Sleeping On Your Back Causes Hypoxia (Low Oxygen)

“Laugh and the world laughs with you, snore and you sleep alone.” — Anthony Burgess

Often touted as the preferred way to sleep, sleeping on your back can do more harm than good.

If we rewind for a moment and look at the neurodevelopment of children, the way they develop curves in their spine is primarily through tummy time.

Parents are always hearing the importance of tummy time.

As they should.

Being on your tummy as a child is crucial for motor and structural development.

Initially, tummy time functions primarily to develop the strength of the axial musculature so baby can lift her head up.

Once she is able to do this, she will start panning her eyes along the horizon and rotate her head from side to side.

More specifically, it is the rotation of her head from side to side whilst on her belly that will develop the curve in her neck.

If we break down these two movements:

lifting her head (extension) and

looking off to the side (rotation)

This is how the joints of spine grow to have the angles and articulations they do.

It is through tummy time that we develop the muscles that extend and rotate the head on the neck, thereby allowing for proper curve development to happen.

So if tummy time is important for kids to develop a curve, shouldn’t it be important for adults to maintain it?!

Do you even tummy time, bro?

This is precisely why stomach sleeping is important, and my preferred sleep position for longevity and vitality.

Sleeping prone is the one thing as adults, that put our heads simultaneously in extension and rotation on a daily basis.

The position that will help us maintain the necessary curve in our neck.

Stomach sleeping is the only time where we can undo the prolonged flexion of our head, open up our airway, train our diaphragm to be strong, and improves nasal breathing.

Now I can go on a nerd safari on why having a proper cervical is important… but that is a whole other animal.

For brevity for those that are not familiar with the importance of a sound cervical curve, here is a brief, and I’m sure incomplete list that having a cervical curve assists with:

So.

You get it.

Having a curve is important.

Sleeping with a pillow behind your head does the opposite — it destroys your cervical curve over time.

The issue I take with a pillow under our head is this: during the day we are already always in flexion.

Think about it.

How many hours do you spend driving, on your computer, on your phone, or sitting in any given day?

The average American now sits for 12–16 hours a day.

And if you say, but doc, I exercise and go to the gym!

Awesome.

However,if we think of the most typical cardio machines…how many of them only train you with movements going only forward and backward?

Treadmill —legs and arms are moving forward and backward

Elliptical — ditto

Bike — samesies

Stairclimber — still forward and backward

They are all working the sagittal plane.

Which is what we do at the desk, in the car, and on our phone…we stay midline.

To add insult to injury, there is usually a TV integrated into the machine so our heads are down anyways while we are using these machines.

We NEED to move our heads side, just like we need to move our bodies side to side.

Health and vitality live in the coronal plane.

In other words, movements that go side to side, away from the midline..

Think jumping jacks, squats, warrior pose, lateral arm movements, or dancing (assuming you dance like me and your arms are everywhere)

Similarly, when we are sleeping, if we do NOT move our heads side to side and just keep it propped up and flexed….I can confidently say goodbye to your cervical curve…and with it, some of the essential relay and feedback systems to the brain.

Stomach sleeping is the equivalent of adult tummy time.

When you think about the time you spend in the midline…you will begin to realize how much you need it.

If sleeping on your stomach is uncomfortable, you need to find a way to restore the curve in your neck.

Easy ways to do this are to get under chiropractic care coupled with muscular rehabilitation to restore proper rotation, lateral flexion, and extension.