Researchers around the world have tested techniques that include filming people when they sleep by monitoring their every movement. In addition, various systems are currently being developed that use infrared depth cameras that can detect the position of a person at the time of sleep. . The main conjecture is how body posture influences sleep.
In Denmark, small movement sensors on the legs, backs and arms were used in volunteers to establish their favorite positions. They found that during the time they spent in bed, people were a little more than half the time on their sides, the 38 percent sleeping on their backsand the 7 percent face down.
This preference for sleeping on the side is something we develop only as we get older, because children over the age of three sleep on average the same amount of time on their sides, on their backs, and on their stomachs. The babiesinstead, they sleep mostly on the back because they are put like that in the crib for safety reasons.
A small-scale observational study in which volunteers were able to sleep however they wanted found that right-side sleepers slept slightly better than left-side sleepers, followed by back sleepers. how sailors working on a cargo ship slept and found that respiratory problems, such as snoring, were more common when sailors slept on their backs. In that regard, some snoring is caused by severe obstructive sleep apnea, in which breathing stops and starts again when the person sleeps.
Instead, sleeping on your side helps clear the upper airway and prevents the uvula (and tongue) from clogging the throat, which reduces snoring. In fact, in some cases, switching from mostly back sleeping to side sleeping resolves the problem of sleep apnea completely. But this doesn’t mean that sleeping on your side always works. In Australia, they observed a room for 12 hours a night, with volunteers, with cameras and found that those who said they got up usually with stiff necks they spent more time in what the researchers called “side sleeping positions.”
In this context, sleeping on the side is a lopsided position. For example, with one thigh going over the other and the spine turned. However, people who sleep in a more upright side position, and with more support, reported less neck pain. What the study couldn’t figure out is whether the side position caused the neck pain or people adopted that position because it was the only comfortable one for neck pain.
Finally, in a study carried out with elderly people who were doing a training program in Portugal, patients with back pain were asked to sleep on their side, and those with neck pain were asked to try to sleep on their backs. Four weeks later, 90% of the participants said that their respective pain had decreased in all cases. In conclusion, corrected postures are the solution for body rest.
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by RN
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