Sleep posture and human health: is there a link?

Full sleep is the dream of many rep­re­sen­ta­tives of our tur­bu­lent times. A suf­fi­cient night’s rest has a pos­i­tive effect on both the psy­cho­log­i­cal health of a per­son and the phys­i­cal one. Its impor­tance has been con­firmed by count­less stud­ies. Despite the fact that a sys­tem­at­ic lack of sleep can pro­voke the devel­op­ment of a vari­ety of ail­ments, from obe­si­ty to heart dis­ease, only a few care about its qual­i­ty.

In addi­tion to per­son­al unwill­ing­ness to get enough sleep, var­i­ous fac­tors can pro­voke a lack of sleep. For exam­ple, being under stress, a strict diet, an incor­rect­ly select­ed mat­tress, or incor­rect body posi­tion dur­ing sleep. The last fac­tor often unde­served­ly goes unno­ticed, but in vain.

The posi­tion of the sleep­er direct­ly affects the qual­i­ty of rest, and hence his over­all well-being. Choos­ing the wrong posi­tion can play a key role in snor­ing, heart­burn, sleep apnea and even wrin­kles. How do you sleep and what to do about it?

Sleep lying on your back — arms spread apart

The “sol­dier” pose has its pros and cons.

Pros:

This posi­tion is con­sid­ered the most ben­e­fi­cial for spinal health, as the back remains straight dur­ing sleep. It reduces the load on the discs, pre­vent­ing back and neck pain. In addi­tion, the habit of sleep­ing on your back will help to solve the prob­lem of acid reflux. It will also keep the perky shape of the breast and the skin clean from mim­ic wrin­kles.

Minus­es:

Sleep­ing on your back, through the force of grav­i­ty, can cause par­tial occlu­sion of the air­ways by the base of the tongue. This caus­es snor­ing, which not only inter­feres with the sleep of the part­ner, but also reduces the qual­i­ty of sleep of the snor­er him­self.

Solu­tion:

If the pose caus­es dif­fi­cul­ty in breath­ing in the form of snor­ing, you can com­bine it with the posi­tion on the side. Com­bin­ing them will help you sleep bet­ter at night and feel more rest­ed in the morn­ing.

You can also try sleep­ing with­out a pil­low. This posi­tion will help keep your neck in a neu­tral posi­tion. Too high pil­lows, on the con­trary, cre­ate an unnat­ur­al bend, which caus­es dif­fi­cul­ty in breath­ing. But a pil­low under the low­er back, knees or neck (to main­tain the nat­ur­al curve of the body) will not hurt.

Raised arms while sleeping on your back

The advan­tages of the posi­tion “star” can be called:

The pos­ture, as men­tioned above, has a ben­e­fi­cial effect on the health of the spine. It helps reduce acid reflux by pre­vent­ing digest­ed food from return­ing back up the esoph­a­gus. This hap­pens due to the ele­va­tion of the head and upper body dur­ing sleep. Also, the pre­ferred posi­tion of the starfish can affect the improve­ment of facial skin.

Minus­es:

The neg­a­tive side of this pro­vi­sion is the same snor­ing. Also, raised arms can put pres­sure on the nerve end­ings in the shoul­ders, which can pro­voke pain.

Solu­tion:

Avoid using pil­lows. Thus, the pres­sure on these areas of the body will decrease, reliev­ing dis­com­fort after sleep.

Feelings after sleeping on your side with arms extended along the body

The posi­tion called “jour­nal” has its advan­tages:

It sup­ports the cor­rect pos­ture of the spine, while reduc­ing the risk of sleep apnea. Sleep­ing on your side reduces snor­ing and is the best option for preg­nant women.

Minus­es:

The leg lying on top does not receive suf­fi­cient sup­port. This increas­es the chances of devel­op­ing back or hip pain in the future. In addi­tion, this posi­tion can pro­voke pre­ma­ture skin aging (the appear­ance of wrin­kles or sag­ging breasts) due to heav­i­ness and pain in the neck.

Solu­tion:

To pre­vent neck pain, you need to use a small pil­low for the cer­vi­cal spine. Pre­ven­tion of wrin­kles will be a soft, satin pil­low­case that will pro­tect the skin from micro­trau­ma. A pil­low placed between the thighs will help sup­port the upper leg.

Side position with legs slightly bent and arms extended forward

Pros:

The pose pre­vents the appear­ance of pain in the back and neck, reduces snor­ing. This posi­tion is com­fort­able for the brain.

Minus­es:

Sleep­ing on one side restricts blood flow and puts pres­sure on nerve end­ings that cause pain in the arms and shoul­ders. Also choos­ing one side for sleep­ing can cause pre­ma­ture signs of skin aging. For exam­ple, the appear­ance of facial wrin­kles or sag­ging breasts.

Solu­tion:

A pil­low between your knees will help to par­tial­ly improve the feel­ing after sleep.

Fetal position

The posi­tion of the embryo — when a per­son lies on his side with his knees pressed to his chest as much as pos­si­ble and his arms tucked in, sig­nif­i­cant­ly reduces snor­ing. It is also use­ful for women dur­ing preg­nan­cy. Sleep­ing on your left side helps reduce the risk of acid reflux by plac­ing the stom­ach below the lev­el of the esoph­a­gus.

Minus­es:

Although this posi­tion is very com­fort­able, it puts undue stress on the back and neck of the sleep­er. This can bring pain in the sci­at­ic nerve in the long term. Unfor­tu­nate­ly, no one has can­celed wrin­kles and sag­ging of the chest with con­stant lying on its side.

Solu­tion:

The pil­low for this posi­tion should be firm and high enough to sup­port the nat­ur­al posi­tion of the cer­vi­cal region. Sleep­ing on your left side can put extra stress on your liv­er, lungs, and stom­ach. There­fore, it is rec­om­mend­ed to change sides dur­ing the night, curl­ing up to the right.

Pose on the stomach face down

The free fall posi­tion is when a per­son lies face down on their stom­ach with their arms wrapped around a pil­low.

Pros:

Sleep­ing on your stom­ach allows you to open your air­ways as wide as pos­si­ble, there­by reduc­ing snor­ing. Some experts are con­vinced that peo­ple who sleep on their stom­achs are more like­ly to see erot­ic dreams, which increas­es the lev­el of libido after sleep.

Minus­es:

The pos­ture on the stom­ach, unfor­tu­nate­ly, is con­sid­ered the most unfa­vor­able. In this posi­tion, the spine is in an unnat­ur­al posi­tion, which cre­ates an unprece­dent­ed load on the lum­bar region, as well as oth­er mus­cle groups and joints, which leads to pain and numb­ness.

Also, the posi­tion involves turn­ing the head, pro­vok­ing the appear­ance of pain in this area. For obese peo­ple, this pos­ture puts addi­tion­al pres­sure on inter­nal organs such as the lungs. As a result, even after pro­longed sleep, a per­son may feel insuf­fi­cient­ly rest­ed.

Solu­tion:

When going to sleep in this posi­tion, place a pil­low between your stom­ach and the mat­tress, lying slight­ly side­ways. This will pre­vent you from rolling onto your stom­ach, mak­ing sleep more com­fort­able.