What direction should our head point while sleeping?

[Seetharaman Venkatasamy]

Hi folks, one of the old man in my village recently told me that put your head either east or south! need your input because I keep exactly opposite always! I asked him why? he replied, he was instructed by his parents... any input?

[Bear Bibeault]

And never touch toads. They cause warts.

[Ernest Friedman-Hill]

Years ago I was making up a daybed in our second bedroom for a guest. My new wife stopped me like I was a crazy person. I was putting the head of the bed in the general direction of the door. I don't know why -- it just seemed like that was where the head should go in that particular room. But she informed me that the sleeping person must always, always, have a view of the door. And I learned long ago that whatever my wife says is right, so it must be so. So there's your answer: it depends where the door is!

[Tim Moores]

What kind of a house are you guys running that it's imperative to keep an eye for the door?

[Ernest Friedman-Hill]

Yeah, that was my feeling. It doesn't matter to me. Seems to matter a lot to some people though!

[Maneesh Godbole]

I heard this too, when I was a kid. It has probably something to do with the earth's magnetism. Sorry I can't recall the actual direction in which one should sleep. It's a long time since I was a kid!

[Michael Matola]

According to Joseph Brodsky, the Russian poet (and former US poet laureate), you should (particularly when traveling in Asia) tuck your head into a corner. That it way it makes it harder for someone to chop it off with an axe.

I've had a houseguest insist on sleeping with her head to the north. Luckily, my guest room runs north-south, so this was easy to accommodate.

[Akhilesh Trivedi]

Maneesh Godbole wrote:I heard this too, when I was a kid. It has probably something to do with the earth's magnetism. Sorry I can't recall the actual direction in which one should sleep. It's a long time since I was a kid!

Quite right, Seetha's directions are right on that account. Some call it vastu, some follow it as religious/spiritual practice. There are many many such including count of breaths while turning left and count of breaths turning right before you actually let yourself fall into sleep.

[Bear Bibeault]

[Jesper de Jong]

So, what happens if you don't point your head to the east / south / north / whatever someone thinks it should be?

[Akhilesh Trivedi]

Jesper de Jong wrote:So, what happens if you don't point your head to the east / south / north / whatever someone thinks it should be?

May be 3 grams of food doesn't get digested or it gets digested earlier. LOL

[Muse Ran]

Head to East -

Benefits: Auspicious. Always make sure you put your head in the East direction as much as possible.

Avoid daytime sleep. Let the night food be light and early. Drink milk with honey.

Avoid reading serious or sensual literature straining the nerves. Repeat a few mantras to relax your mind before you sleep.

Head to South -
Benefits: Auspicious. The best position for sleeping is with the top of your head pointing to the south and feet pointing north.

Head to North or West -
Results: Dangerous. Never sleep with the top of your head pointing to the north and feet pointing to the south. Brings terrible dreams and disturbed sleep. You will feel miserable. Irritability, frustration and emotional instability will develop. It sucks your positive vibrations while you sleep. You will lose 50% of your willpower and your soul power will not increase while you sleep. Your physical and mental health will suffer.

[Matthew Brown]

Akhilesh Trivedi wrote:Quite right, Seetha's directions are right on that account. Some call it vastu, some follow it as religious/spiritual
practice. There are many many such including count of breaths while turning left and count of breaths turning right before you actually let yourself fall into sleep.

I used to have a routine before going to sleep - touching a number of objects a certain number of times, for instance. I always put it down to a touch of OCD, myself, but maybe it was a religious observance?

[Jesper de Jong]

Ok, interesting. What are the physical mechanisms that would cause these effects?

[fred rosenberger]

Jesper de Jong wrote:Ok, interesting. What are the physical mechanisms that would cause these effects?

Ok, now you're just being silly...It's MAGIC!!!

[Frank Silbermann]

I would give at least 50-50 odds that the Talmud takes a position on this, though I've never heard of such a thing.

Ernest, as your wife whether there were any cops in her family. I know they always like to take a seat in a room where they can see all doors and nothing is behind them. (Wild Bill Hickok was shot the one time he violated that rule in a saloon.)

[Paul Clapham]

Jesper de Jong wrote:Ok, interesting. What are the physical mechanisms that would cause these effects?

Come on, it's easy to put together something convincing. Coriolis force, magnetic lines of flux, you know the sort of thing.

[Bob Reardon]

Tim Moores wrote:What kind of a house are you guys running that it's imperative to keep an eye for the door?

They are just taking prudent precautions for the Zombie Apocalypse.

[Paul Clapham]

Tim Moores wrote:What kind of a house are you guys running that it's imperative to keep an eye for the door?

I've always slept closer to the door than my wife does. We've only ever had one intruder to worry about, though, that was when my four-year-old daughter came in, leaned over me, and said "Daddy, I think I'm going to throw up".

[Greg Charles]

Hey did you know feng shui means wind and water? Oh, you did already? Well, that's nice for you then. Feng (as phoon) also appears in typhoon (big wind).

Feng shui is full of superstitious claptrap, but its basic tenet about the flow of chi, makes sense to me. The layout of a house, plus its decorations and furnishings can definitely affect my mood, and by extension health.

[Frank Silbermann]

Greg Charles wrote:Hey did you know feng shui means wind and water? Oh, you did already? Well, that's nice for you then. Feng (as phoon) also appears in typhoon (big wind).

Feng shui is full of superstitious claptrap, but its basic tenet about the flow of chi, makes sense to me. The layout of a house, plus its decorations and furnishings can definitely affect my mood, and by extension health.

Superstitious claptrap is respectable for educated people to believe in -- and worthy of respect in general -- as long as it isn't _western_ superstitious claptrap.

[Randall Twede]

Wild Bill Hickok was shot the one time he violated that rule in a saloon.

i know i'm changing the subject(sorry), but there was a movie i saw that implied he wasn't shot at all. or was that billy the kid?

[Frank Silbermann]

Randall Twede wrote:

Wild Bill Hickok was shot the one time he violated that rule in a saloon.

i know i'm changing the subject(sorry), but there was a movie i saw that implied he wasn't shot at all. or was that billy the kid?

It was probably Billy the Kid. Some dispute the claim that Pat Garrat killed him. I've never heard of anyone disputing the account of Wild Bill Hickok's death. In fact, there's a poker hand -- aces and eights -- which is called "the dead man's hand" because that's what Hickok was holding when he was killed.

[Randall Twede]

i do know i feel uncomfortable sitting(in a restaurant for example) with my back to the door.

[Akhilesh Trivedi]

Randall Twede wrote:

Wild Bill Hickok was shot the one time he violated that rule in a saloon.

i know i'm changing the subject(sorry), but there was a movie i saw that implied he wasn't shot at all. or was that billy the kid?

Guess this one,

"When you got to shoot, shoot! Don't talk!"

[Randall Twede]

sounds like something clint eastwood would say

[fred rosenberger]

Greg Charles wrote:Feng shui is full of superstitious claptrap, but its basic tenet about the flow of chi, makes sense to me. The layout of a house, plus its decorations and furnishings can definitely affect my mood, and by extension health.

I've seen shows where they have a Feng Shui expert come in and tell the homeowner how to re-arrange the house. They document it all on film. Then they re-set the house to how it was, and bring in a new expert, who has them do something TOTALLY different. wash, rinse, repeat.

Kind of ruins any chance of be believing in any of it.

[Darryl Burke]

Randall Twede wrote:i do know i feel uncomfortable sitting(in a restaurant for example) with my back to the door.

Me too

[Greg Charles]

fred rosenberger wrote:

Greg Charles wrote:Feng shui is full of superstitious claptrap, but its basic tenet about the flow of chi, makes sense to me. The layout of a house, plus its decorations and furnishings can definitely affect my mood, and by extension health.

I've seen shows where they have a Feng Shui expert come in and tell the homeowner how to re-arrange the house. They document it all on film. Then they re-set the house to how it was, and bring in a new expert, who has them do something TOTALLY different. wash, rinse, repeat.

Kind of ruins any chance of be believing in any of it.

Were you worried about the irony of your previous comment not making it through, so you had to be more explicit?

When I was a teen, I went house hunting with my mom and brother. We viewed one condo that was so packed with furniture that it was almost like a maze just getting across the living room. We left hating the place, then found there was another condo in the same complex that had just came on the market and was empty. It had the same floor plan, but what a difference! Bright and airy and full of energy. My mom still lives there more than a quarter of a century later. Humans are attuned to their natural surroundings in sometimes non-obvious ways. Science doesn't disagree on this point. That feng shui approaches it in a non-scientific way doesn't necessarily make it wrong. Did we hate the first place because our evolutionary instincts told us to be careful of places where beasties could hide, or because the chi was being blocked? Does it really make a difference?

[Arun Giridharan]

[Niks Kumar]

I don't know what you guys are talking but the scientifically we should keep our head either in south or in east and the scientific reason is below mentioned
As We all know that our planet has a magnetic pole stretched from north to south with the positive pole at the north and the negative pole at the south. Now, health scientists tell us that we too have a similar magnetic stretch with the positive pole at the head and the negative one at the feet.. But when we lay our heads in the southern direction, there is mutual attraction and we wake up fit, fresh and free, unless afflicted by some illness.
We also know that our planet revolves itself from west to east, and sun's magnetic field enters earth from east side. This magnetic force enters our head if we lie with head on the east and exits through feet, promoting cool heads and warm feet as per the laws of magnetism and electricity. When the head is laid towards the west, cool feet and hot head -- result -- an unpleasant start for morning.


It is common knowledge that like poles repel and unlike poles attract not only scientific but also in social spheres. When we lay our heads on the north side, the two positive sides repel each other and there is a struggle between the two.

Since the earth has a greater magnetic force, we are always the losers, and rise in the morning with headache or heaviness.

[Niks Kumar]

I don't know what you guys are talking but the scientifically we should keep our head either in south or in east and the scientific reason is below mentioned
As We all know that our planet has a magnetic pole stretched from north to south with the positive pole at the north and the negative pole at the south. Now, health scientists tell us that we too have a similar magnetic stretch with the positive pole at the head and the negative one at the feet..
It is common knowledge that like poles repel and unlike poles attract not only scientific but also in social spheres. When we lay our heads on the north side, the two positive sides repel each other and there is a struggle between the two.
Since the earth has a greater magnetic force, we are always the losers, and rise in the morning with headache or heaviness.
But when we lay our heads in the southern direction, there is mutual attraction and we wake up fit, fresh and free, unless afflicted by some illness.
We also know that our planet revolves itself from west to east, and sun's magnetic field enters earth from east side. This magnetic force enters our head if we lie with head on the east and exits through feet, promoting cool heads and warm feet as per the laws of magnetism and electricity. When the head is laid towards the west, cool feet and hot head -- result -- an unpleasant start for morning.

[Jesper de Jong]

Niks Kumar wrote:I don't know what you guys are talking but the scientifically ... Now, health scientists .... It is common knowledge that like poles repel and unlike poles attract not only scientific ...

I think you forgot to insert the word "pseudo" in front of "science" and "scientists" a few times.

Welcome to the Ranch!

[Bear Bibeault]

Yeah, there's a word for this type of science: poppycock.

[Ernest Friedman-Hill]

Mmmmmm, Poppycock!

[Bear Bibeault]

Yes, when not posing as science, poppyock is good stuff!

[dennis deems]

If there's any scientific reason for orienting the body in sleep, shouldn't the recommended orientation vary depending on your location? I'd heard that the body should be oriented north/south, preferably with the head to the north. I have no idea where I got this, but I don't think it's anything to do with Feng Shui.

[dennis deems]

Frank Silbermann wrote:

Randall Twede wrote:

Wild Bill Hickok was shot the one time he violated that rule in a saloon.

i know i'm changing the subject(sorry), but there was a movie i saw that implied he wasn't shot at all. or was that billy the kid?

It was probably Billy the Kid. Some dispute the claim that Pat Garrat killed him. I've never heard of anyone disputing the account of Wild Bill Hickok's death. In fact, there's a poker hand -- aces and eights -- which is called "the dead man's hand" because that's what Hickok was holding when he was killed.

The movie Young Guns 2 entertains the claim made by "Brushy" Bill Roberts that he was really Billy the Kid, and that his death had been faked.

[Paul Clapham]

Dennis Deems wrote:If there's any scientific reason for orienting the body in sleep, shouldn't the recommended orientation vary depending on your location? I'd heard that the body should be oriented north/south, preferably with the head to the north. I have no idea where I got this, but I don't think it's anything to do with Feng Shui.

Well, if the reason does have anything to do with the magnetic field of the earth, then yes, that's right. You'd have to take magnetic declination into account, i.e. the difference between a line pointing at the magnetic pole and a line pointing at the geographic pole. The Internet tells me that the magnetic declination where I live is 17°, which is not a trivial amount. Whereas if you live in Amsterdam, it's pretty close to zero.

[Frank Silbermann]

I think the most important thing is that you should lie down in a direction that is roughly perpendicular to the radius of the earth.