This laptop stand is wonderful for Myalgic Encephalomyelitis patients or anyone else with severe orthostatic problems (eg. POTS); problems being upright or even sitting up for any length of time.
(M.E. is a severe infectious neurological disease which also causes cardiac insufficiency and severe POTS which means that patients are very limited in how active they can be physically, mentally and also with how long they can be upright or even sit.)
If you have severe orthostatic problems, whether you are bedbound or not, being on your computer while lying flat is just vital. Lots of us have no choice and are bedbound 99 to 100% anyway, but even if you aren’t so severely affected, it makes sense to type lying down and save your valuable daily minutes upright for other things that you can’t do lying down. More fun things, hopefully!
Another advantage of the stand is that it is so light. I have quite weak arms and can still lift it, for the few seconds it takes to lift it into place at least, with one hand! Being able to adjust the angle is also very handy, you can get the angles just right to fit your body and what position you want the computer in. It is a very clever design. Setting it up is easy and you just do it once and it hardly ever needs readjusting. It also tucks away neatly under a coffee table I have near my bed, when not in use.
I don’t know what I would do without my Laptop Laidback. I use it almost every day. I’m housebound and 99% bedbound and have been for 8 years. It is so hard. Without the LL, I don’t think it would be possible for me to spend anything like as long on my computer each week as I do. This gift of extra computer time…has changed my life really. It has been such a gift… and this laptop stand is a significant part of that. (Which is why I’m bothering to write such a long review, and why I recommend this product on my website so much. I’m just a big, big fan! It has made such a difference to my life.)
You do need to have some strength in your arms to lift them to type to use the stand… that is the only drawback with it for me (long periods typing hurt/spasm the muscles in my back that lift my arms)…..but unless you can touch type (and I can’t, and am too ill to learn sadly), unfortunately this is a problem that can’t be avoided.
I haven’t seen anything else would let me type lying down this way. I’m so grateful someone decided to make this product (thank you!). For people like me, it is really wonderful, and so vital.
It is slightly off topic but… I wish I could send a LL (along with a free laptop) to lots of my very ill M.E. friends. There is such a big difference between being housebound and very disabled and being housebound and very disabled but able to be on the computer for a small part of each day thanks to a set-up that allows quite comfortable lying down computer time. (Especially when you are too ill to use the phone, as many with M.E. are, including myself.) That small time spent communicating via the net can make a world of difference to your level of isolation etc., and so to your quality of life.
In other words, I highly recommend the Laptop Laidback! Especially to anyone that has to severely limit the time they spend upright due to illness.
Jodi Bassett, author of the M.E. website ‘A Hummingbirds Guide’