There are those who sleep on their back, those who sleep on their side, those who sleep on their stomach with starfish supplement… In short, everyone has their own way of sleeping and if you share your bed, it is better to get used to it because these positions are taken “naturally”. Sometimes annoying, they sometimes accentuate pain already present in certain areas of the body such as the back or neck for example.
To find out how to remedy your nighttime discomfort, 20 Minutes consulted physiotherapist Julien Bendavid, expert at LPG.
“There is no particularly good posture for sleeping”
You can always tell your partner to stop taking up all the space in the bed when they sleep, but they might never do it. Unless you opt for “sleep divorce” and sleep separately, your partner may have a hard time changing the way they sleep.
Chase away the natural, it comes back at a gallop! Julien Bendavid explains to our newspaper that the “way of sleeping is natural”. “In the absence of illnesses or chronic pain reported by your doctor, there is not particularly a good posture for sleeping,” says the physiotherapist, who invites us to look for another avenue when investigating the reason for our pain.
Finding words for your pain
“If you suffer at night or when you wake up, it is not directly linked to your position,” explains the physiotherapist. The culprit is therefore elsewhere, and our expert invites you to look into your lifestyle. The reasons can be multiple, starting with “bad posture” or “mechanical stress”.
Typical case. During the day, you sit in front of your computer, especially a laptop. Your head is slightly lowered and all the muscle tension is in your neck. However, at night, you sleep on your stomach, you necessarily rotate to the left or right, which will accentuate “cervical hypertension”. As a result, you will have pain at night because of the additional twisting, but also more and more during the day because of the posture which is not modified and inadequate.
Optimize your sleep in case of pain
Just like our way of walking or writing, our way of sleeping belongs to us, but can be optimized to make the nights easier, because it is “essential to have restful sleep”, recalls Julien Bendavid.
For prevention, the professional advises “stretching” in order to relax your muscles. Breathing exercises and massages are also good options to reduce muscle tension. These can be done by a professional if you don’t know how to do it. Also consider adding muscle strengthening to your routine: “Pain is often due to a lack of mobility,” explains the physiotherapist. If you have neck pain, for example, strengthen your back because the muscles in this area hold those of the neck, and “a head weighs a lot,” reminds the expert.
For correction, you can invest in more comfortable mattresses and ergonomic pillows, advises Julien Bendavid. If the budget is tight, other free techniques can help. For example, place a pillow between your knees when sleeping on your side. Or under the knees or stomach when you have lower back pain. This allows you to “release posterior tensions and keep a straight posture during the night”.