Sleeping left is right :)

ines871
ines871 Posts: 1,283 ✭✭✭✭✭
edited July 2021 in General Health

Enough. Too many struggle with ever falling asleep, let alone deciding how they want to sleep every night.

About half of Americans, acc. to research, sleep in the fetal position, the most common form of sleep. Next are those sleeping on their stomach. A separate 13% sleep on their sides, with arms stretched out. While the last few sleep on their back. - For obvious reason, anyone with even a hint of sleep Apnea ought Not ever sleep on stomach, or flat on back. You WANT TO wake UP !, right?

How do we get to Naturally & dependably... sleep like any healthy baby - Well, on your LEFT is the Right side🙂 WHY ?

Six compelling reasons: Starting with the HEART: your blood flows throughout your body and eventually returns to the heart on the right side. But when you sleep on the right, the pressure of your body smashes up against the blood vessels that return to your ticker. Meanwhile, sleeping on your left side with your right side not squished takes some pressure off the heart, as gravity can facilitate body Lymph drainage toward, and aortic circulation away from the heart. - Experience with my heart: life's enduring adverse events came to a head with a persistent Candida complication, that after medical malpractice caused my Tricuspid valve to leak increasingly making my heart overworked so it went into failure! Then in 2013, whilst home all alone & at the other end of house from phone I suffered thru a major heart-attack that normally simply kills. -- Thru no small Miracle I survived, tho it took me two full days before I could inch my way outa bed. - On nights when I forget myself & fall asleep on the right, I will awaken with my ticker more than less fibrillating... (i worked as an icu, & Coronary nurse so yes, i know the scores). - YET, all nights sleeping on left side, immediately I Naturally & dependably... sleep like any healthy baby & all night long. Nough said.

According to Ayurvedic medicine, sleeping on your left side allows your body to better filter lymph fluid and waste via the lymph nodes as the left side of our body is the dominant lymphatic side. Western research has also found that sleeping on the left side can help the body process waste materials from the brain.

Since the stomach lies on the left side of the body, Sleeping on the left side also allows the stomach & pancreas to hang naturally, which keeps pancreatic enzymes and other digestive processes humming... & thus Digestion due to the simple matter of gravity can continue.. Furthermore, lying on the left side allows food waste to easily move from the large intestine into the descending colon (meaning you’re more likely to have a bowel movement upon waking)..

Another thing: ever suffer from acid Reflux? - (I do once yearly, but only when laying on right side), after my favorite Thanksgiving meal as this is the 1 meal I eat like there's No tomorrow. - The effects are fairly immediate; if you’re struggling with heartburn after a meal, take a 10-minute lie-down on your left side.

Suffer from chronic back pain ? - Switch to left-side sleeping, because this relieves spinal pressure, & can even Stop that. Feeling more comfortable, in turn, will improve your chances of getting a good night’s sleep.

Sleeping on the left side doesn’t only improve pregnant women’s circulation. It can also keep the uterus from squeezing the liver, and increase blood flow to the uterus, kidneys, and fetus. For this reason, MD's are wise to recommend that pregnant women spend as much of their sleep time as possible on their left side.


All this said, IF someone has issues with their heart, or glaucoma, or carpal tunnel, then seek to Resolve them, so that All can sleep on left side, immediately Naturally & dependably... sleep like any healthy baby & all night long.

Gute Nacht ! and


Comments

  • merlin44
    merlin44 Posts: 426 ✭✭✭✭

    @rainbow Amazing, even our sleep position contributes to our health. Thanks for sharing.

  • LaurieLovesLearning
    LaurieLovesLearning Posts: 7,573 admin

    I knew there was a proper side. Over time I guess that I forgot which side. I guess left is going to be the new way for me. It will take some getting used to, though.

    For relief in my back and a rib that is often out, or when prolapse lets is awful feeling presence be known, relaxing on my back (at least for a short while until feelings subside) feels best. When my knees hurt, I lay on my stomach for a bit as well. After either, I lay on my side.

  • hmsadmin
    hmsadmin Posts: 123 admin

    Thank you for this post!

    I've generally been a left side sleeper, but had tried to change when I was told that it was worse for and stresses the heart. With your post and other reading I've since done, I've decided the Dr. who told me that didn't actually do his research, and have gone back to my left or back.

  • shllnzl
    shllnzl Posts: 1,820 ✭✭✭✭✭

    I just discovered that italics, once started, carry through the whole thread!

    I am one of those people who have trouble falling asleep, and do so best on my right side. I know that contributes to my acid reflux problem, so I have been trying to condition myself to sleep on the left side.

    Thanks to @rainbow I now know all the other reasons to sleep left. Thanks for that info -- knowledge works to change behavior.

  • LaurieLovesLearning
    LaurieLovesLearning Posts: 7,573 admin
    edited December 2019

    @shllnzl Haha! I noticed that too! I wondered if I did something. Oh well, we have very important information that deserves the emphatic italic words.

    I was very careful to not sleep on my back in pregnancy. As far as on my left side...I sure hope that I did that for all of them. I heard about doing so when I was expecting baby #1. It made sense.

    @rainbow I need to thank you as well. It is good to know all of the reasons!

  • Leslie Carl
    Leslie Carl Posts: 255 ✭✭✭✭

    Thank you so much for this post @rainbow! Good to know all those benefits of sleeping left. And Merry Christmas to you too! 🎄

    I learned about laying on the left side to avoid heartburn at night a while back while doing some research for a friend. It said that the esophagus is in line with the right side of the stomach, so if the esophageal sphincter is not closing properly, stomach acids can easily spread up into the esophagus, when laying on the right side. Laying on the left side puts the acids at the other end of the stomach, away from the esophagus.

    Just a side note: Ginger is a good remedy against heartburn because it suppresses H. pylori bacteria, which can which can attribute to heartburn (and ulcers), but it also tightens your lower esophageal sphincter, thus preventing acid from refluxing.

  • shllnzl
    shllnzl Posts: 1,820 ✭✭✭✭✭

    @Leslie Carl Good to know about the ginger; I will give it a try.

  • Desiree
    Desiree Posts: 255 ✭✭✭

    I am a right side sleeper and I have tried to sleep on my left side, but when I do I end up with extreme pain in my left shoulder. For some reason my left shoulder turns in more than my right and then it "freezes" and wakes me in pain. I have had to actually manipulate it back into normal position. If I could figure out a way to keep my shoulder stabilized I would try it again but I haven't figure out a way.

  • tammyrichardsmt9
    tammyrichardsmt9 Posts: 109 ✭✭✭

    Thank you for this information! I remember being told to sleep on my left side when I was pregnant, but didn't realize the benefits at other times.

  • Ruth Ann Reyes
    Ruth Ann Reyes Posts: 577 admin

    I have definitely heard this before and I try!

  • maryannfricko
    maryannfricko Posts: 133 ✭✭✭

    This was very interesting. I heard something similar for sleeping when I was pregnant.

  • ines871
    ines871 Posts: 1,283 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Hi @Ruth Reyes-Loiacano , + @Leslie Carl + @tammyrichardsmt9 + @maryannfricko + everyone - Considering that we spend about 1/3 of our life vastly asleep, it might as well be Healthy

    sleep, so, Glad I could help.

    And a Happy Healthy New Year to us all...

  • SherryA
    SherryA Posts: 314 ✭✭✭

    I have bursitis in my left hip, and can't lay on that side. ☹️ I'm doubly sad because that's the side I prefer to sleep on!

  • Lesley
    Lesley Posts: 28 ✭✭✭

    @rainbow Really interesting post thank you. I'd read years ago that when feeling nauseous (I used to be a party girl LOL) sleeping on the left helps and I always start off in that position. usually wake up on my left too, but no idea what I get up to in-between!

  • gennywu
    gennywu Posts: 96 ✭✭✭

    Thank you so much for this information! I never knew that it matters what side you sleep on. I have been sleeping on my right side - thinking it is time for a change.

  • ines871
    ines871 Posts: 1,283 ✭✭✭✭✭

    You are Welcome, ~ @merlin44 , do know that I've Noticed you have not posted since Christmas eve a month ago. Everything good ?

    All your goats still happy ? - Are you keeping snug as a bug in a rug ? - Are you Ready for a wonderful 🙂 Spring... Wishing you well...

  • dipat2005
    dipat2005 Posts: 1,290 ✭✭✭✭✭

    I have never heard of sleeping on the left side before. Even though I have Bursitis on the left side maybe it will help my GERD. Thanks for the information.