Who knew?!? If you didn’t, then try not sleeping on your back.
I had a home sleep study done a dozen years ago or so. Diagnosed as mild apnea, got a CPAP, and no longer felt like I had permanent jet lag every afternoon.
Well, this year, since I’ve hit my copay’s early, I did another home sleep study. Turns out on my back, I have an AHI of 10. But on my left side it’s 5 and right side it’s 3, which is in the normal range.
I only slept on my back because of the CPAP. I’ll happily lose the CPAP, and sleep on my side or stomach. Wish I had known this a long time ago.
I use a CPAP full face mask and I sleep on my sides, and sometimes even on my stomach. I have never in my life liked sleeping on my back, although I think I might re-consider it if I had an adjustable bed, so I could raise the head end.
I can fall asleep in my recliner, but I am too tall for my head to rest on the head cushion, so my head falls back and my mouth opens and I snore/snort and wake myself up.
Hehe, I used to sleep on my back some when I was young. When I got older, I’d snore immediately upon falling asleep when I was on my back, which would always wake me up. I flop back and forth between my sides now, and generally sleep through the night unless I do something weird like sleepwalk.
I usually sleep on my side—it’s the most comfortable position for me.
During my military service, I had to adapt during missions when sleeping space was limited—whether on a narrow bench or the floor of a van. Back then, the only viable position seemed to be on my back.
Nowadays, I can sleep both on my side and on my back. However, my wife recently pointed out that I snore when I sleep on my back. At first, I found it hard to believe; I always thought I was one of those people who never snore.
Same as many. I intend to sleep on mu sides/belly. Occasionally I’ll roll over onto my back and, when I do, occasionally I’ll snore. My wife nudges me and says, “Roll over.”
That’s interesting - maybe I didn’t have apnea after all. Some years back (more than a decade for sure) my husband said I would occasionally stop breathing during the night and I snored badly. So I got a wedge pillow and started sleeping on my back, and he said that stopped it. I’m no longer comfortable on my side - in fact, it’s painful.
Never had a sleep study - my insurance wouldn’t cover it and getting on the schedule was insanely difficult.
I just recently learned this myself. I went through a home sleep study back at the end of January which said I had mild apnea. I met with a sleep specialist afterwards, who suggested I try sleeping on my sides instead of my back until I could get a CPAP fitted (I have that scheduled for tomorrow, actually).
The problem is that I am most comfortable sleeping on my back - I can spread out and fully relax. I find it difficult to fall asleep on my side and often I’ll wake up on my back anyway. It’ll be interesting to see what the full in-hospital study results will be. I’m not one bit happy about the prospect of being tethered to a machine every night, but not seeing a way around that at this point.
It’s not always easy to choose not to sleep on your back- I think when I’m asleep I change positions frequently. I remember hearing somewhere of a trick where you twist a golf ball into the back of an old t-shirt and tie or sew it so that it stays. That way you’re pretty much guaranteed not to roll over onto your back in your sleep (not for long, anyway).
Not sleeping on my back doesn’t seem to help me-- according to my wife I snore no matter what position I’m in, so I wear a snore guard that seems to help.
If someone has enough obesity or loss of muscle tone in their throat or whatever, they’re gonna snore and/or have apnea no matter how they try to sleep.
In more marginal cases some postures are snore/apnea-ogenic enough to cause problems while other postures are snore/apnea suppressing enough to prevent problems. That’s where back-sleeping can be trouble.
Finally there are the happy (often much younger) folks where no posture causes problems. Yaay for them, but not much help for the rest of us.
Yes, this is something that the sleep specialist mentioned, though using a tennis ball instead of a golf ball. There are also shirts you can buy that have a pocket in them that you can place a lumpy thing into. I saw no point in making myself wake up even more, so hard pass for me.
My apnea is apparently due to a combination of small airways and getting older (who knew stuff could sag on the inside as much as it does on the outside??) so not sure how much side sleeping would help anyway.
I read about the back-sleeping causing breathing issues not long ago. I sometimes have dreams that I’m being suffocated or choked and have to wake up to breathe, but since I read that I’ve avoided back sleeping and haven’t had any of the dreams. I’m bummed though, because I like to pretend I’m lying in a casket as I fall asleep.
We all do that, right?
I recall reading something that was an excerpt from the biography of the Pope before JP-I, Paul VI.
Who as a boy slept that way to ensure he didn’t unconsciously pleasure himself during the night. If he awoke in a different posture he (mentally?) flagellated himself and prayed harder for greater spiritual purity to keep his wandering hands in place until daybreak.
Guy with hang-ups like that belongs in an asylum, not in charge of a powerful world organization.
