This one has been on my mind for quite some time- and in fact led to me registering here so that I could ask someone who might know!
What is the healthiest manner to sleep?
I’ve heard it said it’s good for you to sleep on your back, but only if you have a pillow under your legs. I’ve also heard sleeping this way can cause one to snore though too.
I’ve heard it said it’s really bad to sleep on your chest- but not so much so if you don’t use a pillow, because then your kneck doesn’t get as twisted out of shape.
Like most people I prefer to sleep on my side. I’ve heard it’s not so good to sleep on your left side because it puts strain on your heart- something to do with the same reason one feels a numbness in their left arm when they have a heart attack. I’ve also heard it’s good to put a pillow between your legs, but only if they’re straight- if you’re curled up it’s bad for you?
I know things like diet and physical activity have an effect on the quality of sleep, but my concern is in posture for the same reasons one would be concerned about posture while sitting at a desk job all day long (which is actually pretty specific if you want to do it right, it seems). Is there any particular methods of sleeping posture that are considered better than others?
I don’t think there is any best position.
People sleep in all kinds of postures, and wake up fine in the morning.
Any sleep posture that people take changes a lot during the night. People toss and turn, without ever knowing it at all, and wake up fine in the morning. There have been studies that photographed sleeping positions thru the night; a huge amount of changes, all unknown to the sleeper.
And people can change their normal sleep posture as needed – when I was in the hospital in traction, I had to sleep flat on my back with one leg and one arm up in the air. That was not at all my normal sleep posture, but I soon learned to sleep like that.
I sleep best in a lazy-boy chair. It keeps you from changing positions. At least, I’ve never woken up in a different position than the one I fell asleep in, and I’ve been sleeping in it for several months now.
I sleep on my right side - if I try any other position I just lie awake until I eventually give up and revert to my usual posture. Some other position may be “healthier” in theory, but on the other hand going without sleep is pretty unhealthy as well.
I have always changed positions quite a bit in my sleep, but as I get older (62) my options are decreasing. When I was a kid I always slept on my stomach, but when I was in my 20s I developed lower back spasms, and that’s the worst position for that. For the same reason, I can sleep on my back only if my legs are crossed at the ankles. More recently I’ve developed pain in my left shoulder, so cannot sleep on my left side for more than a few minutes. So I still toss and turn, but am favoring the right side.
I sleep on either side.
I’ve never heard anything bad about sleeping on the left side, but there is one advantage to it. Your esophagus enters the stomach on the right side. If you have heartburn, sleeping on the right side can make it worse because a bit of the stomach contents can more easily leak out just through gravity or slight gas pressure. Sleeping on your left side avoids this.