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

[Roseyposeypie]

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?

Yes, I’m also a human compass. DH thinks I’m weird. Very handy if we get lost though. Give me a second to concentrate and I’ll get us back on track.

Oh good question! I always know which way a bed is facing in relation to my own. I’m going to Australia soon so I guess I’ll find out if it flips!

Yes, I have this too... And I worked away from home for years, so it was quite disconcerting so I had to try to tune it out.
Also, I always know where north is, and in a situation where I've been underground (eg on the Tube) and I come out I find it disorienting while my brain figures out the right direction.

Separately, I grew up in the southern hemisphere and worked in random cities at night, and always knew how to get home by the stars. (I could do it in the UK if it wasn't so cloudy)

Yes, I have always been able to tell which way is is north, even in the dark!

This is me too

I have the diametric opposite of what you’re describing. Absolutely zero sense of direction. I’ve never heard of this bed thing before, very interesting!

Me and my mum are like this and so was her mum. I can be fast asleep and suddenly wake up because it’s started snowing too.

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

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.

Interesting article about which direction you sleep and theories: https://www.bethkendall.com/blog/does-it-really-matter-which-direction-you-sleep

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

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

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 …

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.

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

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

Yep, me too!

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

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

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!

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……

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....

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

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).

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.