdisgrace]

I think you nailed it with spinal asymmetry being the reason. Much like a good maintenance program with a chiropractor can put your spine in more of a neutral alignment, a left or right lay can make the difference between pain or pleasure. I cannot lay feet right for even a few minutes without shifting over to a left.

So people who can lay both ways equally probably have good back health or perhaps are younger with none or limited spinal trauma. My trauma was a baseball bat & a golf club...…... swinging them that and 28 years at UPS.

So now I take comfort in my final resting place...….a coffin, left lay of course.

[MikekiM]

I'm a newbie to hanging ad still trying to determine which lay is best for me. I'm right handed, diagnosed with slight scoliosis as a child, but no doctor has commented on it recently. Indoors, I sleep mostly on my left side. when I sit in the hammock, I seem to naturally flop to my left, and then I'm too lazy to swing my feet all the way across the hammock to get into the right lay position, so I end up in the left lay. I've been experimenting with the right lay position, it might, maybe, slightly more comfortable, but it feels weird since then my dominant hand is trapped by the hammock body.

as an aside, I had been assuming that right/left lay was defined by head position not foot position, which seemed to make sense since our heads are more important than our feet. finally found a thread last week that definitively defined it by foot position, which is very difficult for my puny imagination to grasp.

Strongly encourage you to experiment with both directions.

My first two hammocks were Blackbirds which typically are right lay.. head left, feet right. So I did that for maybe three or four seasons. Then I made my first MYoG hammock and what do you know... I strongly prefer left lay. Head right, feet left. However, since all of my hammocks are sym's I do take advantage of being able to swap lays and set my quilts up to accommodate it. I don't mover around a lot, but being able to change sides is nice.

For the record.. right hand dominant. And, I have a wrecked right shoulder.. for what that's worth to the discussion.

As far as which is more important to a backpacker.. head or feet? Kind of a draw in my book.

[cmoulder]

Those who’ve replied: check yourself in mirror: which if either shoulder droops any, and how does it correlate to preferred lay?


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Sorry I forgot to mention... no droop, no history of scoliosis but I've separated my right shoulder twice and my left one once in mountain bike accidents. I've got those bumps on the tops of the joints from scar tissue, but at least they match. Thought I was going to need surgery at one time but an orthopedic surgeon gave me some physical therapy exercises to do and they don't hurt even though they can grind and pop quite a bit.

[damuffin]

I sleep on my right shoulder and am right handed. So my smart hand is closer to the ground and you get a nice view when laying head right. The bridge hammock is the nicest view and makes no difference if your a busy sleeper. The compromise is slight shoulder squeeze and fiddling with your tarp. I own both.

[SilvrSurfr]

That's the great thing about a netless hammock - you can lay any way you want and figure out what suits you. I always sleep head right, feet left, though. Both shoulders are wrecked. When I was younger I was a big racquetball player. I injured my right shoulder, but I was somewhat ambidextrous so I just switched to left-handed. Then I wrecked that shoulder, but the right shoulder had healed somewhat so I switched back to right-handed. I'm not sure which shoulder is more messed up now.

[Trail Runner]

My first night in a hammock I laid head left/feet right and within 15 minutes I got a horrendous cramp in the arch of my right foot. Ever since then it's been head right/feet left for me. I'm right-handed and when I sleep in a bed I prefer to sleep on my left side although I almost always wake up on my back.

[MikekiM]

I'm right-handed and when I sleep in a bed I prefer to sleep on my left side although I almost always wake up on my back.

^^^ Same ^^^

I can sleep through the night, on my back, without moving.. with the cat sleeping on my chest...

[Tony c]

Ok this is interesting. I,m left lay, right handed. I just assumed it was due to hanging on my patio where hanging left cleared the walls better but I do have shoulder asymmetry that was diagnosed in like 5 seconds by the physical therapist.

I tend to over stretch my right arm when sleeping and put it into bad positions.