Sleeping on your back

THE IMPORTANCE OF SLEEPING PROPERLY

We all know it is necessary to sleep and rest the sufficient hours our body needs. Each person, according to their habits and routines, will need a certain number of hours and specific positions so that their body feels relaxed and can rest properly, and so their sleep is not interrupted.

Popular belief says that sleeping on your back is one of the best sleeping positions, but let’s look at the advantages and disadvantages of some positions. Since in all of them we need a couple of details to improve our rest.

SUITABLE POSITIONS TO REST AND SLEEP BETTER

Sleeping on your back

We will start with what people believe is the best position for our health. Sleeping on your back is quite healthy since the body position encourages better breathing than many other positions. Having the nose free and the head slightly elevated promotes better breathing, making sleep more restorative. The muscles are in a more comfortable position, slightly stretched and more relaxed, recovering from the effort and tiredness of the whole day.

But one of the disadvantages when we sleep in this position is that just as in summer we bend our legs when we are lying on our back sunbathing at the beach to be more comfortable, when we sleep in this position we should do the same because otherwise we can damage the lower back, leading to lumbar lordosis.

All the imperfections of this position are very easy to correct and make it the second-best position in which we can rest.

We start with the rest of our head, we must ensure that the head is neither too low nor too high, thus avoiding possible cervical problems. A pillow with medium height would be most appropriate, achieving a position where the chin is parallel to the feet.

On the other hand, to avoid lumbar lordosis we need to have the knees bent, as we said before, we know that actively doing this is very uncomfortable to fall asleep, so the easiest way is to place a cushion or pillow behind the knees, achieving a flexion and relaxing the lumbar area, resulting in a healthier posture for our rest.

Sleeping on your side

Stony Brook University, New York, has published a study pointing out the reasons why sleeping in a lateral position is the best position for our health, especially for the health of our brain.

Around 56% of the population sleeps in a lateral resting position, whether in the fetal position or another, although the fetal position is not highly recommended as it can harm the spine, it is better to use a more stretched lateral position, helping with a pillow between the knees to align the pelvis.

Our brain consumes approximately 20% of our body’s energy, which is considered a fairly high percentage of energy, which also produces waste, but in this case, it does not expel it as other parts of the body do (urine or sweat). The brain eliminates it through cerebrospinal fluid, the liquid in which the brain floats. Sleeping in the lateral position helps this fluid release the waste from our brain, thus preventing neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer’s.

A study showed that people who slept in this position were less likely to wake up during the night, without feeling discomfort in the neck, shoulders, or arms.

If, in addition to sleeping on your side, you rest on your left side, it is even better, since in this area we find the most important organs of the body, putting gravity on their side will facilitate their work. We can improve everything from digestion to circulation, helping the stomach, heart, and even the lymphatic system.

Sleeping on your stomach

From a position that facilitates our body’s rest and quick recovery, we move to the worst position in which we can sleep to recover from our tiredness and that can cause health problems.

Sleeping on your stomach, according to experts, is the worst position to spend 7-8 hours of sleep. In this position, the spine is misaligned, causing back problems, and waking up with pain in this part of the body. The head is forced to be in a too twisted position, which can cause cervicalgia, tendinitis, or muscular or bone problems.

IMPROVING AND TRAINING THE POSTURE IN WHICH YOU SLEEP

When you have the habit of sleeping in a certain position, we know it is difficult to get used to other positions when falling asleep.

A trick that can help you solve this problem is to use many pillows. The pillow trick consists of forming a “mold” with them. To sleep on your back, you can place a pillow on each side of your torso to avoid turning during the night and maintain the posture. If the position you want to sleep in is lateral, you can also follow this trick, placing a couple of pillows behind your back to avoid turning while you sleep.

If even with these tricks you are one of those people who only manage to fall asleep sleeping on their stomach, you can reduce the consequences it entails, and when you go to sleep you can place a thin pillow or cushion under your stomach, helping to slightly correct the neck posture.

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