Do You Sleep On Your Side? Learn About The Powerful Effects One Simple Change Can Have on Your Body

Sleeping on your side is the most natural and common sleeping position. There’s nothing like snoozing on your side! Most people have been slumbering in this position since they were tiny fetuses and it’s no wonder that they continue in this comfy, cozy posture. If it weren’t so comfortable, why would 74 percent of the people in the world sleep in this position anyway (1)?

However, sleep experts still don’t recommend it as an ideal sleeping position despite it having benefits of its own. Simply because, sleeping on the side also has its negatives, which can sometimes outweigh the positives.

That said, you don’t have to change your sleeping position entirely. After all, sleeping on the side does have benefits. And whatever drawbacks it does have can be eliminated with one simple change! Before we reveal that change, let’s weigh in the pros and cons of sleeping on your side-

Pros Of Sleeping On Your Side

Over the course of years and after thorough research, sleep experts have discovered multiple benefits to crashing on the bed on your side. Given below are the prominent pros of sleeping in this manner-

• Sleeping on the side is the best position for those who suffer from frequent bouts of back and neck pain. It can prevent the occurrence of such kinds of aches as it maintains the normal curvature of your spine (2). No awkward bends of your spinal cord means you don’t have to wake up to an insufferable back pain or a stiff neck.
• Do you keep your partner awake with your loud snores at ungodly hours? Sleeping on the side can actually help you sleep silently and you can let your partner sleep soundly (3)! When you sleep on your back, your tongue tends to collapse along with your soft palate, hitting the backside of the throat. This leads to snoring. If you sleep on the side though, you may actually prevent this from happening.
• One major advantage of sleeping on your side is an improvement in the flow of blood to the rest of your body (4). This happens because your body is perfectly aligned when you sleep this way.

So there you go! Sleeping on the side is not so bad after all huh? But enough with the positives. Let’s talk about the negatives now.

Cons Of Sleeping On Your Side

Despite its overwhelming popularity and the advantages it has, sleeping on the side still has noticeable disadvantages. These shouldn’t be taken lightly at all if you wish to stay healthy in the long run. Here are the cons of sleeping on your side-

• Sleeping on the side may not cause neck and back pain, but it can surely make your hips and shoulders ache (5)! The chances of pain in these regions increase if you sleep on a cracked mattress or have injured any one of these body parts previously.
• This one is going to be especially scary! If you’re in the habit of sleeping this way, you can damage the skin on your face and increase your chances of getting wrinkles (6). Sleeping on the side can also make your face puffy.
• Lastly, side sleeping can have an adverse impact on your breasts (7). This position can worsen sagging by stretching out the ligaments in your breasts as you sleep on your side.

What Can You Do To Prevent The Drawbacks Of Sleeping On Your Side?

If you can’t change your sleeping position but still want to ensure you sleep risk-free on your side, there’s one simple thing you should do. And that is to use additional pillows to support the rest of your body as you travel in dreamland! That’s all.

The use of additional pillows to support your neck, shoulder, hips, and breasts can prevent all the disadvantages of sleeping on your side. However, you have to ensure you get firm and right-sized pillows as any of them won’t do. Here are a few tips to help you-

• Keep a small, firm pillow under your neck to prevent neck pain.
• To prevent shoulder pain, you should place a medium-sized pillow under your arms as you sleep.
• Hip pain can be cured and prevented by putting a round pillow in between your knees.
• To keep saggy breasts at bay, put a tiny pillow just underneath them or sleep on your back.
• Puffy face and eyes along with wrinkles can be stopped only by altering your position, which means sleeping on your back.
• Lastly, ensure that the mattress you sleep on is a good one that offers optimum support; mattresses made of memory foam are a good choice.

If you have aches and pains, you’ll never be able to get quality sleep. And not getting quality sleep can take a major toll on your life. So heed our advice and sleep well!

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