kengr

I find in most of my flying dreams, there is an upper limit to height. Some, I can levitate a few inches above the ground. Others, I can levitate as high as about 20 or 30 feet, no further. And others, I can get to the ceilings of most buildings but no higher. So there's that to consider. A height limit like that would probably make supersonic flight (or even car-speed flight) impractical and dangerous in most places.

Oh, how do you know when Superman is having a good day? By all the bugs in his teeth. :-D

If people could teach themselves, or be taught, how to sleep while levitating, and not fall down when shocked into wakefulness by loud noises, then there would be a definite market for ceiling beds. Actually, no. I think ceiling beds, if they were basically safety equipment mounted to the ceiling, would be better for those who want to sleep levitating by the ceiling but are afraid of falling.

Another "sleep levitation" idea would be to sleep levitating just a few feet from the ground. Put some cushions underneath, leash yourself with a chest harness so you don't go floating off to somewhere you might get hurt, and you wouldn't need a mattress. But sleep levitation would have to mean you were levitating through some supernatural means, because if you were using your own energy to do it, it would kind of defeat the purpose of sleeping.

My character Lyria, being a powerful Mage (Mage being the generally-accepted Orion term for people who can wield magic), should be able to levitate. I think she can. I just haven't seen her do it yet. She rode Voluponek once, I think because she had to use her power for more important things at the time. But in another story, she levitates over 500 people at the same time! Granted, at the time she was seriously pissed off, and rage is like jet fuel for her, so I doubt she could do it normally. But even Forizano, who didn't know he was capable of wielding magic, can lift people magically. If they can lift others, why not themselves? Hell, Forizano was using levitation magic to toss enemies into the maw of a monster at one point, because it was the only defensive magic he knew at the time.

Ah, so there's another thing to ponder: can they levitate others while they themselves are stationary? If so, that has a lot of complications. Something akin to "keep away" on playgrounds, only with forced levitation of the victim. Assault, kidnapping, theft (if the power can be used on inanimate objects, too), weapon flinging (levitate a bomb past security measures, etc). A lot of things would have to change to adapt to that. Of course, some of those (assault, kidnapping, attempted murder) might be mitigated a little if everyone has flight power. Kinda hard to throw someone over a cliff if they can just fly to safety.