What If You Never Left Your Bed?

5 min read

What does ‘lazy’ look like to you? Each year, we get better and better at doing nothing. But this idea definitely takes the cake!

The average person spends roughly one-third of their life in bed. The below average person says, “That’s not enough time.”

We all have those days when getting out of bed seems like a real chore…Ok, maybe that’s everyday.

But, we do it anyway…even if it does take a few hours. Don’t you think it’s time we start saving time?

Do you feel like hitting the snooze button indefinitely? Morning, noon, and night, it’s bedtime, 24/7.

I’m not talking about sleeping forever, I’m talking about never leaving your bed again. In 2014, NASA actually paid someone $18,000 to lie in bed for 70 days. That’s right, a person was paid to literally do nothing… and he hated it.

The experiment was meant to test how future astronauts might be affected by longer space flights; like, for when we eventually go to Mars. But an interesting finding that might surprise you is that staying in bed sucks! It’s also kind of dangerous.

Before committing to a lifetime in bed, you should know that it’s the dirtiest object in your room. Your bed is home to countless dust mites, a variety of bacteria, and 17 different types of fungal spores!

But don’t go rushing out to buy a new mattress, because you’re a big part of the problem. Those 500 million skin cells you shed every day, a large portion of them end up in your bed, along with traces of the makeup or lotions you wear, and crumbs from the late night snacks you eat.

But you’re not the only one enjoying a midnight feast. Whether it’s skin, crumbs, or any other type of particle, the microbes you lie with love the whole menu! If you’re still on board with staying in bed forever, then let me remind you of the simple, unavoidable displeasure of sweating.

Under normal conditions, humans can produce approximately 98 liters (26 gallons) of sweat every year while in bed.
And under abnormal conditions, like spending all your time there, your bedding would soak up nearly 300 liters of sweat per year.

To keep it from soaking up anything else, think about your bathroom options. Are you cool with bedpans, catheters, or going back to diapers?

Of course, cleaning up would definitely require some assistance, but if this is a world in which nobody leaves their bed, then whoever’s making really sophisticated robots with a good bedside manner is about to become very rich.

Think about it. A robot wouldn’t only be there to keep you clean, but to keep you from turning into an amorphous blob of rotting skin and deteriorating bones!

Bedsores, for example, are the result of prolonged pressure on the skin. Left untreated, bedsores can lead to skin, bone and joint infections. In extreme cases, they can even cause skin cancer.

A lifetime in bed would require a lot more activity than just tossing and turning. You’d need to relieve pressure on your skin, and exercise your muscles to retain bone density and muscle mass.

Think of your body like a sexy sports car. You might be worried about scratching the paint, but you’ve got to drive it regularly to prevent carbon buildup and to keep it running at peak performance. If you lie in bed all day without moving your body, your bones and your muscles will eventually degenerate to the point where you’ll no longer be able to use them.

Lack of exercise would also reduce blood flow to your heart, and your lung capacity would decrease because lying on your back would mean there’d be gravity pulling on them to let in more air. So while you’re lying in bed, literally relying on robots to keep you clean, active, and, for lack of a better word, “healthy,” all you’d really be able to do is read, play videogames, watch movies, eat, sleep, think, and talk. Needless to say, you’d probably be pretty depressed.

This doesn’t mean that people who are confined to a bed, or who are largely immobile, aren’t capable of leading rich and fulfilling lives. There are many among us who do. But if you are able, if you are healthy, if you’re happy, and you know it, clap your hands! Shake a leg! Jump, dance, that’s what it’s all about …within reason.