Can you help me figure this out?

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I measure 68 inches (5ft8) out of bed first thing in the morning. Since we are taller in the morning what do you think my true 'height' is? Your out of bed height is not your true height.

Then measure yourself from head to toe while laying in bed.

Uhm... why don't you just measure yourself after being awake for 5 hours or more? I've read somewhere that people are 0.5 to 2 inches taller right after waking up in the morning.

2 inches seriously? Maybe extremely tall people over 6ft5 would be 2 inches taller first thing?

*shrugs* I don't know man, only read it somewhere once.

I have a back injury. Before the operation I was 6ft 1in and after the operation I was 6ft dead on. This is despite replacing a disc with a lump of plastic.

Your out of bed height is you true height at that moment. Gravity slowly compresses your skeletal system over the rest of the day. Whatever you measure as your height at any moment is your true height. Just because it changes at a later date and time doesn't make the here and now be different than it actually is.

This could be explained away by posture issues. When I was way more obese than I am now, I had posture problems. Before I got obese I averaged 6ft 4in. Once I was obese I lost 2 inches. Later I found out after seeing someone who specializes in physical therapy that I just wasn't standing as straight as I could have been and had been hunched over enough to lose the 2 inches. I lost the weight and sort of improved my posture and got the 2 inches back.

If you injured your back and it doesn't curve in the same way it used to or you've adapted your posture to the injury and post recovery, this could easily explain the loss in height.

On a side note, you do lose skeletal mass as you get into the elderly age bracket, and you will probably be shorter at that time in life then you are now.

4'11" in bed, 4'10" out of bed.