Ideally most of us spend a third of our lives in bed. Injuries to the neck and upper back can be caused by poor sleeping positions, which are in turn, caused by the environment or our very own personal comfort. Uncomfortable body positioning, as well as poor mattress quality, incorrect pillow height, and lack of support are all formulas for aches and pains when you wake up. If you do not sleep on your back you should consider my suggestions for either changing sleep positions or modifying it because the positions you sleep in may ultimately prevent, reduce healing, or even cause injury. This blog is the first in a sleep health blog series.
Back Sleepers
Research has shown that sleeping on your back yields the least compressive forces on your spine. If you have difficulty sleeping on your back, try sleeping with your knees slightly bent, with a pillow tucked under one or both knees.
From MSN Health.com
Sidely Sleepers
Sidely sleepers should keep in mind their neck position and hip position. I say the best way to sleep in this position is to fill in the gaps between your shoulder and your neck with a pillow, in order to maintain neutral position (see picture from APTA below). Neutral position is when your head is in the same position it would be in if you were sitting upright or standing. Some people may need to use 1 to 3 pillows to fill in this gap.
I would also recommend that you tuck a pillow underneath the arm, right underneath the armpit, of the arm that faces the ceiling. This decreases the chances of that arm’s blood supply being pinched or cut off. We call it the “critical zone” when the arm is less than 15 degrees away from your body. Often times, patients with shoulder pain or tendonitis will compromise their healing if their arm is resting at their side less than 15 degrees away from the body. So stick a thin pillow or couch pillow under that top arm and across the chest to prevent any rolling forward. The bottom arm also can face blood circulation issues as well, so I suggest punching that arm forward so you are sleeping on your shoulder blade, instead of directly on your shoulder.
To help with hip and low back discomfort, you should either sleep in a semi-frog position (lying on side with the bottom leg straight and the top leg bent), and put one leg over a pillow (in the first picture) or in a position with a pillow tucked between your legs (first picture).
Stomach Sleepers
I generally force my patients who sleep on their stomachs to at least start getting themselves to rotate a quarter into the semi-frog position on their favorable side. Sleeping on your stomach torques your neck and flattens your low back. The curvatures of your spin are also flattened, which causes pain and discomfort. Sleeping the semi-frog position (below) will help them with these aches and pains. To transition to this new sleeping position, I advise them to stick a pillow underneath to begin the repositioning process so that they will eventually be comfortable with sleeping on their back.
Taken From: http://www.necksolutions.com/body-pillow.html
The first step to repositioning is to rely on pillows. This technique will not work if you sleep with a partner. See the semi frog technique from above paragraph, if you sleep with a partner that is able to sleep on his/her back.
If you are trying to transition to sidely, you can wedge one or two pillows behind your back, so that it feel like there is some sort of backstop. This may decrease the likelihood of rolling backwards. Rolling forward is prevented by placing a pillow between your knees and another pillow on top, across your chest and under the top shoulder.
Final Note
When getting in and out of bed, decrease the torque and pressure of your spine by log rolling. Please see this brochure from University of Pittsburgh Medical Center: http://www.upmc.com/HealthAtoZ/patienteducation/Documents/BedTransferLogRoll.pdf If you have neck or low back pain, try this method when getting in and out of bed.
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Justin