I think there's quite a bit of variety in people's alertness in reclined / supine postures. Personally I have trouble sleeping unless conditions are really good for it. This sucks, but I think related to this trait is that it takes quite a while for me to feel sleepy as a result of supine / reclined postures.
Thank you! I appreciate your tips. Yes, I move around a lot, I practice acrobatics at least a few times a week :) I think the original injury may have something to do with doing back bends improperly years ago, or snowboarding.
I recently went to one session with a PT to diagnose it, since it's returned again this year. It's probably chronically strained quadratus lumborum or some other muscle involved in spinal extension. Avoiding upright sitting as much as possible definitely helps. I've recently moved closer to things so that I can bicycle to most things instead of driving, and I think that's helped too.
The PT thinks the solution is to train my movement patterns to use more core / glute stabilization rather than dumping the responsibility on the back muscles. There are various exercises to help train those patterns and strengthen then muscles involved.
Very interesting about hands elevated above chest height. I also thoroughly agree about using a variety of postures. I think for a lot of folks supine / reclined might be too relaxing for work. I find it to work decently for an hour or two before feeling lazy
Author of the supine computing post here. I agree thoroughly that variety is best for health overall. In a different post I wrote a section about it: https://mgsloan.com/posts/deskless-ergo-wfh/#variety-is-key . I think it comes up elsewhere, but I should probably emphasize it in every post!
For positioning the laptop, suspending it works pretty decently for laptops that have a large range of motion in the hinges - https://mgsloan.com/posts/suspending-laptops/