Reversing polarity

It occurred to me just the other night that for nearly all of my life, I have slept with my head facing north and my feet facing south. From my childhood bedroom in Croft Gardens, Hanwell, in adolescence on Cleveland Road, West Ealing; early adulthood on Ribchester Avenue, Perivale; then in Poland on ulica Gajdy, Pyry through to ul. Trombity in Jeziorki, and even on my działka in Jakubowizna - it has ever been thus. 

I woke up in the middle of the night and the thought suddenly struck me - "What if I put my pillow at the foot of the bed, turned the duvet around by 180 degrees with the buttons at the other end?"

I did so, and fell asleep. Result? More interesting dreams! I repeated this the following night, and indeed last night - and my dream diary suddenly expanded to fill an entire side, rather than the more usual one-third to a half-page of recollections. I rarely recall a first dream (anything before 2am). Now I have captured a couple. So far, so good - I shall continue to monitor this situation.

Is there any science behind this, I wonder? Or anything else? I check online - and come across this fascinating piece from the Times of India:

"It is important to sleep in the right direction. It is usually said that you must avoid sleeping with your head pointing north, at any cost. It is actually true and there are several reasons which back this up. We all know that earth and human body, both have magnetic fields of their own. Magnetic fields on the Earth are concentrated in the North and the South Pole. When you sleep with your head pointing north, your body’s magnetic field interferes with that of earth. This can fluctuate your blood pressure and can even cause heart problems. You heart needs to work harder to overcome this. If you are elderly or already a heart patient, then you might be at a higher risk of getting a hemorrhage or paralytic stroke. In fact, you can check yourself that lie down horizontally, your pulse rate drops.

"Another reason is that our blood contains a lot of iron. When we sleep facing north, the magnetic pull of the direction attracts iron, which gets accumulated in the brain. This is the reason why many people complain of getting a headache when they wake up. [Nothing to do with dehydration, then. - MD] Sleeping with your head pointing north can also disrupt your blood circulation and lead to disturbed sleep. In order to prevent such a scenario, it is better to avoid sleeping with your head pointing north. Sleeping with your head pointing south reverses the negative effects of north direction and thus, protects you from several health problems. It keeps your blood pressure under check and also maintains a steady blood circulation."

No scientific - or indeed spiritual - citations were given; just an unspoken assertion that this is how it is. The Vastu Shastra - and indeed Chinese Feng Shui - are said to be united in denouncing the head-north, feet-south sleeping position in favour of feet-north, head-south. 

Wow. I did not know that. Having stumbled by accident on something that the two most populous civilisations on earth have held to be true for millennia is an eye-opener! [Another interesting piece here.]

And this question: "How many times have you heard that sleeping facing north is harmful?" - honest answer - not once in 64 years. And the Western riposte to the Vastu Shastra or Feng Shui - the scientific method, based on repeatable experimentation testing hypotheses, and put to peer review? Well - "To date, there is no scientific study that has proven the veracity of these theories. Everything we know so far about magnetism, and that is a lot, tells us that the influence of terrestrial magnetism on the body is absolutely nil, because the power of that field is very low, insufficient for us to realise it." [full article here]. Little point in scouring JAMA, The Lancet or Scientific American then.

I have always been blessed with good sleep, so I can't expect any better from sleeping head-south; but as I wrote the other night, sleep opens the portals to magical experiences - unrepeatable dreams that vary wildly in content, memorability and vividness, as well as setting and dramatis personae.

For the purpose of n=1 experimentation, it isn't possible to rotate my bed through 90 degrees to see how east-west or west-east sleeping configurations work out, as the position of the door and radiator in my room preclude arranging the bed that way. However there are two vacant bedrooms left by grown-up children that I could have an experimental sleep in just to check whether indeed sleeping with my head pointing east or west makes any difference.

I will write more on this as new stuff comes to light!

This time last year:
Solar-powered house

This time two years ago:
Jeziorki's ponds are drying up
[Happy to report the water level's much higher today]

This time five years ago:
Jeziorki - second track, second platform

This time six years ago:
Pitshanger Lane wins London's High Street of the Year award

This time eight years ago:
Trouble ahead in Ukraine.

This time 11 years ago:
Jeziorki, dawn, winter

This time 14 years ago:
Tuwim's Lokomotywa in English