Modern internet sites and articles suggest sleeping on one's back (supine sleep) as the best sleeping option. Meanwhile, medical research has totally the opposite opinion. Furthermore, other medical studies have found that supine sleep is among the leading causes of mortality in the severely sick due to acute states or exacerbations of asthma, heart disease, epilepsy, COPD, and many other conditions since early morning hours have highest mortality rates.
Any time we look for suggestion in relation to something,
millions of us apply cyberspace resources (articles and websites) to consider our best solutions. Think about our sleep positions. If you execute a search using a popular search engine using keywords “most suitable sleep postures” or “optimal sleeping positions” or “ideal postures for sleep”, you will find out that up to about 90% of sources suggest that sleeping on one’s back (or supine sleep) is the most suitable sleep posture due to minimum stress for a spine. Nearly all of these papers are written by nurses, chiropractors, alignment specialists, doctors, who consider the human body as a mechanical device with tension, curves, pressure, angels, bones.
Even though having decent intentions in relation to other people, this unsophisticated comprehension of the human organism leads to shocking outcomes on health of modern day humans.
Professional medical research papers have established that sleeping on one’s back is the worst sleep posture for:
- sleep paralysis and terrifying hallucinations, - coughing attacks, - health of geriatric inpatients, - back pain in pregnancy, - pulmonary tuberculosis treated by thoracoplasty, - snoring, hypopneas and apneas, - sleep apnea, - irregular or periodic breathing, - chronic respiratory insufficiency, - GERD (gastroesophageal reflux disease), - nocturnal asthma, - stroke with sleep apnea, - heart failure with sleep apnea, - health of pregnant women, - stroke in elderly patients, - bruxism and swallowing.
For medical abstracts and references related to all these disorders, check out the link in the resource box below: "Best Sleeping Postures". There are no health-related studies that determined positive aspects of sleeping on one’s back for any popular health predicament.
Is there any common underlying mechanism since numerous studies revealed the same damaging effect for supine sleep for very different health difficulties? Authors of several health-related papers found the biggest reduction in oxygenation of the arterial blood for sleeping on one’s back in comparison with lateral sleep (left side or right side) and prone sleep (sleeping on the stomach, chest or belly) (Fast & Hertz, 1992; Trakada et al, 2003; Szollosi et al, 2006; Hjalmarsen & Hykkerud, 2008). It is a proven truth that reduced oxygenation of the body is the main factor that leads to progress of diabetes, heart disease, cancer, asthma, COPD, arthritis, and virtually any other chronic disease.
Furthermore, physiological articles have clearly found highest mortality rates and most distinguished acute symptoms during early morning hours (from about 4 to 7 am) for asthma, epilepsy seizures, cerebral ischemia and stroke, diabetes, inflammatory disorders, coronary spasms, sudden cardiac arrest and deaths, COPD and morning sickness. Other research studies devoted to circadian variations in various physiological parameters in healthy subjects also discovered that these early morning hours are their worst times. For medical references and quotes related to these effects, visit the link below "Morning Heavy Breathing Effect".
What is the explanation? If you observed breathing process of people sleeping on their backs, you can detect that they breathe more (e.g., faster and deeper) in comparison with any other sleep position. For example, snoring is a very common response present for many people only during their supine sleep. Why? This is because our chest muscles and tummy are not restricted and can freely move in and out without any [resistance. When we sleep on sides or belly, breathing movements are restricted. Hence, sleeping on one’s back reduces body oxygen content due to overbreathing or hyperventilation (or breathing more than the tiny medical norm: 10-12 breaths per minute and only 4-6 l/min at rest).
The exact reasons for reduced tissues oxygen content for overbreathing are following:
1. With very small normal breathing (only 6 liters per minute; 10-12 tiny breaths per minute), human arterial blood is approximately 97-98% saturated with oxygen. Hence, deep or big breathing cannot improve oxygenation of the arterial blood.
2. Most hyperventilators are chest breathers. Lowest sections of our lungs do not acquire new air supply with superior oxygen content. Therefore, oxygenation of the arterial blood becomes smaller.
3. Overbreathing leads to CO2 deficiency in the blood and body cells and that immediately leads to 2 effects: A) constriction of blood vessels (less blood and oxygen is delivered to all crucial organs of the human body) and B) suppressed Bohr effect (less oxygen is disposed of in tissues by red blood cells since this oxygen release is operated by carbon dioxide). Both these effects REDUCE oxygen and blood supply to cells promoting cancer, stroke, asthma, heart disease, COPD, diabetes, obesity, arthritis, epilepsy and many other common problems.
The process of sleep is not a joke to take care about bones only. It is a lethal poison for the chronically sick since millions of men and women die every year because of the impacts of sleep, where supine sleep is one of the leading factors.
Therefore, ideal or best sleeping postures must be selected based on best possible personal respiration parameters (easier and slower breathing) and maximal body oxygenation results. A special stress-free breath holding time test is the easiest strategy to choose your best individual sleep positions.
