A comfortable bed plays an essential role in achieving a satisfying, restful night’s sleep. 93% of the U.S. citizens agreed to this claim, based on the overall result from the polls conducted by the National Sleep Foundation.
In addition to having a good quality sleep, one’s sleeping position should be considered when selecting the ‘right’ bed for you. We’ll find out here how to choose the best mattress when you’re into the back, stomach, and side sleeping positions.
Back sleepers
Remember those good old days when your parents or older siblings get you to sleep on your back, placing your arms on your sides? Apart from your family’s sincerity, I bet you also had a comfortable sleep from this position. In fact, it’s considered as the best sleeping position, in which medical professionals have been saying this for a very long time.
However, even the ‘best’ isn’t perfect. Many studies have discovered that sleeping on the back is associated with obstructive sleep apnea (OSA). One of its common symptoms is snoring. Moreover, it can cause shoulder pain, especially sleeping in a starfish position that involves putting your arms up around your pillow like a star. It’s nothing severe, though.
Sleeping on the back doesn’t require specific mattress as compared to other positions. As mentioned, it’s the ideal sleeping position for a healthy back. The recessed space located in the lumbar region or the lower spine is the only primary gap in this position. A bed with a thinner top layer around a 2-inch comfort layer is already more than satisfying to many back sleepers.
Stomach Sleeper
If sleeping on the back may trigger you to snore, sleeping on your stomach aids you to stop it. Even so, sleeping on your back can result in terrible back pain. It’s because stomach sleepers end up:
- Turning their heads in one side or the other so they can breathe, which can cause neck strain
- Bending their back backward and harshly turning their neck all night every time they sleep on their stomach with a pillow on their neck. Back pain can be avoided if you choose a mattress designed for side sleepers with back pain due to the pressure-relieving foam that provides comfort and support. You shouldn’t sleep on too soft nor too thick mattresses as there are less to no recessed spaced to support. The ideal is a mattress with an inch of softness, offering to cushion bony areas of the stomach sleeper. What a stomach sleeper shouldn’t lay on a bed that can create an unnatural backward curve of the back.
Side Sleepers
Side sleepers often enjoy the ‘safe-feeling’ of fetal, log, and yearner positions.
- Fetal position – one’s arms and legs are curled towards the body, leaving the spine to be gently curved
- Log position – literally sleeping like a ‘log,’ in which one sleeps on the side with all arms and legs straight out
- Yearner position – one’s arms are stretched out in front and legs are aligned, but the back is slightly curved
All of these positions somehow offer a good night’s sleep to many side sleepers. Unfortunately, these positions may lead to long-term side effects, such as chronic back pain. I bet you also heard that sleeping on the right side can cause more pressure to one’s lungs, liver, and stomach. It doesn’t end here, though. There’s more.
Specifically, according to studies, sleeping sideways (both right and left) may lead side sleepers to:
- Experience shortness of breath and musculoskeletal strain on the neck or back when in a fetal position
- Suffer from skin aging caused by gravity when in a log position
- Encounter excessive nerve strain that causes blood flow restriction in the shoulders and arms when in a yearner position
Considering the health risks mentioned above, many would suggest to either sleep on your back or stomach. But here’s the catch. You don’t have to stop sleeping sideways. Otherwise, you might end up not having a good sleep because the other sleeping positions aren’t what our body prefers in the first place. Choosing the right mattress is the best thing to do, instead.
Nolah Mattress, for instance, has an adequate softness. It allows one’s body to sink into the mattress, eventually forming a cradle that can able to fill the recessed spaces between one’s body and the bed. Plus, it evenly spreads one’s body weight so his or her pressure points wouldn’t be strained after lying on the bed for a long time. You might want to check nolah mattress review here
The typical recommendation for every side sleeper is a bed with a combination of softer and thicker layers, which are about three inches thick. As side sleeping causes too much muscle strain in several parts of the body, side sleepers should look for a bed with pressure relief.
Takeaway
If you’re neither a back, stomach or side sleeper, then you’re what is considered as ‘combination’ sleepers. Choosing the suitable mattress for you can be a bit tricky. For instance, sleeping on the back only needs an inch of any soft material with firmer support underneath, whereas sleeping sideways requires a 3-inch comfort layer. If this is the case, always opt for something in between.
Author’s Bio:
Analisse Weathers is a versatile blogger. Recently, womanhood has piqued her interest, and so she’s been into writing about it nowadays. She’s a wannabe interior designer, too. Hence, she enjoys writing about house renovation, improvement, or repairs and other home-related topics.
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