# sleep positions
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sleep-positions/96934
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [December 5, 2001, 12:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sleep-positions/96934 "2001-12-05T00:45:46Z")
**Posts on this page:** 15
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@dmurray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dmurray)
#### Post date: [December 5, 2001, 12:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sleep-positions/96934/1 "2001-12-05T00:45:46Z")
I seem to remember hearing a long time ago that much could be told about a person by the position in which they sleep. Any info about this?
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### Author:  [@Reeder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reeder)
#### Post date: [December 5, 2001, 2:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sleep-positions/96934/2 "2001-12-05T02:00:18Z")
Well…seeing as you change positions a gazillion times a night. Probably not.
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### Author:  [@mangeorge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mangeorge)
#### Post date: [December 5, 2001, 2:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sleep-positions/96934/3 "2001-12-05T02:08:44Z")
I remember something about this too, **dmurray**.
My ex-wife once told me that because I slept on my back, I thought of myself as “Hot Shit”. 🙂 She read about the theory in some magazine.
Do a little search.
Most people sleep predominantly on their back, side, or stomach but move around a ‘gazillion’ times.
Peace,
mangeorge
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### Author:  [@Reeder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reeder)
#### Post date: [December 5, 2001, 2:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sleep-positions/96934/4 "2001-12-05T02:11:12Z")
It’s not often you get to use the word gazillion ya know. You have to strike while the iron is hot!
🙂
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### Author:  [@mangeorge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mangeorge)
#### Post date: [December 5, 2001, 2:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sleep-positions/96934/5 "2001-12-05T02:16:19Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Reeder \*
> \*\*It’s not often you get to use the word gazillion ya know. You have to strike while the iron is hot!
>
> 🙂 \*\*
I’ve told you a gazillion times, **Reeder** , not to exaggerate. 😉
Peace,
mangeorge
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### Author:  [@CWR](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CWR)
#### Post date: [December 5, 2001, 2:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sleep-positions/96934/6 "2001-12-05T02:19:45Z")
Personally, I recall an article maybe a decade ago in Newsweek (I think) about sleep positions. All I remember is that if you sleep with your arms and legs splayed out in all directions, you’re outgoing, while if you sleep huddled in a ball, you’re introverted.
Apparently this doesn’t account for whether or not you live in an igloo.
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### Author:  [@pincushion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pincushion)
#### Post date: [December 5, 2001, 8:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sleep-positions/96934/7 "2001-12-05T08:20:16Z")
I heard somewhere if you sleep on your stomach with “arms and legs splayed out” (as **CWR** put it), it means you’re a possessive type.
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### Author:  [@odd-socks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/odd-socks)
#### Post date: [December 5, 2001, 11:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sleep-positions/96934/8 "2001-12-05T11:55:37Z")
Not exactly what you were after, but the following site has some very interesting links and resources pertaining to sleep. I would imagine one of their links will throw up info about your question.
[http://www.sleepnet.com/](http://www.sleepnet.com/)
plus an online test.
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### Author:  [@NutMagnet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NutMagnet)
#### Post date: [December 5, 2001, 12:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sleep-positions/96934/9 "2001-12-05T12:35:28Z")
I have a book which was given to me in the early '80s called “Sleep Positions”. (Can’t remember the author). It theorizes that each person has a dominant sleep position and that each reveals the psychology of the individual.
I haven’t looked at it in years, but I remember taking most of it with a grain of salt.
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### Author:  [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)
#### Post date: [December 5, 2001, 1:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sleep-positions/96934/10 "2001-12-05T13:43:34Z")
I’m very wary of these magazine personality analysers:
“If your front door is red, then you are powerful and dynamic”
“If it’s blue, then you are thoughtful and caring”
“if it’s green then you are resourceful and creative”
I’m skeptical because there never seems to be one that says “if it’s X then you are a complete jerk and deserve to die horribly”. In other words, the analyses are rendered plausible because they are all compliments.
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### Author:  [@Lao\_Tzu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lao_Tzu)
#### Post date: [December 6, 2001, 8:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sleep-positions/96934/11 "2001-12-06T08:07:21Z")
Here it is, _Lao Tzu’s Official Guide to Sleeping Positions_:
Sleeps on stomach – avoids responsibility
Sleeps on back – **Mangeogre** ’s ex was right - hot shit
Tight fetal position – you know this one… regressive.
Occasional shifting from left to right side – balanced individual.
Restless shifting from left to right – struggles to keep balance in life.
Sleeps in nude – easygoing and open. Or… lives in Phoenix. 🙂
Trouble falling asleep – trouble letting go
Falls asleep in different places around the house – vagabond
Wakes at dawn like clockwork, without an alarm – methodical, responsible.
Hits snooze button from 7 until 11am – procrastinator; probably unemployed.
…
“Sometimes the first duty of intelligent men is the restatement of the obvious” – George Orwell
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### Author:  [@odd-socks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/odd-socks)
#### Post date: [December 6, 2001, 12:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sleep-positions/96934/12 "2001-12-06T12:49:34Z")
“Falls asleep in different places around the house – vagabond”
heh 😃
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### Author:  [@Cartooniverse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cartooniverse)
#### Post date: [December 6, 2001, 1:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sleep-positions/96934/13 "2001-12-06T13:10:48Z")
I fall asleep in an almost straight bodied position on my right side. I’m incapable of falling asleep on my left side. I sometimes fall asleep on my back but only during the afternoons, never at night.
It’s not quite a fetal position, it’s almost straight. I have to have a coverlet of some kind over my left shoulder, grasped in both hands.
I also sleep about 450,000 light years away from the Wifestrocity, who is on the other side of the king sized bed. ☹
Cartooniverse.
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### Author:  [@smiling\_bandit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smiling_bandit)
#### Post date: [December 6, 2001, 1:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sleep-positions/96934/14 "2001-12-06T13:10:55Z")
Of course, add in the fact thnat it doesn’t account for temperature, etc. then all of this becomes just so much tarot card nonsense.
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### Author:  [@mangeorge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mangeorge)
#### Post date: [December 7, 2001, 12:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sleep-positions/96934/15 "2001-12-07T00:10:26Z")
**Lao Tzu** tells us;
> [@](#):
>
> Wakes at dawn like clockwork, without an alarm – methodical, responsible.
Hah! Sound’s more like some kind of sicko to me. 🙂
Peace,
mangeorge