As a child, Josh Patner was used to walking past his mother, who was lying in the kitchen whenever his mother-in-law called.
“My grandmother speaks with her ear,” Mr. Patner, 61, recalled. To cope, her mother would “lay on the floor and hold the phone away from her head.” Mr. Patner’s father, also a fan of the floor, slept for 20 minutes under the family piano every night after work.
So it’s no surprise, perhaps, that Mr. Patner enjoys floor time at his Brooklyn home or even at his friends’ places — in part to stretch and relieve his back (he has scoliosis), but also, he says, because it feels. calming
“If I know you well enough to sit on your couch, I know you well enough to lie on your floor,” he said.
Although this is not new to Mr. Patner, others are just now listening to the exercise: Posts with the hashtag #floortime have garnered millions of views on TikTok.
Lily Bishop, a graduate student in Chicago, did video showing herself supine on her beige carpet, staring silently at the ceiling, arms outstretched. “I am a floor person to my core,” read the words in the clip. “Just finished the meeting? floor Home from the gym? floor Want to take a nap? Floor.”
“I find that it makes me more relaxed and present, and like, slows down anxious thoughts,” Ms. Bishop, 27, when reached by phone.
For him, the sensation was akin to watching ocean waves crash ashore — but without a trip to the beach.
“You don’t have to have a quiet, natural environment,” said Ms. Bishop. “You just need a floor.”
What’s so great about being on the floor?
While there isn’t a single body of research extolling the benefits of lying on the ground, psychologists say that spending time on the floor probably won’t hurt, and may even help us feel grounded.
When you lie face down, your posture is open and relaxed, which can have a calming effect, says Ellen Hendriksen, a clinical psychologist in Boston.
“Your body and will want to align,” she says. This is why it’s hard to feel hopeful and hopeful if you’re slumped in your chair, head down, he added. Or why our shoulders shoot up or our jaws drop when we’re anxious.
Lying on the ground can also help us avoid thinking, explains Alan Fogel, a professor emeritus of psychology at the University of Utah and the author of “Restorative Embodiment and Resilience.”
“In our Western culture, we don’t have a lot of room for restoration,” says Dr. Fogel. “There is no timeout. No recess.”
You might assume that a comfortable mattress would be more conducive to relaxation. “But often what happens, especially in familiar places like our bed, is that our mind continues to work,” said Dr. Fogel. “We think about what happened that day. We think about what we could have done or should have done.”
When lying on a harder surface like the floor, however, you can be more in tune with how your body feels and less focused on your thoughts.
To be comfortable, it is necessary to sink to the floor and soften your muscles, added Dr. Fogel. Focusing on letting go makes it easier to help the body and mind decompress — to “just be,” she says.
Kara Lennon, 34, an account executive and an indoor cycling instructor in Boston, has been a fan of floor time for nearly a decade.
“It’s like going outside and sitting in the sun” for a few minutes, he says. You feel better, “and then you can go back to whatever you were doing.”
Humans have been leaning on the earth for centuries. Examples include the yoga pose savasana, which helps people gently relax each part of the body while lying down; Zen meditation or tea ceremonies that often take place on the floor; and the brilliant underfloor heating system in Korean homes, making the floor more inviting for sleeping, studying or eating.
Is lying on the floor for you?
Not everyone will find comfort on the floor. Some may have physical challenges, for example, that make it uncomfortable or painful to lower themselves to the ground.
If you’re able to try it and want to give it time on the floor, “focus on your breath, really turn inward,” says Rachel Goldman, a psychologist and clinical assistant professor of psychiatry at the NYU Grossman School of Medicine. Do you feel more relaxed, more grounded or more in control? If so, he says, “it’s an additional strategy that you can use when you think you need to.”
Ms. recognized Lennon “may sound silly,” but in his case, resting on the floor for even just a few minutes each day allows him to be more productive while working from home.
“It hit the reset button for a second,” he said.
