Why and How to Start Sleeping on Your Back

It’s well known advice by now- we should all be sleeping on our backs. Strangely enough though, only 14% of the population actually does it! If this is such common knowledge, and yet so few of us are actually following the advice, it sounds like we need some tips and tricks to get us on the right track!

In the wellness space, we constantly hear a lot of advice about things we “should” be doing. Rarely does this advice come with concrete evidence of why we should be doing said thing. This leaves a lot of uncertainty that makes it hard to keep up with new habits. Knowing why we do what we do keeps us motivated to continue trying to change unhealthy patterns! Most of us still sleep on our stomachs or backs as a throwback to womb days, it’s comforting and we feel safe curled up in a little ball. Unfortunately side sleeping is not as good as back sleeping, and you can forget sleeping on your stomach all together! Sleeping on our back is great for our spinal alignment, which keeps us not only from developing back pain but also keeps our organs healthy and our immune system up! If that’s not quite the motivating factor, consider that sleeping with our face on the pillow accelerates the development of wrinkles. Some dermatologists and sleep experts can even tell what side you sleep on just by looking at your skin. Yikes!

How-To:

• Choose a Pillow with Medium-Fullness
• If your pillow is too low or too high you will disrupt your spinal alignment

• To Alleviate Lower Back Pain
• Place a pillow under your knees. Sleeping on your back may cause your lower back to ache unless you have extra support.

• Stay Consistent
• Chances are that trying to sleep in a new position will be uncomfortable at best. Stick with it for at least a month, as that’s generally how long psychologists think it takes to create a new habit!