Comment by elric

Comment by elric 4 days ago

Told by whom? Gravity works against you when you sleep on your back: your jaw falls in on itself, your tongue relaxes down into the back of your throat, stomach acid can flow up into your esophagus with relative ease. AFAIK the left side is generally the "recommended" position. It addresses all of those issues.

In some cases sleeping on the stomach might be preferred, as that helps the lungs take in more oxygen, which is why patients on respirators are often kept on their stomachs in hospital.

That being said: if you don't have sleep apnea or reflux, any position that's comfortable is probably fine. No one stays in one position the whole night anyway.

bryanrasmussen 4 days ago

>Told by whom?

I sort of feel my body telling me, my back hurts because I never sleep on my back (because of sleep apnea, or at least horrendous snoring) but when I lay on my back it feels much more comfortable, but can't sleep that way because I will wake up the house.

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0xEF 3 days ago

Your back hurting could be a number of factors, but the big two would be your mattress or your posture/overall while awake. Try doing planks and crunches each day to build up core strength, which makes it a bit easier to maintain good posture, though that still takes considerable corrective practice. I have two back injuries, so all sleeping positions suck in different ways for me, but doing daily core exercises helps take the load off my back while awake so it hurts less at night.

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jacobgkau 4 days ago

> my back hurts because I never sleep on my back
Try a body pillow. Having something to wrap your arms & legs around and keep your spine aligned counteracts at least some of the discomforts of sleeping on your side.

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- sva_ 4 days ago
  
  > just get a waifu bro
  
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  jacobgkau 4 days ago
  
  It doesn't need to have a picture on it. Orthopedic pillows exist, as do plain covers for dakimakuras, lol.
  
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swyx 4 days ago

> AFAIK the left side is generally the "recommended" position

whats wrong with right side?

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fahrnfahrnfahrn 4 days ago

Sleeping on the left side allows the stomach to operate better while sleeping on the right favors the heart. I'd always heard this, but recently read a short article confirming it. Dunno if it's true, though.

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- criddell 3 days ago
  
  Sleeping on the right side has been reported to help clear cerebrospinal fluid from the brain which might slow the buildup of plaques related to Alzheimer’s.
  
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throwaway920102 4 days ago

for people with acid reflux / GERD / heartburn at least, the "sleep on your left side" thing has to do with the layout of the esophagus. For whatever reason, sleeping on your left means that gravity helps work to prevent acid reflux, whereas the opposite is true for the right side. Not sure if there's any benefit other than that

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- hnbad 3 days ago
  
  > For whatever reason
  The short answer is that your organs are mostly asymmetric and the esophagus connects to the stomach on the right so by laying on your right your stomach acid flows to the sphincter connecting your stomach and esophagus, making it easier to leak into the esophagus. This is especially a problem with GERD because you don't have pain receptors on that end of your esophagus but the stomach acid can still damage its tissue, which can lead to further complications including cancer.
  A common cause of acid reflux is a herniated diaphragm (hiatal hernia) in which part of the stomach slips through the diaphragm into the upper chest. In this the esophageal sphincter will not be the highest point of your stomach, further adding to the problem when sleeping on your right side. Imagine a plastic water bottle deformed in such a way it stands slanted with the opening to the right, now imagine laying it on that side or the other. Laying it on the side with the opening makes it more likely to spill if the lid isn't forming a perfect seal.
  
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- naveen99 3 days ago
  
  Radiologist here. We actually put patients in LPO (left side down oblique on your back ) followed by RPO to elicit reflux to catch it on the xray camera.
  The opposite is RAO (right side down on belly oblique), when we want to show the opposite esophageal emptying into the stomach.
  But any one position is probably not good to maintain for a long time. That’s why patients on respirators get turned so they don’t develop pressure ulcers.
  Personally I have found 15-20 minutes prone (on my belly) is helpful reducing fatigue after intense exercise.
  
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delecti 4 days ago

The arrangement and orientation of organs means you're a bit more likely to have acid indigestion if you're on your right.

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daedrdev 4 days ago

Your heart is on the left side of your chest so its probably reacted to that

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johnisgood 4 days ago

> which is why patients on respirators are often kept on their stomachs in hospital.

Yeah, since COVID-19, and even then, only for patients who are severely hypoxic (ARDS or severe respiratory failure). That said, it is not universally applied to all ventilated patients, and in many countries it is not even practiced at all.

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