As we’re now spending more and more time at home, the chances of using our laptop in bed or on our couch are very high. It’s just more comfortable!
But it’s more comfortable for us and not for our laptop, as using it in your bed or couch usually results in overheating.
Today, we’re here to help you with that and teach you how to keep using your laptop in bed without it overheating – as well as tell you why this actually happens. Actually, let’s start with that first!
Why is a laptop overheating in bed?
Most laptops out there have tiny holes on the bottom part – that’s not for looks only, that is for ventilation.
The fans inside your laptop will push out the hot air inside and bring in cooler air to keep the temperatures in check. High temperatures can harm your laptop and reduce its lifespan. In severe situations, there could even be risks of fire.
When using the laptop in bed or on a couch, the bottom part of the laptop is clogged by the soft fabric.
Even if you hold the laptop in your lap, something similar will happen. Probably you’ve felt it already get really warm, even to a point where it is unbearable.
This will most often result in your laptop getting sluggish, slow and unresponsive. So you will have to properly ventilate it in order to get rid of this problem. But how to do that? Well… it’s easier than you might think (without the need for you to actually move to a desk or table!)
How to prevent laptop from overheating in bed or couch
Proper ventilation is what your laptop needs if you want to prevent it from overheating. There are a few different methods you can try out, each of them with its own set of Pros and Cons.
1. Use a Cooling Pad
Cooling pads are the best option when it comes to keeping the laptop’s temperatures low, although they are not specifically made for use in beds or couches.
They work really well because they have anything from one to 5 extra fans that will continuously work to lower the temperatures and are perfect for gaming laptops or for when you’re performing extensive activities.
Depending on the position you have in bed and how you use your laptop, cooling pads could be a godsend or a bit awkward to use.
For example, if you keep your laptop on your lap a lot, a cooling pad might not be a good solution. But if you keep it directly on the bed, it will help a lot. It will also act like a mini laptop stand, offering you a better view of the screen.
You can check out our recommended cooling pad on Amazon (affiliate link) or read more about laptop cooling pads.
2. Use a laptop bed stand
Laptop stands come in various shapes and sizes and are perfect for keeping your laptop cool. They also have a plethora of other benefits, making it a lot easier for you to use your laptop in bed or anywhere else.
The best choice is an adjustable laptop stand. These usually offer various height settings and act like a mini-table for you to put your device on. I’m not proud to say it, but I often used my laptop stand as a breakfast in bed accessory too. Lazy level 1,000!
Jokes aside, laptop stands work well by elevating the laptop from the fabric or any material that clogs their venting system, allowing the fans or other internal cooling systems they might have work as intended.
Laptop stands are more versatile than Cooling Pads and even though they don’t have additional fans for extra cooling, most people won’t need them. They are easier to adjust to work in any bed or couch, making them our favorite method.
You can check out my all time favorite laptop bed stand on Amazon (affiliate link)
3. Elevate your laptop
Elevating your laptop from the fabric is the main thing that you must achieve in order to prevent it from overheating. And with a bit of creativity, you can do it without the need to invest in dedicated gear (although the said dedicated gear is cheap and always better & safer).
For example, you can use a bunch of books to elevate your laptop. For a relatively long period of time, I used a few of my board game boxes to achieve this. So anything goes, as long as you keep the laptop away from the fabric and give it some breathing room.
You can also use a plastic casing (make sure it doesn’t get too hot still!), a tray table or even a wooden cutting board to provide support for your laptop, elevate it and allow it to dissipate heat and ventilate properly.
This method isn’t the most comfortable though and also not the safest, so we still think that any of the two ones recommended above would be a better option.
Trust me, if you haven’t invested in a laptop stand for your bed, it’s time to do so and you’ll be extremely happy! Life changing little thing, I would say!
Final words
Your laptop overheating in bed is a real problem and shouldn’t be ignored. It can do all sorts of bad things, from simply slowing down your device and making it unresponsive, to reducing its life span and making you feel extremely uncomfortable.
While using it on a proper desk would be ideal, we all know that’s not always possible and sometimes we just want to sit in bed and use the laptop there.
Fortunately, you have a few tricks above to help you deal with this problem and prevent your laptop from overheating in bed or on a couch.
I have to repeat – getting a bed stand is the best way to go in our opinion, so consider that before anything else. It will help your laptop stay cool, but also your posture and reduce back pain or other problems that could result from using the laptop in bed.