Establishing positive habits is one of the most important
ways that you can take control of your health.
Considering that as many as half of all adults report at least mild
insomnia, it would seem that a great deal of us never learned how to set good
sleeping habits. Sleep is the time for
daily maintenance, when the conscious mind shuts down and the entirety of our
internal energy can be put toward rejuvenation.
Everyday life is inundated with tasks to complete and emotions to
manage, giving our bodies ample repair to do by the end of our waking
hours.
Sleep allows our bodies to recover faster. When we sleep between 7 to 8 hours per night,
we are more mentally sharp, sifting through information faster and more
efficiently; we have more energy and a better outlook; we are more apt to pay closer
attention to our eating habits; we build stronger immunity; we find it much
easier to deal with stress; and, with our systems working vibrantly, our bodies
are able to optimally regulate heart function, hormone production, digestion,
and the like. The opposite to all of the
above is true when we do not sleep; insomnia, from mild to severe, wreaks havoc
on our health.
The process of sleep is an automatic activity engaged by
a network within your central nervous system, so it is to an extent beyond our
conscious control. However, we can
support healthy sleeping patterns by eliminating deficiencies that cause
insomnia within each of the five basic areas of overall health: proper
function, stress management, nutrition, exercise, and structural balance.
It is on that last category that the remainder of this
article will focus. Structural balance
makes life easier in general, but specific to sleeping habits makes it possible
to breathe through fully opened airways, fully relax your muscles to release
the stress from your joints, and allow for proper circulation. Maintaining proper sleeping posture, then, is
an important step that must be taken to ensure the best quality of rest. The three common sleeping positions are on
the back, the side, or the stomach.
Stomach sleeping should be avoided completely. It puts tremendous physical strain on the
body; the neck twisting stresses the supporting musculature, starting a domino
effect that causes one hip to pull the attached leg up into a bent position
close to the waist. Try standing that
way and see if you think it is comfortable.
Stomach sleeping also cuts off the blood supply to your brain. The vertebral arteries that run up both sides
of your neck and supply roughly 25% of your brain’s blood supply are stretched
and twisted when the head is turned, decreasing blood flow; combined with the
manner in which it contorts the body physically, this is why stomach sleepers are
notorious both for not being well-rested and for being stiff when they wake up
in the morning.
The two best ways to sleep are on your back or on your
side. Back sleeping is ideal. The body is most relaxed in the supine
(back-lying) position, with the head slightly elevated by a supportive pillow
and a small pillow tucked beneath the knees.
The head and neck are the body’s structural foundation; wherever the
head goes, the rest of the body follows, so sleeping on your back without the
lower body support creates a situation in which the musculature in the lower
back, hips, and legs attempts to pull itself into a similar position as the
head on the pillow.
Side-sleeping is okay too as long as it is done
correctly. Two things are required to
ensure high quality sleep when side-lying.
First, the pillow that you use must allow your head, neck, and shoulders
to rest in their neutral positions. If
you imagine looking at yourself in the mirror when your posture is relaxed and
then tipping 90 degrees onto your side, that is the correct head and neck
posture for side sleeping. Second, a
pillow between the knees is a must, for it prevents the natural shifting of one
hip and leg across the other to avoid the bones of the knees resting on top of
each other. To put it simply, the head,
neck, shoulders, and hips need to be balanced in order to avoid undue strain on
your body. If your body is stressed
while sleeping, then sleeping will not accomplish the fullest extent of its intended
purpose.
In regard to pillows, the one that you use to support the
lower body can be a regular pillow, but be sure to use common sense when
gauging the size of the person (slight of frame needs a smaller pillow, larger
frame needs bigger pillow). The head and
neck pillow represents a more delicate search for both comfort and support
shaped by the consistency of your preferred sleeping posture. The SleepRight side-lying pillow, for
instance, is designed for sleepers that exclusively lay on their side. It is custom fit to meet the requirements of
your body style and its website offers a helpful, basic guide to help you
measure your shoulder heights correctly.
The D-Core is the back sleeper’s equivalent.
Perhaps the best pillows are the ones that allow you to
fluctuate between your back and your side.
Cervical contour and standard memory foam pillows give you that flexibility,
but they have to be replaced more often than a fiber support pillow, the gold
standard of which is the Therapeutica. The Therapeutica has a wedge extension that
acts like a ramp to support the upper back, as well as a dip in the center
where your head rests that provides optimal head/neck support and keeps you
from turning/straining your neck. It is
also raised on each side to allow you to roll to your right or left without
having to maneuver it.
Without proper sleep, we cannot be truly well. The manner in which we sleep, thus, has a big
impact on our health. Paying attention
to your sleeping position and investing in the supportive pillows that are
right for you goes a long way to ensuring that you sleep not just adequately,
but optimally.
Sources: WedMD,
Therapeutica.com, SleepRight.com
