There are many benefits of hammock camping, but one British man has taken the idea to the extreme by hammock camping in his own backyard for about 14 years. He says sleeping indoors is “overrated” and suggests humans have become “indoctrinated” to it when they really should be sleeping outdoors.
David Priestley told BBC News that in 2010, he was having chronic back pain and had planned to undergo surgery due to three prolapsed discs. Then, he took a camping trip. On the camping trip, he slept outside in a hammock, and it changed his life.
When the 68 year old came back from the trip, he said his back felt so much better, so he strung up a hammock in his garden and started sleeping out there. It made so much of a difference that Priestley said he cancelled his back surgery.
It’s not just his back that was worse off when sleeping indoors. “Before, I was waking up with my nostrils full of gunk,” he told BBC, claiming indoor rooms have poor air quality.
Priestley also says sleeping outdoors has connected him to nature in a new way. He told BBC that one time he woke up to a badger “searching for worms and slugs under the hammock.”
While sleeping outdoors in a hammock isn’t going to fix everyone’s health problems, and it’s not clear whether it truly has fixed all of Priestley’s, it was a substantial-enough shift to save him from back surgery. And, clearly, he feels better and happier when he’s able to sleep outdoors.
Would you give this a try for more than a night or two?