bed on the floor
Julie Hambleton
Julie Hambleton
December 5, 2023 ·  3 min read

Why Do So Many Adult Men Keep Their Mattresses On The Floor

Have you ever been to a full-grown man’s house and found out that he doesn’t have a bed frame? It turns out, there are more adult men sleeping on mattresses on the floor than we thought. VICE reporter Maria Yagoda investigated to hopefully learn the reasons as to why. (1)

Why So Many Grown Men Sleep On Mattresses On The Floor

Yagoda says throughout her time dating and befriending men in New York City; she began to notice that a shockingly large number of these men slept on mattresses on the floor. These men, she says, were not poor. They had good jobs and had no problems affording some of life’s other luxuries, yet they chose to sleep in such a state. (1)

She spoke with several men from various socio-economic backgrounds to get to the bottom of this phenomenon. One 30-year-old man said that he had a boxspring, but he thought perhaps he’d be fine without it when it broke. At the time, he had a long-term girlfriend. Though she never actually complained, he knew she didn’t like the new sleeping arrangements. They eventually broke up, and he thinks perhaps the mattress on the floor had something to do with it. (1)

“The mattress on the floor probably operates as a metaphor,” he said. (1)

Another man had the same problem. His box spring broke, and rather than replace it, he just slept on his mattress on the floor.

 “[My reasoning] was money, in part, for a second. I freelance, and it comes and goes sometimes. But I also think there was a part of me that thought I didn’t need to give a sh*t about marginal comforts.” (1)

Various Men Had The Same Reasons

She spoke with many men who said they slept this way until their partners forced them to make a change. Many claimed they preferred it. Some said it was more comfortable; others said that they preferred it because bed frames tend to squeak when having sex. (1)

One man said it was good for weeding out potential girlfriends who were only interested in money.

“Having little bits of poverty around is great for sniffing out them shallow b*****es,” he said. (1)

Though there were definitely some men who actively chose to sleep without a bed frame, Yagoda says that more typically it was something that just happened to them that they didn’t bother to fix. Some may call it laziness, others say that boys just aren’t taught to take care of themselves and their spaces as much as girls are. (1)

“Look, I don’t have hands on the demography,” said one man. “But I think that society encourages women to take care of themselves in a way it doesn’t really for men.” (1)

According to the men and women polled, the general consensus is that men care less about making a space feel homey and are more concerned that it is functional. This is why so many men live without things women consider to be basic comforts, like air conditioning, bed frames, or folding chairs instead of just getting a couch.

Men, Whatever Your Reasons, Get Your Mattress Off The Floor

I can’t speak for everyone; however, I can speak on behalf of all of the women I know who’ve encountered this phenomenon: Men, if you are grown with a job, do yourself a favor and buy a bed frame. Even just a cheap, $25 one will not only make sleeping better for you (especially as you get older), but it will impress every partner you bring home. Or at the very least, it won’t un-impress them.

Grownups have bed frames. You can purchase a bed frame for less than the cost of a month’s worth of weekends at the bar (or, for some of you, just one weekend). Pack a lunch from home for a month instead of eating out or save up a couple of months of coffees by just drinking the free office coffee. Whatever you need to do, buy one and be done with it. After all, you can’t beat the cost peruse.

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  1. Why Do So Many Adult Men Keep Their Mattresses On The Floor?VICE. Maria Yagoda. 2019.