Breathe well, sleep well: avoid the supine and adopt the lateral posture

Abstract

Many health professionals and advisors have been wondering for years which is the best and healthiest sleep position. Surprisingly, there is no simple answer to such fundamental question. First of all, we begin our sleep in a certain body position and usually shift to other postures as sleep evolves, either spontaneously or intentionally, to shift our sleeping body to a comfortable position. Adults tend to change their sleep positions quite frequently (from 11-13 changes per night up to 20-45 times during a typical 8-hour night). Moreover, there are significant differences between individuals in addition to the night-to-night personal variability. Factors such as the definition of the movement, that is, minor, subtle, or gross movements, and the impact of age, health, and comfort contribute to the complexity of the issue of best and healthiest sleep posture. Many health advisors, physiotherapists, physicians, and laymen state that the best sleep position to prevent neck and back pain is the supine sleep posture. Many feel that this sleep position is the best for body rest. Nevertheless, in a telephone survey including 812 people from 3 age groups, most of the responders (female 72.6% and male 70.9%) reported that they sleep mainly on their sides and that this position protects them from cervical, scapular, and arm pain and thus promotes high sleep quality ratings. Women were less likely to sleep supine, and no other sex differences were found. Interestingly and similar to a previous report, with aging, the prevalence of reported prone sleep position decreased, whereas that of side sleep position increased.In a study of 16 young adults (8 poor sleepers and 8 good sleepers) that documented sleep posture in the sleep laboratory during 2 consecutive nights, the poor sleepers spent more time on their backs with their heads straight. Thus, in spite of the absence of consensus in regard to the best sleep posture, sleeping in the lateral posture appears to have more advantages over the supine posture, all without even taking in account the worsening effect of the supine posture on breathing function during sleep.