The Best (AND WORST!) Sleep Positions
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Published 2021-11-21
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If you ever wondered what the best and worst sleeping positions are for your body and health, then you are about to find out. In this video, I will break down the sleep positions that are doing more harm than good for your body. We hit the pillow every night with the intention of getting a restful night to help our bodies recover and to build back stronger. The problem is, when the position you put your body in at night is doing bad things to your body, making rest difficult to get, then you need to figure out a way to make a change.
We start by looking at the major categories of sleeping positions.
Most people are either a stomach sleeper, side sleeper or back sleeper. Within each category there are variations in how you can sleep in regards to the positions of your arms, head and legs.
Of these three however, there is one clear cut worst for almost everyone, and that is the stomach sleeping position. The issue here is that it places the lower back in an inordinate amount of extension at the lumbar spine. Even if you don’t have stenosis or spinal narrowing, this will be a bad position to put your back in for a long period of time.
Beyond the low back pain and sciatica aggravation that you can get here from the position of the low back we also have the thoracic rounding that this position manifests. As we know, rounding of the upper back is a chronic postural issue we see lots these days because of all the time we spend sitting and on our cell phones.
When you hit the gym and try to perform a front squat or any other exercise that demands good thoracic spine mobility, you will be reminded just how bad sleeping on your stomach is for achieving this needed range of motion.
It gets even worse however, since the shoulders and neck are also compromised by this sleep position. The shoulders have to be internally rotated and elevated in order to allow you to grip the pillow and the head has to be turned sideways in order to clear a passage to breathe. Both of these are a recipe for disaster when it comes to avoiding neck and shoulder orthopedic issues long term.
If you are a side sleeper you have three choices of how you want to position your legs.
First, you can keep them out long and stack them on top of each other. Here the downward torque on the top leg can place a strain on the lower back that should be avoided. Simply putting a pillow between your knees can help to create a better hip alignment and relieve the stress this is putting on your low back and body as a whole.
If you sleep with both legs pulled up, as in the fetal position, there is less of a chance for the hip related low back issues and less need for a pillow but you are inviting the risk that you get tighter psoas muscles from chronically sleeping in this way. Add this to the fact that you are essentially “sitting” while you sleep - a position you likely spend a great part of your waking day doing - and you’ll want to straighten those legs out instead.
Putting one leg up and the other down invites lumbar rotation into the mix. This is something that definitely should be avoided despite the fact that as a whole, this is a better sleep position than laying on your stomach.
Finally, the winner when it comes to how to sleep for best rest is the supine or on the back position. Some with already tight hip flexors are going to want to place a pillow under their knees to remove any excessive lumbar lordosis that could come from this position and help flatten the low back against the mattress. The arms can be kept either at your sides or held up behind the head to improve shoulder health.
Most importantly here, you want to fill the cervical lordotic curve with a pillow but still allow for the top of the head to slope down. You can do this by tucking the pillow the way I show you in the video. This allows for optimal airway clearance to not lead to obstructed breathing or apnea.
Bottom line, if you want to be healthy and feel great every day then you must be sure that you’re getting a restful night’s sleep. Use the information in this video to help you make a better more informed decision on what is best for your body and start adopting the changes. Your body will thank you for it.
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All Comments (21)
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Did you know that the way you sleep can have an effect on your posture? Here are 4 moves to correct your posture (PERMANENTLY!) - https://youtu.be/g-7ZWPCWv0U
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Me: Literally just sleeps Jeff: So here's why you're doing that wrong
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Jeff's REAL favorite sleep position: The face-pull.
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This video actually helped me a lot. For a couple years I’ve been waking up with a tight and achy lower back which would take like 20 min to start feeling better. Now with the pillow under my legs I wake up completely fine. Thank you.
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Thanks Jeff and Jesse, Best night's sleep I've had since I can't remember when. I've been a side sleeper with all the pillow accompaniment for decades. I often fall asleep while on my back but always wake myself up with a snore, then I assume the side position. But using your on the back position advice, especially the head/pillow placement, I slept straight through the night for probably 8 hrs...huge shocker and extremely rare for me, hardly moved out of position, and woke up with absolutely no pain...I'm old so that's huge. Love your videos Jeff and this one might be my favorite...so far. Thank you All the best -
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Wow, incredible timing; I was literally planning to sleep tonight. Jeff, you're a mindreader. I don't know how you do it.
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We sleep 1/3rd of our life. The importance of sleep is therefore obvious! Great share Jeff.
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Tried this last night with the on the back, pillow under legs, head pillow tucked, and wow! I feel great this morning. Thank you so much
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It’s amazing how I’ve found out everything he’s talked about from the stomach which I can’t do anymore to the side and back. I mean everything over the years through trial and error. It’s not good that people can’t figure out how to get a good night sleep. But I know there are. Good job Jeff I love your material
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Next: proper love making positions to avoid injuries
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I'm pretty sure that jeff sleeps like a bat, straight and upside down
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I wear tactical gear on a daily basis and I‘ve gotten pretty bad lower back pains over the last couple of months. I‘m sure that the gear on my belt is the main problem but I also think that my usual (fetal) sleeping position is a factor as well. I‘m gonna try to make it a habit to lay on my back with a pillow under my legs ☺️ Thanks for the video!
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Worth listening to! As a medical provider, I often cover sleep positions with my patients when they present with a morning onset of neck/shoulder pains, very common to be a contributing factor if not the underlying reason behind their musculoskeletal pains. And it's good to see these being presented here with some helpful and simple tips. Great work! Keep it up! Fan of the show in general, first post. You're an effective communicator! I refer several of my athlete patients to you for best cues, review of proper form, appropriate exercises for them, and just as much which to stay away from, and why. Fantastic! Cheers to your continued success!
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Jeff the type of dude to set his alarm for the middle of the night to switch sides when sleeping sideways in order to avoid imbalances
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It is VERY hard to change your sleeping habits when it comes to favorite position. I always sleep on one side with one leg stretched and I was never able to fall asleep on my back, even though I'm perfectly aware this is the best position.
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The best fitness channel on the internet. Hands down. Great content, as always, Jeff and Jesse!
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the thing is; this vid really helped me big thanks to you jeff. i was sleeping like leg to stomach position and suffering an increasing hip pain. after this video i changed it to fetal position now the pain is gone!!
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These are great tips and they’re much appreciated! I think the only issue unfortunately for certain people like myself is I move around a lot throughout the night. Whatever position or even area that I fall asleep in, is definitely not how or where I wake up lol.
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After a lot of self experimentation over the last few years, I’ve found the biggest predictors of quality sleep for me were: temperature, how long I spent preparing to sleep (reading), and what I ate in the latter half of the day. Room too warm? Definitely going to toss and turn. Went straight from a night out into bed? Going to struggle to fall asleep. Ate a huge cheeseburger an hour before trying to sleep? Probably going to get shoddy sleep in the middle of the night. Caffeine, level of activity, amount of sunlight etc seem to have very little effect. It’s always wise to heed the Pythian Oracle and know thyself, since everyone is a little different with these things.
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Very, very helpful! I've struggled with the side position and hip flexor pain. I'll try these tips for next 10 days. Thanks.
