Whether you should sleep on your right or left side depends on which health issues you face. The left side may provide more benefits, particularly for those who are pregnant, or experience gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD). People with these conditions might want to take special care to sleep on their left side.
*Employ relaxation techniques: Some helpful methods for people include deep breathing, yoga, gentle stretching, and mindfulness meditation. *Regularly engage in physical activity: Exercise on a regular basis helps people sleep better at night but avoid it shortly before bed.
Positioning yourself on your side or stomach can help the airways stay open to reduce snoring and alleviate mild apnea, Salas says. Reflux and heartburn: If you suffer from heartburn, sleeping on your right side can make symptoms worse, Salas says.
Sleeping on your left side can help naturally open the airways and make breathing easier. You may also find relief if you rest on your right side, but doctors believe sleeping on your left side to be more effective. It's also the recommended sleeping position for people with sleep apnea.
Sleep on your right side to protect your heart
Data has shown that when people lie on their left side during sleep, the position of their heart shifts due to the pull of gravity. That causes changes in the heart's electrical activity that show up on electrocardiograms (ECG).
In general, the consensus seems to be that sleeping on your left side is better for most people. It may reduce GERD and sleep apnea more than sleeping on your right side. The only exception is that people with congestive heart failure or heart palpitations might benefit from sleeping on their right sides.
Ayurveda and modern science, both are in favour of waking up from the right-side of the bed. Ayurveda's belief system claims that our body has Surya Nadi on the right side of our body. So, when you rise on your right side, it actually helps to boost the digestive system.
Experts typically recommend sleeping on the side as the best position for breathing problems like snoring and pauses in breathing caused by obstructive sleep apnea.
A silent heart attack is a heart attack that has few, if any, symptoms or has symptoms not recognized as a heart attack. A silent heart attack might not cause chest pain or shortness of breath, which are typically associated with a heart attack.
A heart attack may strike suddenly, but most people have warning signs and symptoms hours, days or weeks beforehand. One of the earliest warning signs of an impending heart attack is chest pain, or angina, that occurs repeatedly because of exertion and is then eased by rest.
This is the reason why many people complain of getting a headache when they wake up. Sleeping with your head pointing North can also disrupt your blood circulation and lead to disturbed sleep. In order to prevent such a scenario, it is better to avoid sleeping with your head facing North.
Sleeping without a pillow can help some people who sleep on their stomach, but it is not a good idea for everyone. People who sleep on their side or back will usually find that sleeping without a pillow puts pressure on their neck. By doing this, it can ruin a person's quality of sleep and lead to neck and back pain.
"As soon as you wake up after a night of sleep, you should get out of bed. If you lie awake in bed, your brain links being awake to being in bed," according to Professor Matthew Walker from University of California Berkeley.
According to a report published by The Lancet, it's safest for you and your baby to sleep on your side by the 28-week mark, as it helps you both get the blood flow you need.
Sleeping in the lateral, or side position, as compared to sleeping on one's back or stomach, may more effectively remove brain waste and prove to be an important practice to help reduce the chances of developing Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and other neurological diseases, according to researchers at Stony Brook University ...
Lying on your left side can stimulate the vagus nerve, sending abnormal electrical signals to the heart causing palpitations. It is a harmless reaction and if it worries you, change position or avoid lying on your left side.
Cons: Sleeping on the left side can put pressure on the stomach and lungs, and affect blood flow, so it is best to switch it up… or you may experience numbness in your arms from resting on one for too long.
Sleeping on the left side is the best sleeping position for hypertension because it relieves blood pressure on blood vessels that return blood to the heart.
Similarly, sleeping on your left side, specifically, could help the flow of blood to your heart. When your heart pumps blood out to your body, it gets circulated and then flows back to your heart on the right side, Winter explains.
Try relaxation techniques, such as meditation, yoga or deep breathing. Avoid stimulants. Caffeine, nicotine, some cold medicines and energy drinks can make the heart beat too fast or irregularly.
Heart palpitations are something that many people experience, and one potential culprit behind these palpitations could be diet. Limiting your consumption of things like caffeine, spicy foods, red meat, processed foods, alcohol, soda, baked goods, and deli meat may help to reduce the frequency of heart palpitations.