How do wrong sleeping positions affect the spine?
If your back, spine or neck hurts when you wake up in the morning, you may be sleeping in the wrong position. To find solutions for pain or ailments, it is necessary to be aware first. Let’s not forget that an incorrect sleeping position can cause hernias and even calcifications. Since low back pain can affect sleep quality, an incorrect sleeping position can also cause low back or neck pain and even disc herniation.
In some reclining positions, the natural curves of the spine can be forced or put under excessive and prolonged pressure. At the same time, causes such as obesity can cause various pains and fatigue due to sleep apnea.
How do wrong sleeping positions affect the spine?
The prone position is not recommended for individuals suffering from pain in the shoulder, waist and neck regions. It has been established that the best sleeping position for people with a lumbar disc herniation is the side position. In the side position, a pillow should be placed between the legs. It is ideal for people with a cervical disc herniation to lie on their back and use a pillow that supports the neck cavity.
An ideal mattress should be hard enough to avoid burying the body, soft enough to protect the body lines, that is, it should be designed to protect the natural curves and not cause an increase or decrease in curves.
People spend a significant part of the day resting in bed, that is, sleeping. The goal here is to save the discs, tendons, muscles and joints from the bad effects of pressure, to relax, to breathe so that they are ready for another load and strain the next day.
The ideal mattress should be suitable for the physique and should be tested; the body should not be uncomfortable in bed, should not be forced, should not be buried in bed.
Both very hard mattresses and very soft mattresses stretch the ligaments, joints, muscles, intervertebral disc capsule, which we call the annulus, that hold and support our vertebrae, and this can cause problems that we don’t want to repeat every night .
No single bed type is suitable for every patient; It is necessary to choose a bed specific to the person, weight and discomfort. After being used for a while, the side of the beds is constantly deformed and dented, and the other side needs to be used or replaced.
What are the correct sleeping positions?
The ideal sleeping position is to lie on your back or on your side. The pillow placed between the two legs of the patient in the lateral position is beneficial for the spine. Although it is recommended to lie on the side with support between the knees and with the knees bent, it should be remembered that this lying position can cause shortening of the muscles in the back of the thigh. This shortening can interfere with upright posture during the day and cause lower back pain. For this reason, the situation of lying with bent knees should be mandatory and for a short time. In addition, patients with rheumatoid arthritis are not advised to lie down with their knees bent.
What are the wrong sleeping positions?
It is absolutely not recommended to lie face down, as this will cause excessive enlargement of the lumbar arch, strain on the facet joints, and lower back and neck pain or herniated disc. However, the prone position is recommended for patients with ankylosing spondylitis. In addition, careless sleep during travel also causes neck pain and it is important to redesign vehicles for long journeys. A travel pillow should be used for long journeys. Sleeping with a high pillow clearly causes neck pain. Patients who have to sleep with a high pillow due to other illnesses should support the arch of the neck with a second orthopedic pillow.
What should the transition to sleep be like? How to get up?
associate Dr. Ahmet İnanır said, “To avoid back pain, first sit on the bed and lie on your side. If sleeping on your back is planned, you must first sit on the bed, lie on your side and turn on your back. When you wake up on your back in the morning, turn onto your side first and then straighten your spine by getting support from your arms and elbows as you let your legs hang down.” He said.