[This blog post is part of Trek Light Gear’s Sleeping In A Hammock series. If you came here first, you should definitely read the introduction to this series and find out what this is all about and why we’re doing it. Click the link above or right here!]
To help you understand how to find the right hammock to sleep in (and why), I really need to begin by telling you what’s wrong with the hammocks that have led to so many bad hammock experiences over the years. If you live in the United States and had a hammock growing up or even had a neighbor with one in their backyard, chances are it looked a lot like the hammock in the picture to the right. Hammocks like this are not just found in the United States by any means, but I use the example because they have completely dominated the hammock market in the United States since their introduction. Characterized by the wooden spreader bars at each end and a knotted rope design with widely spaced holes much like a cargo net, this type of hammock can be found from backyards to beaches and in countless paintings, photos, movies and Corona commercials. This dominance of both commerce and culture has led them to become the accepted and definitive image of what a classic hammock looks like to most people (again I can only speak to my experience in the US, but I’m guessing the same applies to many countries).
As I mentioned in the introduction to this series, millions of people in Central and South America sleep in hammocks as their bed of choice every single night. Yet outside of those areas and especially in the US, hammocks are generally thought of as a comfortable but momentary respite. Like your favorite recliner, lots of people I’ve spoken with see hammocks as a great place to spend some time after a busy day and maybe even take a brief nap in, but not as something they’d be eager to spend the whole night in. Of course, since I started a business selling hammocks which I actively encourage people to sleep in, I’ve spent a lot of time trying to figure out what the reason is for this disparity. There are certainly cultural and geographic reasons, but I’m here to tell you unfortunate truth: you’ve been hammock brainwashed.
Thanks to the hammock image that has dominated our culture, what most people think of as the basic design of a hammock is actually vastly different from the hammocks that dominate Central and South America and have served as comfortable and healthy beds for 
centuries (the hammock to the left is just one example of such a hammock). In fact, the two defining characteristics that you’re likely most familiar with, the wooden spreader bars and thick rope construction, aren’t even present at all and you’ll see why they’re also the reason that the hammock you know and love is actually the least practical and least comfortable when it comes to spending any more than a short period of time in the hammock. Once you realize how important these differences in design are, it will come as no surprise that there is such a huge disconnect in the way hammocks are perceived by people around the world and that the idea of sleeping in a hammock is generally met with so much skepticism in the United States.
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