As a toddler, Josh Patner grew to become accustomed to stepping over his mother, who used to lie down within the kitchen each time her mother-in-law would name.

“My grandmother would discuss her ear off,” Mr. Patner, 61, recalled. To manage, his mom would “lie on the ground and maintain the cellphone away from her head.” Mr. Patner’s father, additionally a fan of the ground, took a 20-minute nap underneath the household’s piano every night time after work.

So it’s unsurprising, maybe, that Mr. Patner enjoys flooring time at his house in Brooklyn and even at his pal’s locations — partially to stretch and soothe his again (he has scoliosis), but in addition, he says, as a result of it feels calming.

“If I do know you properly sufficient to sit down in your sofa, I do know you properly sufficient to lie in your flooring,” he mentioned.

Whereas that is nothing new to Mr. Patner, others are simply now catching on to the apply: Posts with the hashtag #floortime have garnered tens of millions of views on TikTok.

Lily Bishop, a graduate pupil in Chicago, made a video displaying herself susceptible on her beige carpet, silently staring on the ceiling, arms unfold vast. “I’m a flooring individual to my core,” learn the phrases emblazoned over the clip. “Assembly simply ended? Ground. Residence from the gymnasium? Ground. Need to take a nap? Ground.”

“I discover it makes me extra relaxed and current, and type of, like, slows down the anxious ideas,” Ms. Bishop, 27, mentioned when reached by cellphone.

For her, the feeling feels just like watching ocean waves wash ashore — however with out the journey to the seaside.

“You don’t must have a serene, pure setting,” Ms. Bishop mentioned. “You simply want the ground.”

What’s so nice about being on the ground?

Though there isn’t a physique of analysis that extols the advantages of mendacity on the bottom, psychologists say spending time on the ground is unlikely to harm, and may even assist us really feel grounded.

If you lie flat in your again, your posture is open and relaxed, which can have a chilled impact, mentioned Ellen Hendriksen, a medical psychologist in Boston.

“Your physique and temper need to align,” she mentioned. For this reason it’s troublesome to really feel hopeful and optimistic should you’re slumped in your chair, head hanging down, she added. Or why our shoulders shoot up or our jaws clench once we’re anxious.

Mendacity on the bottom may also assist us keep away from ruminating, defined Alan Fogel, a professor emeritus of psychology on the College of Utah and the creator of “Restorative Embodiment and Resilience.”

“In our Western tradition, we don’t have a variety of areas for restoration,” Dr. Fogel mentioned. “There’s no timeouts. There’s no recess.”

Chances are you’ll assume {that a} snug mattress can be extra conducive to leisure. “However usually what occurs, particularly in acquainted locations like our mattress, is our thoughts retains working,” Dr. Fogel mentioned. “We take into consideration what occurred in the course of the day. We take into consideration what we may have finished or ought to have finished.”

When mendacity on a tougher floor like the ground, nevertheless, you might grow to be extra attuned to what your physique is feeling and fewer centered in your ideas.

To get snug, it turns into essential to sink into the ground and soften your muscle tissue, Dr. Fogel added. The concentrate on letting go makes it simpler to assist the physique and thoughts decompress — to “simply be,” he mentioned.

Kara Lennon, 34, an account government and an indoor biking teacher in Boston, has been a fan of flooring time for a couple of decade.

“It’s like going outdoors and sitting within the solar” for a couple of minutes, she mentioned. You’re feeling higher, “after which you will get again to no matter you’re doing.”

Individuals have been gravitating to the bottom for hundreds of years. Examples embrace the yoga pose savasana, which helps individuals slowly loosen up every a part of the physique whereas mendacity on their backs; Zen meditation or tea ceremonies that always happen on the ground; and the radiant flooring heating system in Korean properties, which makes the bottom much more engaging for sleeping, finding out or consuming.

Is mendacity on the ground for you?

Not everybody will discover aid on the ground. Some could have bodily challenges, for example, that make it uncomfortable or painful to decrease themselves to the bottom.

If you’ll be able to strive it and need to give flooring time a go, “focus in your breath, actually flip inward,” mentioned Rachel Goldman, a psychologist and medical assistant professor of psychiatry on the NYU Grossman Faculty of Medication. Do you’re feeling extra relaxed, extra grounded or extra in management? In that case, she mentioned, “it’s one extra technique that you should use once you really feel like you’ll want to.”

Ms. Lennon acknowledged that “it might sound foolish,” however in her case, taking a flooring break for even only a few minutes every day permits her to be extra productive whereas working from house.

“It’s urgent the reset button for a second,” she mentioned.