There are four basic sleep positions for people: on your side, on your stomach, on your back, and in the fetal position. Two of these positions, namely the stomach and fetal positions, are bad for your health. Sleeping on your back is better, while sleeping on your side is best. If you’re a stomach-sleeper or content to curl up, you may believe this has no effect on you. However, as you look over the symptoms of inopportune sleep position, you’ll come to see why sleep position is important to your everyday health. You may recognize conditions in your waking hours that you hadn’t thought to attribute to your sleep patterns.
Reduce Snoring and Sleep Apnea
You don’t have to snore as you sleep. Sleeping in a supine position, while superior to sleeping on your stomach or curled up, can increase snoring by allowing tissue to vibrate as you breathe. A poor sleep position may even be the culprit in obstructive sleep apnea, a condition in which interrupted breathing causes loud snoring and daytime fatigue. Stay on your side, not your back, to alleviate snoring and its associated conditions.
Less Back Pain
Discomfort in your back can be as puzzling as it is painful. If you haven’t been doing any heavy lifting, why should your back hurt so much? The seven or eight hours a day you spend sleeping probably don’t come to mind, but in the wrong sleep position, those hours add up. Sleeping on your stomach or curled up puts terrific strain on your back muscles and spine as you sleep, which can leave you with back pain to treat when you’re awake. By retraining yourself to sleep on your side or on your back, you can begin to alleviate the pain you feel in your waking hours—though you can’t expect the pain to subside immediately.
Reduce Acid Reflux
Just as a less-than-ideal sleep position puts your back in an awkward spot, it does the same for your esophagus and GI tract. Poor sleep positions cause stomach acid to work its way back up to your esophagus, where it can do long-term damage to tissue that isn’t protected from the harmful effects of that acid. By sleeping on your side—your left side in particular—you can keep stomach acid where it belongs as you sleep and start the morning without esophageal discomfort.
Sleep Through the Night
It’s not your Zs you need to catch, it’s the letters “REM” you’re really after. REM, or rapid eye movement sleep, is when your body experiences the most restoration. Interrupted sleep is not constructive sleep, which is why sleep position is important to a restful night. Sleeping on your stomach or in the fetal position can give you enough subconscious discomfort to wake yourself up in the middle of the night, potentially arresting a sleep cycle at the most inopportune time. Stay on your side and stay asleep through the night.
