Minimalist sleeping on a futon on the floor

We love, love LOVE sleeping on a futon on the floor.

Reader Concojones asked me if sleeping on a futon was better, and commented that it might be a good idea to talk about it it as other aspiring minimalists might be interested in the information.

I was actually drafting a post a while back on futon sleeping but never got around to it, but here we are!

(Then Meg poked me on Twitter to ask when the post was coming up)

Finally.

So. Futons.

I know it sounds totally backwards and kind of rural to some of you to even consider sleeping on the floor, and it may sound like we’re living like college students, but this has now become a way of life for us and a whole philosophy of greener, portable living.

When you think of a futon you’re probably picturing those uncomfortable, lumpy student futons that convert from a couch into a bed. (Pictured on the left)

We owned one of those, but the conversion of the futon back into a couch, back into a bed was really annoying and hard on our backs.

What we sleep on is a Japanese futon and this is what a brand new futon looks like. Fluffy, soft, kind of dense and heavy (I won’t lie, it’s heavy, but not as heavy as a mattress).

Why is it healthy?

Well, it’s healthy because it’s actually better for BF’s back, if nothing else.

BF has done extensive research in this area (his back has been a chronic issue for him his entire life) and has found that sleeping on TOO soft beds was a problem for him.

Sleeping on a super soft bed might be comfortable, but your spine will inevitably bend slightly if you sleep on your back, due to the softness.

So he needs something a bit more firm, but not so hard that’s painful (that’s a bad thing too).

And since I like to sleep on my side a lot, I have a body pillow to put between my legs and to hug, so that my spine stays aligned.

I’ve slept in soft beds after being on the floor, and it hurts, in the morning, because my spine is so cramped from the pain.

Don’t get me wrong, a super hard mattress, bench or bed or a floor, vs. a very soft mattress is the same difference — it’s bad for your back.

The mattress should be firm enough to support your body’s weight and soft enough to make you feel comfortable.

This should most likely lead to a correct position of the spine during the sleep.

The spine must be in a correct position or the muscles will stay contracted during the night to compensate the lack of support. And when you’ll wake-up you’ll feel them hurting.

Also the spine will not be in the right position even with the muscles contracted, and this will lead in time to real back problems.

Source: Google Answers (a great long and detailed answer if you want to learn more about getting a proper night’s worth of sleep with a comfortable mattress, not too hard and not too soft.)

So don’t think that the harder the bed, the better.

I’m not telling you that.

I’m telling you that the futon we sleep on is thick enough to be soft and comfortable, while being hard enough (the floor is beneath us), to be comfortable for our spine to stay properly aligned.

(See the thickness?)

I also find that I am sitting up straighter and my posture has improved, because it hurts to slouch.

Sleeping on a futon on the floor can take some getting used to. I didn’t find it very difficult to adjust, because my grandmother had a similar sort of style (except it was just a wooden plank).. so it just took a day or so with some slight aching.

Other people find it takes about a week to adjust, and then it becomes amazing to sleep on.

You will want to get a futon with some density in there with the cotton and to not have it full of air (ouch!), and the one pictured just to the left of these words, above, are the right thickness for a futon and ours is half that right now.

But we’re planning on moving shortly, so two futons is kind of silly to lug across a continent.

It’s also safe. I never worry about falling off the bed. Don’t laugh, I’ve fallen off a couple of times on a high bed, and on the floor? No problem. My leg goes off the bed onto the floor and FB don’t care.

Even if I jostle BF out of bed by hogging it, he ends up half on the floor instead of literally falling off onto the floor.

Why is it Green?

Well this may be stretching it, but we don’t buy bed frames, headboards, springs, mattresses or dust ruffles.

There’s no need!

So, the less we buy, the better.

The rule is to always REDUCE FIRST, Reuse second and Recycle as a last resort.

It also isn’t made out of plastic or man-made materials. Everything in our futon is 100% unbleached cotton. The inside is cotton, the thread is cotton, the outside is cotton.

Why is it Minimalist?

For the same reasons as why it’s green — no extra accessories! We just need a floor and a futon, and we’re good to go.

It’s also really simple to travel with one. The first futon pictured above is our traveling futon. I know. Crazy.

But we can’t sleep in normal beds any longer, and that traveling futon literally rolls up and fits into a single piece of checked luggage.

And we don’t care if it gets thrown around or bumped, because it’s just fabric.

With the futon, it’s practical for us (we always have a clean bed to sleep in, anywhere we go) and it’s really portable.

If we really wanted to be minimalists, we’d roll up the futon each morning (like the Japanese) and re-purpose that room as an office and living area during the day, and unfurl the futon at night. But we have more than enough space, so no need for that.

Also, we have a spare futon that guests can use. So any space in the apartment can be transformed into a spare bedroom at any time.

It’s just perfect for small spaces.

What about cleaning it, or dust mites..?

You can certainly air it out once or twice a year, and beat it hard with a wooden paddle (the old way people used to air out mattresses).

But we don’t have a balcony, so it’s not an option.

What we do however, is vacuum it which helps the air circulate through it (sort of).

When I do the sheets once a month, I grab my little Dyson and I go over each square inch of the futon slowly, vacuuming out the mites and anything that may have embedded itself in there.

To help air it out, I also flip the futon around once every 3 months and rotate all four corners (like tires) so that the wear and gradual compression of the cotton inside is more even.

But these futons can last for a good 10 – 20 years without ever having to be replaced, if you take proper care of it.

As for dust mites, if you get a kake futon made out of mulberry silk, it won’t be an issue as dust mites are unable to live in it.

Interesting fact: After 10 years, if you were to weigh your mattress, you would find that your mattress would be I think something like 10 or 20 pounds heavier just from all the dead dust mites filling up.

Dust mites can’t be seen but there are millions of them in every unprepared home that cause year-round allergies and asthma.

They live in your mattresses, pillows, carpets, furniture, bedding, clothing and anywhere else they can feed on dead flakes of human skin. It’s almost impossible to completely eliminate these tiny pests. However you can greatly reduce them by following our dust mite solution guide’s recommendations below. One free solution is to wash your sheets and other bedding once a week in hot water.

GROSS HUH? But it doesn’t really bother me because they don’t bite me like mosquitos, they just eat my dead skin flakes, which is cool by me.

What are my options for Japanese futons?

Shiki futons: Filled with cotton and no foam, wool or inner springs, usually covered in cotton as well.

Kake futons: Filled with hand-pulled mulberry silk. Silk helps maintain an even temperature and wicks moisture better than cotton, down or polyester. Silk is also hypo-allergenic and inhospitable to dust mites and is mildew resistant.

3-Fold futons: Made from medium/high density foam (sometimes filled with clay), and is meant to be easy to fold and carry, but I don’t like the feel of these futons.

We own a shiki futon right now, but I’d like to move to a silk filled futon for the future, because it’ll make cleaning easier.

Sure, we’ll have to dry clean the silk covers, but I think we’d do it only once a year and try to find a green dry cleaner in the area.

Another option for a “bed board” of sorts, is what we’re thinking of buying: tatami mats. They’re usually made out of rice straw, and they actually smell really good. Plus, it helps keep the futon off the floor and to decelerate the compression of the mattress.

There’s not much else I can talk about a futon. I’ve laid out the reasons why it’s healthier, greener and more minimalist for our lifestyle, and how it’s shaped our philosophy on living… but if it’s just not your cup of tea, it’s not your cup of tea.

It’s really not for everyone.

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Want to win this prize pack with a book, box of chocolates, 2 white bathrobes and some intense gel?

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