The last few weeks I’ve been waking up with more energy, fewer headaches, and been in a naturally better mood… not that I have a track record of illness, but you know… sometimes you just wake up feeling a bit groggy and it can take a while to jump-start your vitality in the morning.

I had a think back to when my sleep (or more accurately my waking up in the morning) improved, and it coincided with rearranging my bedroom.  I’ve changed the position and direction of my bed, amongst other things.  This cast my mind back to something I remember hearing (and laughing at) about 10 years ago, maybe longer.  It was on Coronation Street before Norris got a full time role, when he used to call Derek “Dirk”.  Whilst on a business trip with Derek (Norris was a travelling salesman), the duo stayed in a hotel for a night whilst on the road, and Norris just couldn’t settle until he’d pulled out his compass and rearranged the furniture so that his bed was facing South.

At the time I just laughed, thinking that this was just some fictitious and imaginative writing by the script writers at Coronation Street.  Now with my older (and hopefully wiser) head, and in usual curious form, I decided to do a bit of research on the topic… the internet makes this so convenient, I really couldn’t imagine sitting in a library for hours to research which way my bed should face!

The direction of your bed affects your quality of sleep

According to ancient wisdom, and even scientific research, it is believed that the direction your head points whilst you sleep does actually have an impact on your quality of sleep and your susceptibility to illness, headaches, moods etc.  It’s all to do with the magnetic nature of the earth, the sun, the moon, and our bodies.

How the magnetism thing works

We all know how a compass works – it’s a little magnet that points to Magnetic North, which is pretty much aligned with the North Pole, which is “positive polarity” whilst the South Pole is “negative polarity”.  Scientific research has discovered that we too have our own magnetic effect, with Positive North at our heads, and Negative South at our feet.  Like all magnets, we repel alike poles and attract unalike poles.  Put simply, our heads repel North and attract South, whilst our feet attract North and repel South.

How to get a good night’s sleep and wake up refreshed

In a nutshell, sleep with your head pointing south and your feet north.  This should help you to wake up feeling fitter, fresher, and more energised.  It won’t cure illness and  disease, but it can certainly help with your mood and your natural fitness and vitality.

There’s a whole topic surrounding sleeping with your head to East to promote a good natural temperature exchange, but I’ll get on to that another time!

Try it out

Give it a go.  Work out which way North is.  If you’ve got a compass, great… but most of us won’t have one.  So fire up Google Maps instead, find your house, and work out which way North is in relation to your bedroom.  Try to get close to having your head pointing South.  It doesn’t need to be perfectly aligned, but just make sure you’re “the right way around”… get yourself aimed between SW and SE (ideally more SE if you can) and you should see some benefits tonight!