Lying on a sofa

Does anyone have any advice about how to lie down/recline well?

I lie on the sofa around 10 hours per day, and I’m not sure it’s ideal for me to be lying/propped on my side. However I like to leave my bed for sleep only, due to sleep hygiene. Plus I prefer to spend the day in my kitchen/living room where I can watch tv, get a snack, look out of the window etc.

I’m looking to get a new sofa but before I do, I wondered if there was any good advice out there about “how” I should be reclining. I often get a sore back and shoulders, of course.

I’m in the UK and looking at a referral to Community Physiotherapy for advice.

 

I had a sofa-soft day bed for several years and it did my back in. So I got a daybed from IKEA with a firm and tall night-mattress which works better. The daybed has a headboard, so it's possible both to lie flat and to sit upright with pillows. It's called Blåkullen.

Hope you find something that will work well for you and that you can find some good advice from professionals before you have to make up your mind.

 

I spoke with Occupational Therapy and they said they don’t cover that sort of thing, but try community physio.

I have to say I think daybeds look really uncomfortable and bulky, think I’d prefer a normal bed!

 

In the interim you can get sofa toppers these days - some of which a really padded and comfy (I’ve an H&M one I used a few times ) and if you try out a few types and lengths etc might just add a bit of stuffing to support undulations when on side a bit more?

 

Could it be one for @PhysiosforME ? Thinking these sort of things could a good Facebook page type topic and a sheet with this type of thing useful for OTs too?

 

Good call!
I know a lot of pwME are “sofa-bound” and we should have advice on how to do that well, I’ve been searching all over and I think it’s a real gap.

 

I have this sofa Freya 4 Seater Lounger | DFS
one of the best things i ever bought. Every yr i have to replace the chaise cushion because after i while the foam goes soft at the head end & i detest sitting with my bottom significantly lower than my knees - thats why i find a recliner chair so uncomfortable.
The cushions are foam not fibre which makes a big difference, & the base has springs in it

I often sleep on it when i cant manage the stairs, or when my back is playing up or as its more comfortable than my mattress. I am a side sleeper & sleep on the other section (ie not the chaise). The gap between the cushions is in the perfect place for me when i lie on my side so i get perfect alignment of spine/ribs/hips etc. (i am 5foot 6 inches tall) The upright cushions can be removed to make a very comfortable, wide sleeping/lying space.

I was able to find this by going to the showroom & lying on loads of different ones, but i dont know what i'd do now as i'd not be well enough to go.

We are all very different though, as i think the standard advice for sitting up in bed is a wedge cushion like @Trish describes, but i find them completely torturous, no matter the angle, with support in all the 'wrong' places, preferring to use several 'feels like down' pillows that are squishy so you can shape them as needed. So i dont know that standard advice would be suitable. I think the key thing is to ensure that your low/mid back has sufficient support that it isnt sitting in a 'rounded' position for hours on end.

 

I second your last para re: lots of pillows to stuff in back - I bought a wedge support with a headrest on top and it didn’t work as well for me so returned to the pillows. I do have an oversized more substantial cushion behind these in order ive a base/prop to be able to have one lengthwise and then one in small of back and head ones etc. and use rearranged sofa atm to hold that up.

but when on side it’s a case of using these differently ti create a ‘hole’ for my arm to not get squashed or shoulder put under pressure etc

I also remove the back cushions when sideways to stop it ‘turning my shoulder’ (and leg not being as free) when I’m sitting looking down the length of my straight sofa.

having said this it’s been a while since I’ve been able to spend that long out of bed and in sofa instead for me now (various reasons) so I’m talking a few years back tho hope to return to longer time periods there and agree it’s a nice change

agree it’s very hard getting sofas that are actually comfy in reality having tried when more well and given up - you can get online ones to deliver and can send back but then you feel unable to use them in case of damaging it for those weeks until they get them (and what will you have done with your old one ‘in case’ in mean time)

 

just dropping in a link to a pic of the type I mean: https://www.modalite.net/ie/unisex/mango/coats/cotton-sofa-topper-/6157339/

This isn’t somewhere to buy I’ve used just a pic of the type of topper because when I put it into Google there were loads of thin mattress protector type looking things. There are more of the chunky ones like this as summer approaches because of sun loungers etc I guess?

 

Definitely support your lumbar region.

You can get sofas that have recliner sections nowadays which might be a good hybrid.

 

Can’t do recliners - I have pets, lie on my side, find then uncomfortable, hence seeking a source of assessment or info on how to lie, Ineedto be horizontal more than vertical

 

If you are going to get a bed for the sitting room, @MrMagoo, it's worth looking at the 2' 6" (small single) size used in caravans. The advantage of this is that you can get proper orthopaedic mattresses for them, and the beds aren't too wide to use as sofas if you get a deep back cushion.

My mam had a static van for decades, and one of the bedrooms had a bed this size. I went over to stay one time when I was really unwell (I don't normally need to lie down all day), and I found it comfortable as both a bed and a sofa. I wouldn't choose to sleep full time in something that size, but as a day bed it was great.

 

You’re right to seek a physio’s advice. Hope you get someone good.

My understanding is that it’s best if you can look at the TV/window/whatever you look at most head on, ie not on your side but on your back. And that changing your position is important eg being able to turn onto either side for a rest/change.

@JemPD ‘s sofa with chaise looks brilliant! I’ve always gone the bed route. In the rented house I was in from when I got ill to recently, I literally had a single mattress on the floor in the sitting room. That was a stopgap measure when I kept falling asleep on the teensy loveseat provided, and lasted over a decade, am embarrassed to say, long past the point when I could regularly get down the stairs to even avail of its charms. But it did mean I had good support. When I could spend time with my husband (and there have been many years when that was very limited), we mashed our over 6 foot selves together like sardines on the single mattress on the floor wedged between the loveseat and an armchair to watch a little TV.


I’m now in a house where we’ve made me a living room right beside the bedroom. I lie one way to look at the garden, and then swivel 90 degrees to watch the TV. We struggled with what sofa-like-item to get, particularly as I have to lie rather than sit and am very tall. A sofa with chaise was out because of my height. A corner sofa was another option we tried to make work, but

· it would have needed to be deep enough to allow me to use my laptray (for computer, meals etc)
· it would have meant the TV would have had to go in an odd place
· I just couldn’t imagine that we would find a sofa with a supportive enough base, particularly as I can’t go anywhere to try any out

Eventually, when we couldn’t find any good sofa options, so we bought a big bed, a really good mattress and got a local upholsterer to make headboard-cum-sofa-backs for two sides. I designed them so that they

· curve back (rather than being straight up like many headboards)
· have softer foam on top of the usual foam (I find most headboards kinda rock-hard these days and they hurt my neck)
· look like sofa cushions but are in fact one continuous piece

The bed-sofa actually cost way more than we anticipated, but they did an absolutely brilliant job and it’s really changed my quality of life, and my husband’s, because we’re able to spend more time together, and it takes less out of me. My husband had to check out a few upholsterers before we found one that sounded like they could do it and they were actually really excited about finding solutions to all the little issues.

@Trish ‘s wedge sounds great. I’ve never seen a wedge at the right angle for me, so I just use two pillows – a medium fill one on the bottom and a soft fill one on the top. Recently I’ve been experimenting with big square pillows – they’re 65cm x 65cm and called square/European/continental. You can get them from John Lewis, La Redoute and lots of other places. A square pillow is just right for me now watching TV – we put the TV high up on the wall. Theduvetstore.co.uk had pillows that sounded interesting to me but there was no soft/medium/firm option on the website, and they didn’t stock the square option either, but they ordered everything I wanted in for me. They came with a 3 year guarantee which I value as I have had some pillows that dissolved into teabags.

If your room is big enough for a chaise sofa or a corner sofa, and you can position it and the TV so you can sit/lie on one bit to watch the TV and the other bit to look out the window, that could be brilliant. If the part you end up on most isn't supportive enough, an upholsterer might be able to make a section just for that part. Or a single bed or the small single @Kitty talked about could be great.

Edited to correct the size of square pillows to 65x65cm

 

PS Oh and physios suggested a pillow under my knees (or between when on side) when I had low back issues.

 

Yeah there are other options too that would be much more affordable but just wouldn't have worked in our room/house. You can have a headboard hung on the wall. So you could have a bed with a regular headboard to support your most common position, and then a matching headboard on the wall for whatever other side you'd like to lean against.

We shied away from wall-hung headboards because we had a damp wall - fixed now but just wouldn't risk it. But on an internal wall that doesn't have a sink/toilet on the other side I'd go for it.

 

I really hadn’t thought that I “should” of course be lying flat! Of course no physio will encourage lying on your side. Having a good think about different configurations as well as different furniture options.