Sleep Positions

The first thing on your mind after a stressful 9-5, or running after kids all day, is the gratifying feeling of your skin against your bed. But what if your sleeping position is doing more harm than good to your posture?

Lots of people complain about an increased lack of concentration due to stress and fatigue after waking up; much of which can be explained by an improper sleep position. Let’s look at the effects of different sleep positions on your sleep;

Sleeping on Your Back

This is so far the best and healthiest sleep position as it helps in keeping the spine and neck straight; eliminating any chances of back pain. In fact, individuals experiencing back pain are encouraged to take to this sleeping position.

Through its promotion of both spine health and neck health, you can be sure of a good posture. Although it is a good sleep position, its drawbacks on our health should not be underrated. Sleeping on your back could cause the tongue to obstruct the airway, causing causes of air obstructions, sleep apnea and snoring.

Sleep apnea, a chronic cause of fatigue could be attended to medically. Back sleeping generally keeps the head, neck, and spine in a neutral position, eliminating any forms of pressure on these areas and preventing body pains. Just ensure to keep a pillow under your head, as you would need your stomach below your esophagus to prevent refluxes.

Sleeping on Your Stomach

If you want to have a shot at reducing or even eliminating any form of sleep apnea, try this. It also helps ease snoring and in fact aid digestion. Unfortunately, sleeping on your stomach creates an imbalance in the positions of the spine and the neck.

Sleeping this way over the night could make you wake up to a stiff neck, chronic pains in your back region and possibly spinal injuries- any of which is not good for a healthy posture. Also, stomach sleeping could put pressure and tension on your muscles, leading to numbness, tingling, aches, pains and possibly irritation of these muscles and joints.

This as well isn’t any way good for maintaining a good posture. Howbeit, if you must sleep on your stomach, do so head faced downward- instead of getting your face turn in a particular direction. Remember to keep your faced propped up the pillow, leaving enough room to breathe- preventing suffocation.

Again, if you must sleep on your stomach, try getting a mattress designed especially for individuals like you- stomach sleepers. Stomach sleepers are always on the lookout for the best mattress for stomach sleepers by Sleepdelivered.com.

Sleeping on Your Side

This kind of sleeping habit is more like the intermediate between the previously mentioned ones- back sleeping and stomach sleeping. When you sleep on your side, your torso and legs are relatively straightened out.

This way, your spine is kept elongated and is in tune with your neck. By this means, every source of pain is eliminated meaning no spinal injuries, no back pain, and no neck stiffness. Also, people diagnosed with sleep apnea could try this out.

The airways are kept open by this sleep position eliminating chances of snoring. However, it has a downside- a con. As you sleep on your side, a part of your body- left or right is pressed on the bed; and so is your face.

Over time this could lead to wrinkles because at least half your face pushes against the pillow. On your posture, this could be a healthy sleeping position. But, the same cannot be said concerning your general health.

Wrapping Up

Lots of people complain about their posture. If you belong to this category, be sure to check out your most popular sleep positions and potential effects on your posture as kyphosis, lordosis, flat backs, and all sorts of postures can be worsened or corrected by your sleeping position.

Your posture is as good as your sleep position: sleep smartly!

Author Bio:

Anne Barry has been working with writing-challenged clients for over five years now. She offers ghostwriting, ghost editing, coaching, and SEO writing for businesses that want to see their sites at the helm of Google SERPs. Her education background in communications and public relations has given him a concrete base from which to approach different topics in various niches. Her writing skills can be confirmed on upwork.com, where she is a top-rated freelance writer. She especially enjoys writing website and blog content for startups and e-commerce businesses.