How to Pick the Perfect Hammock Spot

Rest and relaxation come at a premium these days. It can seem as though you’re working more hours and finding more and more reasons to stress out every day, which makes your “me time” all the more important. Without a good stretch of rest, relaxation, meditation, and personal enrichment, well… it makes Jack a dull boy, to say the least. It’s important to create a space for yourself where you can experience that rest and relaxation, and that is why so many turn to hammocks – you can do little but relax in them!

Well, you can also read, browse the web, listen to music, and enjoy a cool drink in a hammock, but your hammock is first and foremost all about chilling out, lying back, and relaxing. Yet choosing the perfect hammock for you (no small task in itself!) is only the start of your quest for relaxation supremacy. Deciding where to hang your hammock can be just as chock full of decision-making as deciding where to plant your garden, where to build your home, or whom to marry! (That escalated quickly…)

  
Keeping Cool 

There are many things you’re going to want to look for when finding a good spot to hang your hammock. The first is natural shade. This is a traditional feature of the hammock, as you often see them hung between two trees, with the branches and leaves providing shade. The shade does a lot for you; it keeps you cool, allowing you to rest in your hammock for extended periods of time, and it keeps the sun off your skin so as to prevent sunburn.

The shade should be natural, however, to ensure that some light filters through the leaves and branches so that you have clear vision; otherwise, you can do naught but nap in your hammock. The shadow of your home, for example, will just serve to keep you in deep shade all the time.

Creature Comforts 

Next, you need the comforts of a good hammock. A portable stand is key; something that is designed and balanced to accommodate the location of your hammock. With a portable stand, you can place your drink there, your book, your computer, or whatever you like. It’s hard to imagine that you’re going to need a table until you do – which is going to be often! Even if you just want to take your phone out and set an alarm, the stand is a great place to set it.

If you can swing it, you should try to make certain your hammock is hung poolside. A pool cools the air around it and provides a restful and relaxing view from your hammock. You just have to be certain that your hammock is made out of a material that can handle the humidity that the pool will kick up into the air.

Averting Disaster 

Finally, you will need sturdy anchors for your hammock. While you can hypothetically hang your hammock just about anywhere, if it is not sufficiently supported and held up, it could fall while you lie in it, potentially doing serious physical harm to you. At the very least, the hammock could be damaged!

Trees are the traditional answer to this problem, but may hammock owners use fence posts, sheds, or even the side of their house as an anchor. None of these are usable without high quality hooks and other hardware, though; modern hammocks require a few extra bits and pieces to ensure that they are completely safe and comfortable.

Making Space For Yourself 

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If you hang your hammock in the incorrect spot or in an incorrect way, you may find yourself wondering what all the fuss over hammocks is about. Lying there in an unstable hammock, the sun in your eyes, always getting a sunburn, feeling hot and sweaty, with nowhere to set your book and drink except to balance them carefully on your stomach… yeah, it’s no wonder you aren’t enjoying your hammock!

Take the right steps to set your hammock up for comfort and relaxation and you will be rewarded with a space of your own, a place you can get away from it all without having to fly to Boca Raton. You deserve it, and thankfully, it isn’t hard to get what you deserve with a hammock!

From the Jungle to the Backyard: A History of Hammocks

Surely the height of leisure and simplicity is the hammock. A seemingly simple piece of cloth strung up between two aboveground points, the hammock has rocked more than one person to a mid-day nap, enjoyed as they are across the world. From Japan to California, everyone from the humblest pauper to the wealthiest entrepreneur enjoys a few hours in their favorite hammock.

The hammock wasn’t always such a relaxing leisure item, however. In fact, your hammock has had quite an adventure, historically speaking; everyone from Christopher Columbus and the Yucatan Indians to the North Vietnamese Army and WWII sailors have used the hammock at one time or another, and it wasn’t always the perfect, comfortable design that it is today!

The First Hammock 

 Europeans learned quite a bit from the Native Americans that they encountered when they came upon the “New World,” including the use and construction of hammocks. Hammocks were initially brought back to Europe by Christopher Columbus after he saw their use among the Taino Indians of the West Indies; among the Taino, the hammock comes from the Arawakan word meaning “fish net,” which rather accurately describes how they looked! These hammocks were made out of the bark of the hamack tree, as well as sisal fibers; in other regions, fronds and other plant fibers were also used in the construction of the hammock.

South America and the West Indies were covered in heavy vegetation, with more than its share of snakes, scorpions, insects, and other unpleasant creatures who caused disease, illness, and injury. The hammock was the Native American solution to this problem; rather than set about trying to combat the ever-resilient jungle’s flora and fauna, they instead set themselves above the dangers of their environment with their hammock, increasing cleanliness and decreasing illness.

Europeans learned to create their own hammocks when Columbus brought the Native American designs back with him from cotton, canvas, and a variety of other materials. They became a leisure item enjoyed by many; the use and comfort of the hammock was immediately obvious to anyone who tried one out!

It should be noted that for hundreds of years in India, specifically in the southern regions, a kind of hammock was built out of the traditional sari worn by women there. This hammock was used for infants to rest and sleep in; children enjoy the feeling of constriction, as it is only later in life that we begin to yearn for freedom. To this day, saris are still hung from the ceiling for babies to be suspended from.

The Age of Sail… and Hammock 

At the start of the 17th century, the British Royal Navy began using canvas hammocks in their ships. The hammock provided a number of benefits over the traditional bunk, from saving space to being easily transportable, but the greatest benefit was in the safety and comfort it provided to sailors. Because the hammock moved with the heave and swell of the ship, the sailor was kept safe and secure in the hammock, rather than being thrown out due to the motion of the ship. Before the introduction of hammocks, many sailors were injured and even killed due to being thrown out of their bed on rough seas.

Of course, at this time, hammocks were made out of canvas, not the netting and plant fibers that Native Americans preferred. This was unfortunate for the sailors of the time, as canvas isn’t exactly known for its breathability. For many years, sailors were made to sweat out their sleeping hours in one of the most uncomfortable hammock designs ever made. Some improvements were made, however; for example, sailors were issued a small mattress for use in the hammock to keep cold air from penetrating the bottom of the hammock in colder climates.

by Column Five Media.
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Modern Hammocks for Modern Times 

Hammocks saw some of their earliest use in the 20th century in the prevention of malaria. Specifically, as workers built the Panama Canal, many of them became ill due to the spread of yellow fever. To combat this, hammocks were issued to the workers; mosquito nets spread perfectly across hammocks, making them the perfect bedding to complement the protection the workers needed.

Hammocks continued to be issued to sailors and soldiers. Throughout World War II, American forces were often issued hammocks, which increased carrying capacity, as opposed to the bunks that some ships were outfitted with. Throughout the Pacific island campaigns, American forces would dig trenches and suspend their hammocks within the trench to avoid machine gun and artillery fire while getting a good night’s sleep.

Later, the hammock returned to the jungle during the Vietnam War, when American forces were in conflict with the North Vietnamese Army. The NVA and Viet Cong would create jungle hammocks out of US parachutes and shroud lines, using them to reduce disease and illness, which many commanders saw as a greater danger than the shrapnel that could result from sleeping above ground.

Today, hammocks have largely moved from being a military affair to becoming a thing of leisure and comfort yet again. You rarely see hammocks constructed strictly of canvas anymore; instead, high quality hammocks are often made of polycotton and polyester materials woven together to make the hammock large, soft, breathable, and strong. The hammock you are resting in is the result of hundreds of years of testing, innovation, and use in every scenario that you can imagine a hammock in – and then some!