The actual sleeping experience for me wasn’t all that uncomfortable or abnormal. I put my mosquito net on the floor mainly because I couldn’t find anywhere to hang it over my bed. So that was the first obstacle. Getting creative with the hanging process. If people are sleeping outside, I can see why they wouldn’t bother figuring out a means to hang their mosquito nets up.
My mosquito net setup
When I lay down on the mosquito net, I felt like the net was a bit on the small side, but to be fair, I also didn’t have a mattress to pin it down with, which I think would have helped spreading it out. Having grown up at the foot of a mountain in Taipei, a mosquito net was also a summer requirement in my house. Even so, the mosquito nets I used were very different. For one, they were in plain white, which I like better, but on the occasions where you kill something on it, it’s forever stained. They felt lighter, less durable, and had different patterns on them. They also felt more tailored to the size of my bed. I think the dimensional differences was the most notable difference since the ones I grew up with were catered to people who sleep on beds, while we used seemed shorter, but wider.
When meeting up with our group, we brainstormed several different ideas:
- What if the wrapper served a purpose other than just being tossed out
- If it could be used to seal holes
- If it could unfold into a mat to sleep on
- What if instead of these current colors, we could make the nets glow in the dark?
- What if the net were modular?
- If two nets could be combined to accomodate more families
- What if there was a better entryway?
- My parent’s nets have to flaps laying over each other for easier entry
- Is there an easier way to hang them up?
- If they could somehow stand on their own