100% Full Recline, Supine Workstations

[Zekromtor]

I fought it, but lately muscles in my sides and back have been easily tweaked after long-duration reclines. The solution that some here have settled on is a full supine workstation, i.e. flat on your back. What works for some won't work for others, so I'd just like to compile some options and individual's experiences with each.

Here's what I've tried, and the problems that have arisen:

1. Thick Memory foam mattress. Seems to work at first, but can cause upper back pain from uneven pressure pushing your shoulders in toward your chest. Could definitely be remedied with strategic thinning/thickening (ie just putting something thin and soft under the mattress, along the spine) but this requires very precise positioning when you lie on it. A water pillow seemed to be the best option for the head, but probably any soft one will do.

2. Waterbed. I'm on one now if you can believe it, staring up at my monitors. I've only given it a few days of trial, and it's got potential. The problem at the moment is a new one: nausea, either from motion sickness or the vinyl smell (which may or may not be unhealthy as well). With some extra lower-back support (currently a rolled towel, going to experiment with lumbar memory foam pillows), the waterbed is otherwise the most comfortable option so far. I use a very thin pillow (waterpillow, with no water in it) and am careful not to get it under the shoulders...otherwise the same problem from the memory foam mattress occurs.

I remember many years ago someone recommending EVA foam here (like the floorpads from harborfreight/costco), which is quite firm. I'm not sure how long he was using his supine station, but I need to clock in 12 hour days and that seems a bit torturous. Others have recommended the overpriced zero gravity recliners from relax-the-back, which get you very close to full supine w/ elevated legs. Wolfv had a supine thing going (and gave the idea of the rolled towel for back support, I think) but I don't remember the material and can't find specifics.

Anybody else going full supine? If so, what's working for you?

[wolfv]

Hi Zekromtor,

Here is a description of my setup.
Maybe it will give you some useful ideas.

I lay flat on my supine workstation (SWS) 12 hours per day.
I used to lay on a Therm-a-rest self-inflating mattress.
That was the most comfortable, but it got an air leak this summer.
I am currently using EVA mats from Harbor Freight Tools, stacked two layers thick.
The EVA is firm-hard but it works for me.

I use a thick rolled-up towel under my lumbar, shaped to conform to the curve of my lumbar.
The lumbar support needs to be aggressive to stop the pain in my leg (sciatica).
The skin on my lumber is always red from pressing on the lumbar support.

I use a thin towel under my upper back and neck.
The towel is rolled up into a cone, which is then squished into the shape of a triangle.
The wide end of the triangle is under my neck, and the pointy end tapers down between my shoulder blades.
No pillow under my head.

The computer monitor is suspended overhead from a steel-tube column.
For SWS egress, I pull my self up on the steel column.
Similar for SWS ingress.

Once in a while I use paper.
Next to my monitor, there is a horizontal steel plate bolted to the steel column.
Magnets hold the inverted paper in place for reading and writing.
A magnetic sewing-machine lamp eliminates the paper.

I sleep on my stomach to give my lumbar skin time to recover.
But turning my head to one side while sleeping was not comfortable.
So I sleep face down like this:
- head hanging over the end of bed
- forehead resting on a box+pillow
- one pillow under each shoulder
- rolled-up towel under my stomach
- a large pillow under my ankles so that my knees are slightly flexed

It took years of experimentation and tinkering to get my pain under control.
Best investment I ever made.

[Zekromtor]

Awesome info, thank you Wolfv!

Damn, I wish sleeping on my stomach was an option, because that feels so good to my back, but I snore so badly it prevents it. I can only sleep on my side, elevated to a high enough degree to prevent the snoring. A procumbent position might work for a desk, though. It's just a question of supporting your upper body weight without impeding the arms or cutting off circulation.

I'll probably be experimenting with some harder supine surfaces first, since I'm not set up for face-down with my current monitor rig. This waterbed option may have been a bit too nuclear, though. I've been here for 15 mins and already feel a bit like puking. Time to drain, possibly to revisit if the outgassing subsides.

[wolfv]

When I lay on my side, I put a folded pillow under my waist to keep the spine aligned.

Going even further off topic...
A Whole-Food Plant-Based (WFPB) is the healthiest diet for humans.
A WFPB diet won't fix your back, but it might prevent it from degenerating any further.
My family and I are WFPB eaters.  Follow the links for more WFPB information.

https://nutritionfacts.org/video/back-in-circulation-sciatica-and-cholesterol/
Dr. Greger explains a major cause of back pain.

Prevalence of stenotic changes in arteries supplying the lumbar spine. A postmortem angiographic study on 140 subjects. 1997
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9389219
Stenotic lumbar/ middle sacral arteries were found, on average, five years earlier than atherosclerosis of the coronary arteries.
Subjects with one or more occluded/narrowed arteries were 8.5 times more likely to have suffered from chronic (that is, three months or longer) low back pain at some time during their life than were those without such findings.

The next 3 links were found by searching the Internet for: WFPB snoring
https://fatmanrants.com/2016/02/27/the-consequences-of-a-plant-based-diet-a-harsh-reality/
https://www.drmcdougall.com/health/education/health-science/stars/stars-written/ron-m/
https://discoveringthewordofwisdom.com/wfpb-story-darin-francom/

More information about the WFPB diet can be found at https://wfpb-wolf.netlify.com

[Zekromtor]

There are some extreme athletes who do similar diets with great success. I, on the other hand am an extreme keyboarder, I have no kids to worry about, and would rather suffer back pain than stop eating meat. Or at least, I'd rather exhaust every other option first, and possibly die trying    A heart attack is the best way to go anyway, from what I've witnessed.

Back on topic:
I'm currently using a highly-inflated air mattress, a bit of lumbar support, medium pillow, and some extra cushion to elevate my legs, and I'm having the best results so far.

[tp4tissue]

WFPB is the ONLY diet for humans.

If you're not WFPB,  you're Human-ing wrong.

[Findecanor]

I think the best combination would be to have a mostly plant-based diet, with lots of fresh vegetables, with the only beef you eat be moderate portions of high-grade wagyu.
Once you have been on that diet for a while, I'd wager that you'd never want to eat regular beef again.

[vvp]

The best diet is a spot diet. Eat whatever you can spot!

[Sintpinty]

I fought it, but lately muscles in my sides and back have been easily tweaked after long-duration reclines. The solution that some here have settled on is a full supine workstation, i.e. flat on your back. What works for some won't work for others, so I'd just like to compile some options and individual's experiences with each.

Here's what I've tried, and the problems that have arisen:

1. Thick Memory foam mattress. Seems to work at first, but can cause upper back pain from uneven pressure pushing your shoulders in toward your chest. Could definitely be remedied with strategic thinning/thickening (ie just putting something thin and soft under the mattress, along the spine) but this requires very precise positioning when you lie on it. A water pillow seemed to be the best option for the head, but probably any soft one will do.

2. Waterbed. I'm on one now if you can believe it, staring up at my monitors. I've only given it a few days of trial, and it's got potential. The problem at the moment is a new one: nausea, either from motion sickness or the vinyl smell (which may or may not be unhealthy as well). With some extra lower-back support (currently a rolled towel, going to experiment with lumbar memory foam pillows), the waterbed is otherwise the most comfortable option so far. I use a very thin pillow (waterpillow, with no water in it) and am careful not to get it under the shoulders...otherwise the same problem from the memory foam mattress occurs.

I remember many years ago someone recommending EVA foam here (like the floorpads from harborfreight/costco), which is quite firm. I'm not sure how long he was using his supine station, but I need to clock in 12 hour days and that seems a bit torturous. Others have recommended the overpriced zero gravity recliners from relax-the-back, which get you very close to full supine w/ elevated legs. Wolfv had a supine thing going (and gave the idea of the rolled towel for back support, I think) but I don't remember the material and can't find specifics.

Anybody else going full supine? If so, what's working for you?

I feel jealous, I don’t have the materials to afford good ergonomics. in fact my ass hurts in any seat I sit in

[Sintpinty]

WFPB is the ONLY diet for humans.

If you're not WFPB,  you're Human-ing wrong.

Bold of you to assume i'm even a person

[Zekromtor]

With a trip to Walmart, you too can enjoy such lavish ergos. The 16 dollar air mattress got destroyed due to overinflating (the only thing that made it comfortable) and now I'm using a pair of stacked fitness mats which are on hard wood. It's probably very similar to the EVA foam that wolfv recommends, but it has less of a chemical stink out of the box. It's surprising how comfortable you can be flat on such a small amount of padding.

[Sintpinty]

I would like a full recline workstation. How would i do this?