If we move and turn side to side a lot of times during sleep, how come we never fall out of bed?

Good question!

I think even when we are asleep, we have some subconscious sense of spatial awareness that allows us to stay on our beds! Probably the same reason why if you fall asleep sitting down, you won’t wake up on your side. I noticed that I don’t actually roll side to side on my bed, I just kind of rotate in place.

It could also be that beds are simply big enough to accommodate movement while sleeping. Try sleeping on, say, a piano bench and report your findings!

Your point is invalid OP, I fell out of my bed all the time when I was a kid. You just learn to stay put after a while. If you’re asking how this feat is maintained I shall direct you to man’s sixth sense: balance. Or you could go with one of the originals senses and just feel the bed.

Children often do fall out of bed when they first start sleeping in a regular bed without rails. After a few tumbles, they seem to learn the boundaries of the bed, and never fall out again.

What is interesting to me is that, as adults, we’re able to sleep in just about any bed (or bed substitute) without falling out. For instance, the first time you take a nap on a new couch, you don’t fall off, right? I once slept in an unfamiliar loft bed with no rails whatsoever on it. I was terrified I’d roll off the edge and drop 6 feet to the floor. Didn’t happen.

Sometime it still happens:

Woman dies after fall from daughter’s dorm bunk at UNC

http://www.wtvm.com/global/story.asp?s=13073518

I alway fall out of bed and I am 16.

”For instance, the first time you take a nap on a new couch, you don’t fall off, right?”

I do. XD And I have a night stand/computer desk and boxes piled next to my bed to keep me from falling out.

I never fall out of bed. The nurses always make sure my restaining straps are nice and tight and they’ve put me in a padded room as an extra precaution just in case.

My son fell out of bed every night until he was about five or so. His grandmother told him he’d stop falling out of bed when he decided he wanted to. Not long after that, he did just that! We train ourselves to do stuff like that. I remember when my children were first born, I’d always, always wake up a few minutes before they started to cry. I must have heard them moving in my sleep, and woke up.

I believe that this is why bunk beds come equipped with side-rails. The fall from a height is just murder.

I fall out of bed all the time. I’m a pretty heavy sleeper unless someone opens my door, then I’m awake instantly for whatever reason, so a lot of the time, I don’t notice I’m out of bed until the morning.
I move a lot some nights (my ex refused to sleep in the same bed as me because of it).

I fall out of my bed. I usually wake up before I completely hit the floor but not always.

I never do because they always strap me down. The shock therapy usually knock me out pretty well anyway.

I think your spacial awareness stays conscience as we age. I used to fall out of bed all the time in my youth. My parents installed railing to prevent this. Sick people sometime loose this awareness, that’s why there are rails on hospital beds. I’ve found them hand for my occasional hospital stay. Hospital floors aren’t carpeted and a fall could be serious, especially if you are in a delicate condition.

I never knew so many adults still fall out of bed! Interesting. Now I feel lucky that I don’t… I think I’d learn to hate my hardwood floors if I was always landing on them.

Good point @augustlan

Some do, some don’t. Usually little children will fall out of bed a few times before they master how to avoid it, and many times older people will fall out of bed due to various aging issues, and some people never get the hang of it.

Wow, I used to fall out of bed all the time. And when I wasn’t falling, I’d dream about falling.
I guess I just started putting mental warnings into my brain about falling or even about over sleeping. they read something like this: “If moving to an unsupported location, WAKE UP”

As a kid I slept like the dead. I woke up in the same position I fell asleep in. Even through my 20’s I was like that. I can only remember one time falling out of bed.