There have been multiple accounts created with the sole purpose of posting advertisement posts or replies containing unsolicited advertising.

Accounts which solely post advertisements, or persistently post them may be terminated.

Side of bed debate - Which side is left?

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.

wuphysics87 ,

Where is the head and foot of the bed? Where are the top and the bottom? If the bed were stood up on the foot, is the top the front or the back? These questions may have something to do with the answer or are completely meaningless.

Melatonin ,

Lie in bed on your back. Stick out your left hand. That is the left side of the bed. Stick out your right hand. That is the right side of the bed.

Completely arbitrary.

NauticalNoodle ,

port-side?

JackbyDev ,

Imagine you are driving the bed. If you lean up you’re looking forward. You could call them driver and passenger side based on this. Sort of like port and starboard lol.

fixmycode ,
@fixmycode@feddit.cl avatar

but that would make beds the other way around in some countries

JackbyDev ,

It is left as an exercise for the bed users who are from countries which drive on different side of the roads to determine their own phrasing.

emptiestplace ,

Imagine you are driving the bed

actually quite enjoyable, ty!

Mesophar ,

“Complicated descriptions”? Is there a lamp on one side, or a closet door? Just use that as a frame of reference, I wouldn’t call that a complicated description. Or, if you usually have the same bigs-poon, little-spoon orientation, you can describe which shoulder you’re laying on. But I still think using features of the room is the simplest way. “I’m laying on the closet side.”

Mostly_Harmless_Variant OP ,

Fair point. Complicated descriptions may have an exaggeration, but relative to simply left/right it’s still mildly accurate. I’m not a sensory thinker so pulling from objects other than what I’m referencing seems like adding a few extra cognitive steps. Silly, I’m aware, but that’s my brain.

BaumGeist ,

take a cue from the theater folk: stage left/right is defined by the performers’ perspective. Call it “bed left” and “bed right” to talk about it from the perspective of someone on the bed, and “standing left” or “standing right” to talk about the perspective of someone looking at the bed

Although it’s kinda silly to me that anyone’s default orientation would be from looking at the bed, which is not the position most commonly associated with the thing famous for laying in it.

Mostly_Harmless_Variant OP ,

Nice job renaming stage and audience to bed and standing. I would’ve used their original terms. Our bed is not a stage and we don’t entertain an audience so that would’ve gotten weird/entertaining at some point.

And absolutely agree. I was dumbfounded when he said otherwise. There’s a good few who agree with the logic. Personifying the bed breaks that logic though.

nixcamic ,

But that’s the position you most commonly look at a bed from. And when figuring out where you’re gonna get into the bed.

Like the only time you actually use the information about sides of bed is from the perspective of outside the bed.

BaumGeist ,

that’s another flaw: standing left only conflicts with bed left if you’re standing at the foot. At the head they’re the same. On either side, it’s an arbitrary decision.

Whereas bed left will always be the same side of the bed regardless of its shape, its orientation in the room, or your position in relation to it.

fmstrat ,

Ahhh, it’s chips and fries I see.

Professorozone ,

I have no idea. Like others I usually request the side closest to the bathroom since I go during the night more often than her. I could see it either way.

tiefling ,

Stage left is the only definition that matters here, unless you have good reason to care about audience left owo

Telodzrum ,

House left is the better methodology, you’re going to be talking about sides while looking at the bed more often than while already in it.

Taleya ,

Stand at the base.

Face the head

AdamEatsAss ,

Now the age old question of “where is the base?”

HEXN3T ,
@HEXN3T@lemmy.blahaj.zone avatar

On the bottom, holding up the mattress (optional)

RizzRustbolt ,

No right or left.

Window side or door side.

If this doesn’t apply to your bed, then you have aligned the bed improperly.

RBWells ,

I have a problem with right and left, and this question illustrates it pretty well. I tend to give directions as east, west, north, south. Left and right move around when you do, so can’t really be assigned to stationary items like a bed. Our bed has a northwest side and a southeast side.

corsicanguppy ,

There are whole tribes of people who have no words for left and right but have words for the cardinal directions; and all directions or labeling is based on one’s position and facing in these directions. “put this in your East hand” could be an imperative in the culture.

Having said that, leverage stage direction: Left and Right is Audience Left and Right, whereas Stage Left and Stage Right also exists and is generally the reverse. For instance, I exit Stage Left but to look at it you’d think it was the Right.

RBWells ,

Those do exist, if you exit stage left facing away from the audience it stays put. Which side of your bed do you seat your audience and can we get a ticket to the performance?

Mostly_Harmless_Variant OP ,

Left/right are ambiguous terms.

Your solution would be a great way to practice spatial awareness. Could get exhausting constantly reorienting to where is north, but would benefit us in any post apocalyptic future.

RBWells ,

My dance teachers always gave up and started using directions like “toward the mirror, towards the back wall, toward the door, toward the window” because right or left always a slight pause while I was figuring out which is which, and probably not just me. Once the dance was learned it was fine. Jazzercise teachers have to announce backwards (yell right when they are themselves going left), they wanted me to teach but sure it would break my hold on R/L entirely.

Driving it’s easier, left is the side with oncoming traffic here. But when giving directions I’m not driving and revert to the N,S,E,W - I am not a compass, just lived here a long time, I had a friend who was a compass, you could blindfold her, spin her around a bunch till dizzy and she could still find north, blindfolded.

baronvonj ,
@baronvonj@lemmy.world avatar

We use “my side” and “your side” so it’s always correct from any perspective.

ouRKaoS ,

https://lemmy.today/pictrs/image/d8cbb98c-68e2-4907-b2d6-13d2fcab5397.png

agelord ,

Forget left-right. Use port and starboard.

Tolookah ,

Driver’s side and passengers side?

Stage left and stage right? (Depends on where your curtains are).

agelord ,

People drive in different sides in different parts of the world.

Tolookah ,

Fuck it, topside, underside.

Fermion ,

The majority of people occupying the same bed will have congruent driver/passenger sides. Distant strangers don’t need to know which side you are referring to. Couples from different regions could adopt the local convention.

AdamEatsAss ,

Seems like a flawed system. Why would auto manufactures not force the whole world to do it the same?

JackbyDev ,

I assume OP and their partner drive on the same side of the road as each other though lol

bjoern_tantau ,
@bjoern_tantau@swg-empire.de avatar

Well, so which is the front and which is the back?

MelodiousFunk ,

The front is where the spoiler isn’t.

Race car beds FTW.

JackbyDev ,

I actually love this. Imagine all cars are race car beds and then use driver and passenger side lol.

zero_spelled_with_an_ecks ,

Beds have a head and a foot, so the head is fore and the foot aft.

corsicanguppy ,

Ah. But in a bed race, it’s foot-first, implying a direction of travel that itself dictates head==aft and foot==fore. Totally different from how ironman flies, fwiw.

pelletbucket ,

port and starboard are based on the orientation of the ship, not the outside observer

bjoern_tantau ,
@bjoern_tantau@swg-empire.de avatar

Yes, but without knowing which is fore and which is aft you cannot make that judgement.

pelletbucket ,

fore would definitely be the foot of the bed. that’s where you are looking when you are using the bed properly

AdamEatsAss ,

Define “properly.”

pelletbucket ,

the bed was designed for sleeping. just because you can face any direction while fucking on it doesn’t mean anything, because the same can be said of a ship

Nemo ,

You mean “prow” and “stern”.

MrsDoyle ,

This is the correct answer. It’s how ships avoid running into each other. When whoever is steering the vessel is facing the bow (front, usually the pointy bit), port is their left, starboard their right. Ship’s running lights are red on the port side, green on the left. So if you’re out on the water at night, you can immediately see whether a ship is coming towards you or moving away. The rule for passing an oncoming vessel is “port to port”, thus avoiding confusion and collision.

Sitting up in bed I would consider the headboard the stern, because I have my back to it, and the foot the bow. So the area to starboard is right, and portside is left. Ahoy maties!!!

nudnyekscentryk ,
@nudnyekscentryk@szmer.info avatar

Obviously the perspective of lying on the bed face-up. Though I may be biased because our bed is next to the window (feet side) so you can’t look at it form the foot of the bed – either from the side or behind our heads

  • All
  • Subscribed
  • Moderated
  • Favorites
  • •
  • [email protected]
  • random
  • lifeLocal
  • goranko
  • All magazines
    •