6 ms·

Primatologist creates ‘humankind evolution bed’, which simulates a treetop lair

44 points by kawera 10y ago

robert_tweed 10y ago
So basically, a hammock? Why are people upvoting this? It's not quite spammy enough to flag, but seriously, is this what the HN front-page has come to?
- kawera 10y ago
  I see this as a pretty good hack, don't you?
  - MustardTiger 10y ago
    The article in question is virtually content free though. It would be interesting if this were someone who had designed this bed and was offering plans so you can make them or something. That would be relevant to a place called "hacker news". "Some guy made a bed maybe, we don't even know if it will ever be for sale or anything" isn't.
  - robert_tweed 10y ago
    All I can see is a fluff piece with some pseudoscientific buzzwords, tangentially related statistics about sleep quality in Japan (nothing to do with the bed that is the subject of the article) with absolutely no real science behind it whatsoever. I don't see a hack of any sort, good or bad, except perhaps the author of the article.
- MrZongle2 10y ago
  "is this what the HN front-page has come to?" Judging from what I've seen lately, yes. This, Sam's Trump rant yesterday, and a host of other dubious items (that squeak in because they fall under the vague "it's of interest to the community" banner) have really degraded HN's signal-to-noise ratio, IMO.
- aphextron 10y ago
  To be fair it's still infinitely better than that other place...
bambax 10y ago
Because my back hurts with most beds, I've taken to sleep in a hammock. It's fantastic, and also extremely cheap. A good bed can cost upward of $2000; the best hammock in the world goes for $50 (add a sleeping bag depending on the temperature; but no pillows are needed as the shape of the hammock allows your head to rest at a very normal position).
- nickpsecurity 10y ago
  The ones I tried seemed like some part was always digging into my skin or scraping it. Have the best ones improved on that? Also, is there a technique to not waking up on the floor with a nice slam after trying to groggily exit the hammock? Didn't get enough experience to work out an answer. ;)
  - kawera 10y ago
    To avoid both problems, the hammock needs to be really large and made of high quality, heavy, natural fabric. Small, rustic hammocks are only ok for recreation, not sleeping.
    - nickpsecurity 10y ago
      Appreciate the tip. You got a specific brand of those to recommend that's comfy and cost-effective?
      - kawera 10y ago
        We have two brazilian hand-made hammocks like this one - they are great. The trick to a good sleep is to lay your body diagonally, leaving it almost strait, not parallel or perpendicular to the hooks. http://dfohome.com/Large-Cotton-Brazilian-Sunshine-Stripe-Hammock-with-FREE-Matching-Storage-Bag/BG-HAMXXRS http://dfohome.com/Large-Cotton-Brazilian-Sunshine-Stripe-Ha...
        bambax 10y ago
projectramo 10y ago
What about for people who prefer to sleep on their stomachs? (Which, as far as I can tell, is most people). Does this work for us?
- ars 10y ago
  Most? It's about 7% of people.
  - Frank2312 10y ago
    Source? With the current information I have at this very moment, it is 66.666666666...% of people. Sample is you, OP and I.
  - projectramo 10y ago
    That small? Wow. Anecdotally I would have guessed it is much higher. Not that my sample is statistically significant.
- tcj_phx 10y ago
  I used to always sleep on my back. About 6 years ago I tried to switch to sleeping on my stomach, but I'd wake up with a very stiff neck. Last year I saw some research that suggests side-sleeping helps improve the circulation in the head. It's been easier to switch to falling asleep on my side, than my stomach-sleeping experiment... The Effect of Body Posture on Brain Glymphatic Transport - http://www.jneurosci.org/content/35/31/11034.short http://www.jneurosci.org/content/35/31/11034.short Random report in the media: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3191826/Lying-sleeping-improve-waste-clearance-brain-study-reveals.html http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3191826/Lying-sleepi...
- tunap 10y ago
  I slept on my stomach in a hammock once. My back hurt more than the hangover. As for good stomach sleep, I pull the top mattress* about 18" from the headboard and fold my arms & pillows into the trough to prop my head straight w/ my spine. After decades of neck issues I can say I finally get great sleep w/out neck pain, numb arms & aching shoulder joints. I had tried a massage table w/ face cut-out but it was awkward & I flopped off the side several times. *I use 2 mattresses on top of box spring, I prefer dropping out of bed to 'getting up' in the morning.
ars 10y ago
Chimps don't sleep in those beds because they are the ultimate in comfort. They sleep in them because that's the only thing they can make.
- knodi123 10y ago
  Although it's a perfectly sensible experiment to do, for some reason I cringe at the idea of professional scientists having a bunch of chimpanzees sleep, singly and in pairs, on the latest Select Comfort line by Serta, with high thread count egyptian cotton sheets.
- Semiapies 10y ago
  Not to mention that chimps have a completely different build than human beings, since they actually live in trees, while our ancestors have been living on the ground for a few million years. Also, this bed would be horrible in winter, which seems to be a particular problem given that Japanese residences tend to be as cold in winter as they are hot in summer.
DennisP 10y ago
He's probably lucky that the chimpanzee who made that treetop bed didn't find him sleeping in it.
- undersuit 10y ago
  IIRC the nests are made fresh nightly, they don't reuse them often.
nix0n 10y ago
> says expert Koichiro Zamma is a chimpanzee expert, not a sleep expert. The description of the bed sounds like a hammock, but there are no photos of it.
- cwp 10y ago
  There's a huge photo right at the top of the page!
tzs 10y ago
While Googling for information on something someone mentioned in a comment here, I came across an interesting article: Tetley, M. (2000). Instinctive sleeping and resting postures: an anthropological and zoological approach to treatment of low back and joint pain. BMJ : British Medical Journal, 321(7276), 1616–1618. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1119282/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1119282/

44 points by kawera 10y ago

So basically, a hammock? Why are people upvoting this? It's not quite spammy enough to flag, but seriously, is this what the HN front-page has come to?

kawera 10y ago
I see this as a pretty good hack, don't you?
- MustardTiger 10y ago
  The article in question is virtually content free though. It would be interesting if this were someone who had designed this bed and was offering plans so you can make them or something. That would be relevant to a place called "hacker news". "Some guy made a bed maybe, we don't even know if it will ever be for sale or anything" isn't.
- robert_tweed 10y ago
  All I can see is a fluff piece with some pseudoscientific buzzwords, tangentially related statistics about sleep quality in Japan (nothing to do with the bed that is the subject of the article) with absolutely no real science behind it whatsoever. I don't see a hack of any sort, good or bad, except perhaps the author of the article.
MrZongle2 10y ago
"is this what the HN front-page has come to?" Judging from what I've seen lately, yes. This, Sam's Trump rant yesterday, and a host of other dubious items (that squeak in because they fall under the vague "it's of interest to the community" banner) have really degraded HN's signal-to-noise ratio, IMO.
aphextron 10y ago
To be fair it's still infinitely better than that other place...

bambax 10y ago

Because my back hurts with most beds, I've taken to sleep in a hammock. It's fantastic, and also extremely cheap. A good bed can cost upward of $2000; the best hammock in the world goes for $50 (add a sleeping bag depending on the temperature; but no pillows are needed as the shape of the hammock allows your head to rest at a very normal position).

nickpsecurity 10y ago
The ones I tried seemed like some part was always digging into my skin or scraping it. Have the best ones improved on that? Also, is there a technique to not waking up on the floor with a nice slam after trying to groggily exit the hammock? Didn't get enough experience to work out an answer. ;)
- kawera 10y ago
  To avoid both problems, the hammock needs to be really large and made of high quality, heavy, natural fabric. Small, rustic hammocks are only ok for recreation, not sleeping.
  - nickpsecurity 10y ago
    Appreciate the tip. You got a specific brand of those to recommend that's comfy and cost-effective?
    - kawera 10y ago
      We have two brazilian hand-made hammocks like this one - they are great. The trick to a good sleep is to lay your body diagonally, leaving it almost strait, not parallel or perpendicular to the hooks. http://dfohome.com/Large-Cotton-Brazilian-Sunshine-Stripe-Hammock-with-FREE-Matching-Storage-Bag/BG-HAMXXRS http://dfohome.com/Large-Cotton-Brazilian-Sunshine-Stripe-Ha...
      - bambax 10y ago

projectramo 10y ago

What about for people who prefer to sleep on their stomachs? (Which, as far as I can tell, is most people). Does this work for us?

ars 10y ago
Most? It's about 7% of people.
- Frank2312 10y ago
  Source? With the current information I have at this very moment, it is 66.666666666...% of people. Sample is you, OP and I.
- projectramo 10y ago
  That small? Wow. Anecdotally I would have guessed it is much higher. Not that my sample is statistically significant.
tcj_phx 10y ago
I used to always sleep on my back. About 6 years ago I tried to switch to sleeping on my stomach, but I'd wake up with a very stiff neck. Last year I saw some research that suggests side-sleeping helps improve the circulation in the head. It's been easier to switch to falling asleep on my side, than my stomach-sleeping experiment... The Effect of Body Posture on Brain Glymphatic Transport - http://www.jneurosci.org/content/35/31/11034.short http://www.jneurosci.org/content/35/31/11034.short Random report in the media: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3191826/Lying-sleeping-improve-waste-clearance-brain-study-reveals.html http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3191826/Lying-sleepi...
tunap 10y ago
I slept on my stomach in a hammock once. My back hurt more than the hangover. As for good stomach sleep, I pull the top mattress* about 18" from the headboard and fold my arms & pillows into the trough to prop my head straight w/ my spine. After decades of neck issues I can say I finally get great sleep w/out neck pain, numb arms & aching shoulder joints. I had tried a massage table w/ face cut-out but it was awkward & I flopped off the side several times. *I use 2 mattresses on top of box spring, I prefer dropping out of bed to 'getting up' in the morning.

ars 10y ago

Chimps don't sleep in those beds because they are the ultimate in comfort. They sleep in them because that's the only thing they can make.

knodi123 10y ago
Although it's a perfectly sensible experiment to do, for some reason I cringe at the idea of professional scientists having a bunch of chimpanzees sleep, singly and in pairs, on the latest Select Comfort line by Serta, with high thread count egyptian cotton sheets.
Semiapies 10y ago
Not to mention that chimps have a completely different build than human beings, since they actually live in trees, while our ancestors have been living on the ground for a few million years. Also, this bed would be horrible in winter, which seems to be a particular problem given that Japanese residences tend to be as cold in winter as they are hot in summer.

DennisP 10y ago

He's probably lucky that the chimpanzee who made that treetop bed didn't find him sleeping in it.

undersuit 10y ago
IIRC the nests are made fresh nightly, they don't reuse them often.

nix0n 10y ago

> says expert Koichiro Zamma is a chimpanzee expert, not a sleep expert. The description of the bed sounds like a hammock, but there are no photos of it.

cwp 10y ago
There's a huge photo right at the top of the page!

tzs 10y ago

While Googling for information on something someone mentioned in a comment here, I came across an interesting article: Tetley, M. (2000). Instinctive sleeping and resting postures: an anthropological and zoological approach to treatment of low back and joint pain. BMJ : British Medical Journal, 321(7276), 1616–1618. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1119282/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1119282/