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Original poster

Does anyone else know if they’re lying the ‘wrong’ way round?

83 replies

Roseyposeypie · 16/02/2026 23:09

Okay, so this is going to sound weird but if I’m away from home as soon as I lie down in the bed to go to sleep I can tell if it’s positioned in a different orientation to my bed at home. For example last night I was in an Airbnb and I just knew that if I was at home the bed would be turned 90 degrees in one direction. My husband checked a compass on his phone and I was right. This isn’t a one off, it happens to me everywhere I sleep that isn’t home. It doesn’t stop me sleeping but it feels ‘wrong’. Does anyone else have this or is it just me me?

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Fozzleyplum · 17/02/2026 23:42

In my teens, I rearranged my bedroom, with the bed rotated 90 degrees from its original position. For months afterwards, I woke up every morning lying sideways across the bed, so that I was oriented the same way as the bed had been before I moved it.

It's not happened since I left that house to go to university.

RetiredMan · 17/02/2026 23:02

Googles AI says this is a thing. Experiments have shown some peoples brains respond to shifts in magnetic fields.

Also says our brains have head direction cells that track which way we are facing relative to environment.

Pearlstillsinging · 17/02/2026 22:58

Yes, more so when I was,younger but I still struggle to sleep the first night in an unfamiliar bed and it's partly the orientation.

WonderfulSmith · 17/02/2026 22:54

WonderfulSmith · 17/02/2026 22:52

I remember hearing that ‘east west sleeps best’. My bed now is exactly east west as my house is exactly north south.

I was in a hotel last night and the bed felt like it was the same way. I’m off to google earth to find out.

I was wrong. North south.

WonderfulSmith · 17/02/2026 22:52

I remember hearing that ‘east west sleeps best’. My bed now is exactly east west as my house is exactly north south.

I was in a hotel last night and the bed felt like it was the same way. I’m off to google earth to find out.

Alcoholrecovery · 17/02/2026 22:51

This is extremely interesting! Im not aware that I have this sense but I’m going to have a think about it

auserna · 17/02/2026 22:45

Taytoface · 17/02/2026 07:30

Totally. I have been known to sleep horizontally so I can get to sleep. Never thought about it much before but it must be some kind of internal.compass

How else would you sleep other than horizontally? (Assuming you're in a bed.)

Tryingnottobeamouse · 17/02/2026 08:12

Yes, I definitely have this and have a great sense of direction too. I generally know which way is north and I'm very good at remembering where I've been and how to get back by the feel of the directions. My partner calls it my inner pigeon 🐦 I thought I might get disoriented when on holiday in the southern hemisphere but I didn't, the pigeon worked there too

WelcometomyUnderworld · 17/02/2026 08:09

AgentPidge · 16/02/2026 23:16

Are you a pigeon? They have little magnets above their beaks so they can read the earth's magnetic field and know their direction. Actually I have heard of humans being able to do this.

I once read about a human tribe or civilisation that used East and West instead of left and right. They intrinsically knew, wherever they were and however they were oriented, which way was which from a young age - so I think it’s a skill we have, just one we don’t use and so most people lose it.

JessicaBrassica · 17/02/2026 08:06

My kids always used to sleep east - west regardless of the position of the bed. They outgrew it eventually and are now able to sleep in a bed wherever it is positioned (it's hard to sleep across a single bed when you are 5'8).

ErrolTheDragon · 17/02/2026 07:54

GarlicBound · 17/02/2026 04:13

It wouldn't. N, E, S and W are always the same.

Show quote history

Yes, but the question is whether a person orients say with their head north, or if they do it towards the nearer pole.

Newusernameforthiss · 17/02/2026 07:40

Yes I can tell this, I feel like the sense is getting weaker as I get older though. I also have a good sense of direction, fwiw.

I heard on Radio 4 or somewhere, years ago. That the best orientation for sleep is N-S with your head at the N end, but I don't know if that's true....

CurlewKate · 17/02/2026 07:38

Do you have a good sense of direction? My DP’s like this, and he can also always find his way to anywhere. Me? I don’t-but I am also capable of getting lost in my own small home town, and frequently come out of a shop and turn back the way I came from instead of carrying on the way I want to go……

Ginflinger · 17/02/2026 07:35

I can only tell in relation to my childhood bed and only in the country I was born in. I can't do it here!

Oneandanotheroneistwo · 17/02/2026 07:35

Yes! Or at least I think so... I've never actually checked so could quite easily be wrong 😆

Ineedanewsofa · 17/02/2026 07:34

wheresthesnowgone · 16/02/2026 23:50

No, not the bed orientation.

But my husband and I quite often swap sides when we're in a bed away from home.

We do this too! We are away at the moment and have swapped, DH calls it holiday rules!

DinoLil · 17/02/2026 07:31

Yep, me too!

Taytoface · 17/02/2026 07:30

Totally. I have been known to sleep horizontally so I can get to sleep. Never thought about it much before but it must be some kind of internal.compass

auserna · 17/02/2026 07:11

I have this feeling, but I suspect it isn't geographically accurate and is more to do with the layout of the room.

niknakw12 · 17/02/2026 07:04

Oh I get this, I always thought it was Feng Sui. The bed just feels wrong if I'm not pointing the right way. Glad I'm not alone.

GertrudePerkinsPaperyThing · 17/02/2026 06:57

Very impressive!

I have zero sense of direction. My exh was even worse so we were always getting lost especially on holiday 😂

My brother has a good internal compass like you describe and I think my DS has it too. I remember him knowing the right way even when he was tiny, and I was trying to take us off in the wrong direction …

1reason · 17/02/2026 06:44

I think this is where the saying ' did you get out of bed the wrong side' comes from.

GarlicBound · 17/02/2026 06:43

sleepeasie · 17/02/2026 06:13

Disappointed to report I remain awake after an hour pointing north. And you?

Show quote history

Pointing east. Same. Possibly a bit worse, since it feels odd 😬

Elsvieta · 17/02/2026 06:20

Cows have this. Until Google Earth came along, nobody ever noticed they always lie on a north-south line, or east-west. It's thought whales (more closely related to cows than anything else that still exists) perhaps have an ability to read the magnetic fields of the earth and that's how they navigate.

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