On your back
For generally healthy people, sleeping on your back, or in the supine position, may help with spine alignment, the experts said. It can also help prevent or ease back and neck pain, because it provides more support.
It’s important, though, to make sure you have a quality mattress and an appropriate pillow, said Timothy Morgenthaler, co-director of the Center for Sleep Medicine at the Mayo Clinic. Many people who sleep on their backs may develop neck pain because they’re using a pillow that’s too thick, he said.
But the supine position is not for everyone, such as people who have obstructive sleep apnea or snore. “Sleeping on your back can obviously make snoring and apnea worse, just because of the way gravity works against you when you’re on your back,” Salas said.
On your side
“For the most part, sleeping on the side seems to be the most natural way of sleeping for a lot of people,” Pelayo said.
Side sleeping is often the recommended position for people who can’t sleep on their backs because of an underlying health condition or pregnancy, experts said. And depending which side you sleep on, it could help lessen symptoms of pain, heartburn and reflux, as well as potentially increase comfort for people with heart failure.
If you have shoulder or hip pain, avoid sleeping on the side that’s bothering you, experts said. For chronic back or neck pain, Pelayo said, sleeping on the side might be beneficial, because it can take the pressure off painful areas.
Sleeping on your left side and with your upper body slightly elevated is the ideal position for people with heartburn or reflux, Salas said. “It all kind of centers around where your organs are.”
Sleeping on the left side may also be better for pregnant individuals, Dasgupta said, because it can take pressure off the critical blood vessel that supplies the heart.
Sleeping on the right side, however, could be more comfortable for people with enlarged hearts, according to a 2003 study published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.
Morgenthaler said pillow loft (its height/thickness) is an important factor in ensuring comfortable side sleeping. If you’re sleeping on your side without a pillow or using one that’s too thin, that could cause the head and neck to be flexed on one side and extended on the other, he said. “You want a pillow that’s sufficiently thick so that your neck is in a more neutral-type position, and it turns out that, on average, that’s about seven to 10-ish centimeters.”
On your front
People who snore or have sleep apnea may have an easier time if they sleep on their stomachs, because it can help keep the airway more open, Morgenthaler wrote in an email. But the downside of the prone position is that it tends to “create a lot of pressure on various muscles and joints,” he said, because people who sleep on their fronts typically have their heads turned to one side and their arms in unusual positions or pinned underneath their torso.
Dasgupta agreed: “You can imagine your neck is on the side, gravity’s pushing down on your spine, so I’m really not a big fan of sleeping on your stomach.”
Given the potential increased strain on the body in this position, Morgenthaler said, stomach sleepers may want to avoid using “very thick” pillows, so they don’t put added stress on the cervical spine, shoulders or lower back.
(The Washington Post）
