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It's odd that the paper goes to great lengths to talk about protecting your penis from insects but at the same point seems to ignore women completely - all the

by hnbad 3y ago

It's odd that the paper goes to great lengths to talk about protecting your penis from insects but at the same point seems to ignore women completely - all the illustrations depict men. Having met women (shocking, I know), bust size can be a significant factor in ergonomics so it would be interesting to see how that factors into it. Also anecdotally, pregnant belly-sleepers frequently rely on cushioning and people may prefer certain sleeping positions after having given birth or suffering from certain ailments. I'm also certain that waist size (esp. obesity) may alter preferences. It's an interesting paper but given the lack of substance this feels more like a school presentation than something you'd find in an academic journal.

kqr 3y ago
> Also anecdotally, pregnant belly-sleepers frequently rely on cushioning I mean, undergoing pregnancy is in and of itself not great for one's health (especially without modern healthcare), so I don't know how much that specific thing should be factored into healthy lifestyle choices. In particular, pregnancy puts a lot of pressure on internal organs in a way that means one should not be surprised to have only one working sleeping position by the third trimester. At that point it's governed by Newton and another growing human, not choice. (To be clear, I'm not saying pregnancy is a bad lifestyle choice, just that pregnancy is not kind to the human body.)
- hnbad 3y ago
  > I don't know how much that specific thing should be factored into healthy lifestyle choices. I'm pretty sure the average human is not healthy, even in the societies analysed, especially if you factor in injuries, disabilities or pregnancy. If anything the perfectly "healthy" able body is the exception to the human experience. So yes, if we want meaningful advice on healthier sleeping postures we should take various illnesses, disabilities, ailments and conditions into account. At least this seems like a fair consideration if we already dedicate this much text to reducing the risk of insect bites on your penis.
kaitai 3y ago
Yes, I wondered about this as well. I understand why the author might not have observed women sleeping, and certainly wouldn't have photos, but one might at least mention it (especially given all the attention to the penis). Bust size & placement for sure has a significant effect on where arms can be placed, among other things. It seems that the author's observations are primarily from various camping-equivalents, more so than home life. To my sibling commenter, whether pregnancy is or isn't "healthy" isn't quite the point, IMO. Various stages of pregnancy do occupy a non-trivial part of many people's lifespan and significantly change the ergonomics of sleep. Given that humans have been getting pregnant for a long time, it is a big miss to not even mention that it hasn't been considered. Academic training tries to impress on most authors that they should mention what they're ignoring and why, not least to set up the citation train for the future and support grant applications.

by hnbad 3y ago

kqr 3y ago

> Also anecdotally, pregnant belly-sleepers frequently rely on cushioning I mean, undergoing pregnancy is in and of itself not great for one's health (especially without modern healthcare), so I don't know how much that specific thing should be factored into healthy lifestyle choices. In particular, pregnancy puts a lot of pressure on internal organs in a way that means one should not be surprised to have only one working sleeping position by the third trimester. At that point it's governed by Newton and another growing human, not choice. (To be clear, I'm not saying pregnancy is a bad lifestyle choice, just that pregnancy is not kind to the human body.)

hnbad 3y ago
> I don't know how much that specific thing should be factored into healthy lifestyle choices. I'm pretty sure the average human is not healthy, even in the societies analysed, especially if you factor in injuries, disabilities or pregnancy. If anything the perfectly "healthy" able body is the exception to the human experience. So yes, if we want meaningful advice on healthier sleeping postures we should take various illnesses, disabilities, ailments and conditions into account. At least this seems like a fair consideration if we already dedicate this much text to reducing the risk of insect bites on your penis.

kaitai 3y ago

Yes, I wondered about this as well. I understand why the author might not have observed women sleeping, and certainly wouldn't have photos, but one might at least mention it (especially given all the attention to the penis). Bust size & placement for sure has a significant effect on where arms can be placed, among other things. It seems that the author's observations are primarily from various camping-equivalents, more so than home life. To my sibling commenter, whether pregnancy is or isn't "healthy" isn't quite the point, IMO. Various stages of pregnancy do occupy a non-trivial part of many people's lifespan and significantly change the ergonomics of sleep. Given that humans have been getting pregnant for a long time, it is a big miss to not even mention that it hasn't been considered. Academic training tries to impress on most authors that they should mention what they're ignoring and why, not least to set up the citation train for the future and support grant applications.