I have to be extraordinarily tired (or very drunk/sick to my stomach) to go to sleep on my back.
For as long as I can remember, I’ve slept on my stomach.
It doesn’t do my back (or my face, for that matter) any favors, but if I want to fall asleep quickly and comfortably, I roll onto my tummy. As I get older I find that my hands fall asleep unless they are perpendicular to my body, but even that doesn’t phase me. I love to shove my hands up and under the pillow, with my face on the left-side corner, and fall asleep.
Anybody who’s ever shared a bed with me says that I move around a lot when I’m asleep, but I can’t get rid of the notion that if I didn’t fall sleep on my stomach, my aching lower back wouldn’t wake me up in the mornings. My boyfriend can sleep for ten/twelve hours without any problem; my back wakes me up after 6 or 7.
I just wish I knew why the hell it feels so damn good to curl up on my stomach.
FTR it’s only marginally easier for me to fall asleep on my side. My back would probably appreciate that more, too. But I get insomnia from time to time, so I’m very protective of anything that lets me fall asleep quickly, even if it isn’t the healthiest position.
I basically sleep in the recovery position. One leg straight, the other bent up. Arm on the side of the straight leg is straight down my side and the other arm is up under the pillow with the pillow resting between my shoulder and head. I need quite thin pillows for this to work and tend not to sleep well in hotels when the pillow isn’t right. It’s more on my tummy than the true recovery position.
If I sleep on my back I’m more likely to snore and have bad dreams and/or sleep paralysis.
My best position for falling asleep is to push my pillow to the side and lay on my stomach. My arms then rest in a “ballerina” pose, curved above my head. I think that this changes blood flow to the head, or something… it’s very soporific.
Once I’m actually asleep, though, I move to my side, and sometimes my back.
I used to sleep on my back, but recently it started hurting a lot so I am trying to sleep on my stomach more. Sleeping on my stomach is really awkward cause I gotta twist my neck to put my head on the pillow, and my stomach doesn’t really appreciate being slept on all of a sudden after all these years. Why won’t my back stop hurting
I’m all over the place. I start on my back, but if I don’t nod off in a little bit, I’ll start changing position - to my side, to my stomach. Once, in a really bad bout of insomnia, I ended up sitting, folded over a pillow. At least I got to sleep.
I agree - it’s difficult to sleep comfortably on your front for the same reason it’s difficult to comfortably walk on all fours - our head/neck is configured to face forward when we’re in an upright position, not when we’re prostrated. In fact, if you compare a dog and a human, their eyes are practically on the other side of the head compared to us.
“You might want to protect your abdomen, but then, humans are fairly large, nasty primates that attack and defend with their arms, legs & maybe teeth, and you’d want those available”.
Sleeping on our back to be ready for an improbable quick attack ? Hmm… Levdragon if you sleep on your back I suspect it’s to be in an ideal position to receive breakfast on a tray in bed.
