Old people in rural areas often say: 'Don't sleep with your head facing east and your feet facing west.' What does it mean? Does it make sense?

Chinese culture is extensive and profound, has a long history, and contains thousands of things. One of these offshoots is colloquialism. As the saying goes, for thousands of years, after several generations of oral tradition, it has been passed down to this day. As the saying goes, live as the basis and act on life. It involves every aspect of people's daily life. For example, there are some common sayings related to sleep, such as "If you don't sleep overnight, ten nights is not enough", "You don't talk much when you eat, and you don't talk much when you sleep", etc.

Of course, with the development of the times, a small number of common sayings have become useless due to the limitations of the ancients' thinking. For example, old people in rural areas often say that you should not sleep with your head facing east and your feet facing west. What does it mean?

What's the point?

Literally, this sentence means to warn people not to face east and feet west when sleeping, which is the wrong direction.

So, where does this phrase come from? There are three main arguments. One theory is that most of the houses of the ancients faced south, because houses facing south are the best in terms of sunlight, wind direction, and temperature, and they are warm in winter and cool in summer. The ancients believed that people and houses are one. Isn’t there a saying that people are the courage of the house? Therefore, people's sleep should also follow the direction of the house, instead of facing the direction of the house with their heads facing east and feet facing west.

The second argument is that the ancients had many taboos in their daily life. It was a taboo for the ancients to face the head east and the feet west, because the word west is not good. There are idioms such as the sun is fading to the west, one life goes to the west, and the crane goes west. People are unlucky if they sleep with their feet facing west.

The third argument is that the ancients were aware of the existence of the magnetic field very early. For example, as early as in "Lu Shi Chunqiu", it was mentioned that kindness attracts iron, or attracts it. During the Warring States Period, Sinan, the predecessor of the compass, appeared. Therefore, there is also a saying that don't sleep with your head facing east and your feet facing west to adapt to the north-south direction of the geomagnetic field.

The above are the three main sayings of the saying that you should not sleep with your head facing east and your feet facing west. So, has anyone come up with the opposite opinion? This is real. Sun Simiao, a physician in the Tang Dynasty, was revered as the king of medicine by later generations, and he also mentioned the direction of sleep in his "Qian Jin Fang". He said: Mortals lie down, spring and summer face east, autumn and winter face west.

Therefore, Sun Simiao believes that when sleeping, in spring and summer, the head faces east and feet face west, and in autumn and winter, the head faces west and feet faces east.

Summarize:

With the development of the times, people's way of life has undergone great changes, such as the improvement of lighting conditions, the night is like day, and the lights are brightly lit, which breaks the ancient life law of sunrise and sunrise.

Among the many factors that affect sleep today, the direction of sleep can be said to have little effect. Therefore, people are not paying attention to the direction of sleep. And the saying don't sleep with your head facing east and your feet facing west has become no longer useful.

But the core spirit of this sentence is still worthy of people's attention, that is, pay attention to sleep.