Best Sleeping Positions
- The ideal sleeping position promotes healthy spine alignment from your head to your hips.
- The best position depends on your unique needs, but back or side sleeping is considered better than stomach sleeping.
- Side sleeping may reduce snoring and heartburn and prevent back pain.
- Sleeping on your back is best for neck pain and nasal congestion.
During sleep, your body works to restore and repair itself. Your sleep position can either help or hinder that process, depending on how effectively it supports the natural curvature of your spine. It’s also common for people to wake up with brand new aches and pains in the morning, sometimes due to sleep position.
We spend a third of our lives asleep or resting, so it’s important to choose a sleep position that assists your body with physical recovery. A proper sleep position can relieve stress on your spine, while an unhealthy position can increase pain or stiffness in the back, arms, or shoulders, all while contributing to lower-quality sleep.
What Is the Best Sleeping Position?
The best sleep position is one that promotes healthy spinal alignmentrom your hips all the way to your head. What that looks like for you depends on your personal health situation and what you find comfortable.
Having said that, there are some positions that are considered healthier than others. Specifically, sleeping on the side or back is considered more beneficial than sleeping on the stomach. In either of these sleep positions, it’s easier to keep your spine supported and balanced, which relieves pressure on the spine and enables your muscles to relax and recover.
Different sleep positions provide different benefits that may be helpful for you if you’re dealing with back pain or a health condition. In these cases, it may be worth trying a new sleep position to enable more restful sleep. In one study, a group of adults with back pain were trained to sleep on their back or their side. They experienced significant pain relief in just four weeks.
Adjusting to a new sleep position takes time. However, if sleeping on your stomach feels good to you, don’t feel forced to change it. You can minimize your risk of pain and improve spinal alignment with the right mattress and pillow.
