If you have chronic back pain, your sleep is likely suffering as well. People who sleep on their backs are more likely to suffer from back pain than those who sleep on their sides or front. Unfortunately, sleeping on your back can worsen your back pain because it puts added pressure on the spinal column.
So What Is The Solution
- To reduce your back pain and to improve your overall health is to change your sleeping positions. If you’re currently sleeping on your stomach, try to sleep on your side with a pillow under your knees. When the spine curves downward, the natural curves in the lower lumbar region also compress, putting more pressure on the spinal column and contributing to pain.
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- Another option is to sleep on your back but raise your legs. The best position to sleep on your back but raise your legs is with your knees bent, and your feet raised at shoulder level. You should be able to keep your chin up at all times. If not, use head support. This will help you maintain proper spinal alignment as you sleep and keep pressure off the spine. While this isn’t always possible, it’s still a better choice than slouching. And, if you can get into a good position to sleep on your back, an additional pillow may do the trick.
Poor Sleep Posture Can Lead To Weight Gain
It’sIt’s been proven that the best sleeping position can make all the difference in how much you weigh. Not only does sleep on your back increase your risk for developing obesity, but poor posture can contribute to several other health issues such as diabetes and high blood pressure. In addition to obesity, poor sleep can contribute to a host of other medical problems. Chronic pain, including back pain and neck pain, is often worsened by a poor sleeping position. Not only does the spine get compressed while sleeping, but the nerves that line the spine are directly affected as well. This way, you can improve your overall health and reduce the amount of pain you experience during the day.
One of the reasons why people who slouch have back problems is because they sleep on their backs. Although most people think of the spine as being the body’s backbone, it really isn’t so. The spine technically controls the movements of the lower limbs, but it also has control over the muscles that allow you to stand upright. If you change your sleeping position to one that helps maintain good spinal alignment, you can get relief from neck and back pain. Also, one must take note of the bed height while sleeping. There are many factors by which one can determine the ideal height of a bed, like one’s body weight and height.
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How Does Sleeping Posture Affect Your Health
Several things are directly linked to your sleeping posture, and correcting any one of them can improve your sleep quality.
Here are the top few things that affect your sleep posture. Now it’s time to fix them!
- If your sleep posture is right-sided dominant, then sleeping on your left side can be a good solution. Sleeping on the left improves blood circulation in your brain, improving alertness and reaction times during the day. If you have a right-sided dominant sleep posture, sleeping on your right side can sometimes lead to restless legs syndrome. It can also cause an inability to get out of bed in the morning. However, sleeping on the left side can also help with conditions such as OSA and RLS.
- Also, sleeping on your stomach can negatively impact your sleep posture. If your sleep posture is right-sided dominant, you will need to sleep on your left side, with your head facing right. If your sleep posture is left-sided dominant, you will need to sleep on your right side with your head facing left. I hope these tips help!
- Research shows that if you sleep on the back, it can result in melatonin, which regulates our sleeping cycles. Over time, this hormone can cause our bodies to shift into a non-restorative mode, contributing to chronic pain, headaches, and insomnia. Also, while choosing mattresses for back pain, you can go for pillow top and euro top mattresses because the mattress also plays a significant role in providing the peaceful sleep which you require.
Why Is Correct Sleep Posture Important
Sleeping in the correct posture will promote a relaxed state of deep sleep which supports a positive mood and helps alleviate stress. This means that proper sleep posture can help prevent the onset of depression and even save it from developing into depression. How so? When your mind and body are not relaxed, it becomes more complicated for them to handle stress, anxiety, and depression, and they progress into more severe health issues, such as heart disease and stroke.
Unfortunately, many people don’t have any idea about how their body moves during sleep. Therefore, they wind up staying in their incorrect sleeping positions throughout the night. To correctly sleep on your side, you need to sleep on your stomach with your head and shoulders slightly elevated and not your tummy. Ensure that your pillow is resting on your chest instead of your stomach.
We have two muscle groups when we sleep: the leading group that controls our breathing, known as the diaphragm, and the second group that supports the brain and spinal cord. If we sleep in an upright position, known as a side sleeper, we will have a diaphragm pulled tautly. This will keep the oxygen flowing throughout our body, including the brain, spinal cord, and diaphragm. Luckily, there are companies that make mattresses that are best for side sleepers, which can help promote a healthy sleeping posture. However, if we sleep in a lying-down position, such as a stomach sleeper, we will have a weaker diaphragm, and it will become more challenging to breathe as oxygen cannot get to the brain and spinal cord. This can result in a wide range of problems ranging from poor memory, concentration, and even movement disorders.
Conclusion
To have a good night’s sleep, you will need to find a comfortable sleeping position, such as lying down on your back with your knees up and your hips behind you. The next thing you will need to know about how postures affect health is to get the right amount of sleep, either five or eight hours a night. To do this, you need to be sure to get plenty of exercise the day before and avoid drinking alcohol and taking any drugs before bed.
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