We spend roughly a third of our lives sleeping, yet many of us give little thought to how our sleeping position affects our health. While back sleeping is often recommended by well-meaning sources, it might actually be contributing to your pain and posture problems.
According to Jesse Jutkowitz, founder of Advanced BioStructural Correction™ (ABC™) and a pioneering figure in structural healthcare, the way you sleep can either support your body’s natural alignment or gradually push it out of balance.
Could Sleeping on Your Back Be a Problem?
Jesse Jutkowitz explains why back sleeping can be problematic for many people:
“Because your lower body is much heavier than your upper body, it sinks into the mattress. It forces your upper body and head forward, which over a long period displaces your head, vertebrae, and ribs forward. This compromises your breathing and heart function, besides causing pain up and down your body. This will keep you in a constant state of being stuck forward and unable to be corrected, though it might not seem so because when standing, you must lean backward, which gives the appearance of being straighter. However, you are not, and it actually causes more stress on your lower back.
If back sleeping gives you relief, it is because you are stuck forward, and while it gives you the feeling of being relieved, as noted above, it forces you forward in what becomes a vicious circle of being made worse by something that apparently but not actually gives you temporary relief.”
In other words, while sleeping on your back might feel comfortable at first—especially if you’re already misaligned—it can actually worsen structural imbalances over time. What seems like relief is often just a temporary masking of other issues, ultimately, reinforcing a cycle of poor posture and chronic discomfort.
Is Side Sleeping Superior?
Sleeping on your side, especially the left side, has many benefits. It helps keep your spine in a more natural position, avoiding the misalignment that can happen with back sleeping.
Side sleeping can also help you breathe better, reduce snoring, improve circulation, and aid digestion. For pregnant women, sleeping on the left side further improves blood flow to the baby.
To get the most out of side sleeping, we recommend using a pillow that keeps your neck aligned, such as the ABC pillow or a towel to help you achieve the correct height specific to you.
In fact, if you wake up with neck pain, back stiffness, headaches, or feel more tired than when you went to bed, your sleeping position might be the culprit. Poor sleep posture can also contribute to numbness in your arms or hands, difficulty breathing during the night, and chronic pain that seems to worsen over time.
However, knowing how to sleep is very different from actually putting it into practice. This is why we created the SSS workshop. You’ll learn how to tailor your sleep position to support your unique body structure and finally wake up feeling aligned and refreshed.
Ready to take the first step toward better sleep and lasting relief? Your Finsbury Park chiropractor, a specialist in Advanced BioStructural Correction™, is here to help. Schedule your FREE discovery call today. BOOK NOW.