Asklemmy

43781 readers

932 users here now

A loosely moderated place to ask open-ended questions

Search asklemmy 🔍

If your post meets the following criteria, it's welcome here!

Open-ended question
Not offensive: at this point, we do not have the bandwidth to moderate overtly political discussions. Assume best intent and be excellent to each other.
Not regarding using or support for Lemmy: context, see the list of support communities and tools for finding communities below
Not ad nauseam inducing: please make sure it is a question that would be new to most members
An actual topic of discussion

Looking for support?

Looking for a community?

Lemmyverse: community search
sub.rehab: maps old subreddits to fediverse options, marks official as such
[email protected]: a community for finding communities

~Icon~ ~by~ ~@Double_[email protected]~

founded 5 years ago

MODERATORS

[email protected]

Side of bed debate - Which side is left? (lemmy.world)

submitted 5 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

101 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Which side of the bed is the left side? Is the answer based on the perspective of laying in the bed (person's head at the head end)? Is the answer based on viewing it from the foot of the bed, looking at the head of the bed? Is there an "anatomical position" or special terminology like in boating for this?

For context: My boyfriend and I can't agree on this. We change who gets which side based on the shoulder we'd predominantly sleep on and how it's feeling. This let's us get good cuddles before shoulder pain gets irritated. He comes to bed after me. A while back he asked what side I'm sleeping on. I said "left". Later that night, he comes in and almost lays directly on me because he claims "left" is the other side. Since then we have to describe which side using complicated descriptions.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] [email protected] 17 points 5 months ago (2 children)

The answer is easy, but to get to it, a little bit of a thought experiment is probably helpful. I say, look to how we define our own left and right sides for guidance. When facing forward, our left hand is on the left side of our body, and the right hand is on the right side of the body. Perspective doesn't matter, and there is no ambiguity.

Now we need to extend this to the bed. A bed has a head, just like a person does. So where would its face be? It seems clear to me, unless you are sleeping on a dead mattress, that the face is clearly going to be looking upwards at the ceiling at the head of the bed. So the left side of the bed, if you are standing at the foot of the bed looking at it, would be on your right. Just like the left side of your friend, when you are standing in front of them and looking at them, is on your right.

Now if you just imagine the mattress to be perfectly spherical and in a frictionless environment.......

(Obviously just having fun with this answer, but it's also the right answer)

[–] [email protected] 5 points 5 months ago

It’s easiest if you think of the bed as a person. I call mine “Ed the Bed”

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 months ago

I'll have to counter his argument with this. I think it nullifies the standing at the foot line of thinking.