Healthy Habits for Life - Stomach Sleeping!

Hey everyone, it's Dr. Dave. Hopefully you're all doing well and you're out there creating some great experiences in your life. You know, whether you're 5 months, 5 years, 50 years or more, creating those great experiences— I know I keep mentioning it, but it's so valuable because if every moment, every hour, every day, part of your plan in life is to have a great experience, things start to connect nicely, you gain some momentum, and life can be pretty good. But sometimes, for whatever reason, we fall into some habits or choices that might steer us away from those great experiences. And we see some of those with people later on in life, and most of them are actually formed by the age of 20. And then we live life on some of those habits and things that have happened in our lives, and it can actually create a challenge for us to have those best experiences. So I'm going to share some tips and strategies, especially for the younger people in the audience, or if you're parents and you have children, some of the things to look for that may seem innocuous or like they're not a big deal, but that can really set the stage for habits and patterns that can be defeating when it comes to trying to have great health later on in life. And one of the things that we ask people, and one of the things that they mention to us quite often, is how they sleep. And they actually ask, "What's the best position to sleep in?" And, you know, sleeping on your side is good, sleeping on your back is good. There are ways to support yourself well in those situations, but one of the things we like to avoid typically is is sleeping on the stomach. Now there's a few different reasons why sleeping on the stomach is not so good, even though it feels so comfy. For all you stomach sleepers out there, I totally get it. But one of the concerns is definitely with the health of the spine and the neck or the head. It's very hard to breathe if you're sleeping straight face down, so naturally you would have to turn your head one way or the other. But even if you were sitting or standing and you, and you had to look in one direction for 10 minutes, You would notice after that 10 minutes that you needed to take a break. You needed to move that head back. Now it may be a bit different obviously when we're weight-bearing and we're actively doing it versus when we're lying down and passively doing it, but there still is some influence on the structures inside, especially the ligaments. Every 20 minutes that your ligament that holds a bone to another bone is under stress or pressure, it can start to permanently deform and change length or shape.. And if you sleep 6, 7 hours and there is not a lot of time in between different positions, uh, you could be affecting those ligaments and some other structures while you're sleeping. All right. Now, some of the research also, also shows that it's very hard on your heart and your lungs to be sleeping on your stomach. They don't get the same amount of rest. They actually have to work a little bit harder because of the pressure that's on the rib cage and the thorax, the upper part of the body. Um, there's probably a few other reasons why it's not so great to sleep on the stomach, but those are two really good ones. Uh, is you want to make sure you're getting good quality sleep and all your parts are benefiting from that rest and they're not under stress or challenge. All right. So what do you do? How do you, uh, get away from sleeping on your stomach? Because stomach sleepers are so comfy on their stomach. It usually takes a few weeks of some effort trying to start out on a side. Usually a stomach sleeper has a real hard time going to the back. But you start out on your side, you have one pillow under your head, not under the shoulder, just under the neck and head. You hold onto another pillow. You might put another pillow between the knees and you might even throw another pillow behind you. If you have a partner or spouse, uh, they might find it kind of annoying. You can lean against them if they want. That's also helpful. But the idea is to lock yourself in place. They even make something called a body pillow, which you could wrap around yourself like a horseshoe and kind of lock yourself into that position. And every night you would start out like that for at least 20 minutes. For 20 minutes you try and fall asleep on your side. If you haven't fallen asleep after 20 minutes, go back to what you've always done and get a good night's rest. But then the next night you start again, and the night after that, and the night after that. And if you do that for 3 weeks in a row, you'll probably find that you're gonna comfortably start falling asleep on your side. Now, what happens after you fall asleep is anybody's guess. Uh, you, you have no control over that. But, uh, at least starting on your side, it gives you a greater opportunity to stay on your side or your back through the rest of the night and keep your spine in a more well-suited position with better support. All right, so that's one of my first tips to preserving your spinal health, something that can be done, set up as a good habit before the age of 20 so that it doesn't become a detractor to your quality of life later on. All right, gonna send you some more tips down the road. Visit our Facebook page, come like us, come share us. Drop by the website, send me an email if you have any questions. You're always welcome to drop by the clinic. We'd love to see you there. Help create those great experiences in your life now and forever, and I'm going to catch you next time.