As a child, Josh Pattner used to step over his mom, who used to lie in the kitchen whenever her mother-in-law called her.
“My grandmother used to tell her ear,” Mr. Patner, 61, recalled. To cope, his mother “lay on the floor and held the phone away from her head.” Mr. Patner’s father, also a parquet fan, took a 20-minute nap under the family piano every night after work.
So it’s no surprise, perhaps, that Mr. Patner enjoys spending time at his Brooklyn home or even at his friend’s places — partly to stretch and relieve his back (he has scoliosis), but also, he says, because he feels calm.
“If I know you well enough to sit on your couch, I know you well enough to lie on your floor,” he said.
While this is nothing new for Mr. Patner, others are just now catching on: Posts with the hashtag #floortime have garnered millions of views on TikTok.
Lily Bishop, a graduate student in Chicago, made one video she shows herself supine on her beige rug, staring silently at the ceiling, arms outstretched. “I’m human to the core,” read the words emblazoned above the clip. “Did the meeting just end? Floor. Home from the gym? Floor. Do you want to take a nap? Floor.”
“I find it makes me more relaxed and present, and kind of, like, slows down the anxious thoughts,” Ms. Bishop, 27, said when reached by phone.
For her, the feeling is like watching ocean waves wash up on the shore — but without the beach trip.
“You don’t have to have a peaceful, natural environment,” Ms Bishop said. “You just need the floor.”
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While there isn’t a body of research extolling the benefits of lying on the ground, psychologists say that spending time on the floor is unlikely to hurt and may even help us feel grounded.
When you lie on your back, your posture is open and relaxed, which can have a calming effect, said Ellen Hendricksen, a clinical psychologist in Boston.
“Your body and mood want to align,” she said. That’s why it’s hard to feel hopeful and optimistic if you’re lying in your chair with your head hanging down, he added. Or why our shoulders rise or our jaws tighten when we’re anxious.
Lying on the ground can also help us avoid ruminating, explained Alan Fogel, professor emeritus of psychology at the University of Utah and author of Restorative Embodiment and Resilience.
“In our Western culture, we don’t have many spaces for recovery,” Dr. Fogel said. “There are no timeouts. There is no break.”
You might assume that a comfortable mattress would be more conducive to relaxation. “But usually what happens, especially in familiar places like our bed, is that our mind continues to work,” Dr. Fogel said. “We are thinking about what happened during the day. We think about what we could or should have done.”
When you lie on a harder surface like the floor, however, you may be more in tune with what your body feels and less focused on your thoughts.
To get comfortable, it’s essential to sink into the floor and soften your muscles, Dr. Fogel added. Focusing on letting go makes it easier to help the body and mind decompress — to “just be,” she said.
Kara Lennon, 34, an account executive and indoor cycling instructor in Boston, has been a fan of floor time for about a decade.
“It’s like going outside and sitting in the sun” for a few minutes, he said. You feel better, “and then you can go back to whatever you’re doing.”
Humans have been drawn to the ground for centuries. Examples include the yoga pose savasana, which helps people slowly relax each part of the body while lying on their backs. Zen meditation or tea ceremonies often held on the floor. and the radiant floor heating system in Korean homes, which makes the ground even more inviting for sleeping, studying or eating.
Is he lying on the floor for you?
Not everyone will find relief on the floor. Some may have physical challenges, for example, that make it uncomfortable or painful to lower themselves to the ground.
If you can try it and want to take the time, “focus on your breathing, really turn inward,” said Rachel Goldman, a psychologist and clinical assistant professor of psychiatry at NYU’s Grossman School of Medicine. Do you feel more relaxed, more grounded, or more in control? If so, he said, “it’s an additional strategy that you can use when you feel the need.”
Ms. Lennon acknowledged that “it might seem silly,” but in her case, taking a break for a few minutes each day allows her to be more productive while working from home.
“It hits the reset button for a second,” he said.