It can cause joint stiffness
Your knees and hips remain bent the entire night while you sleep in a recliner. This may impact your posture over time and cause stiff hips, calves, and hamstrings. Your risk of falling or having balance issues may also increase if your muscles are tight.
Relieves Back Pain and Aids in Breathing
It may lower the incidence of back pain. Many people also experience back pain caused by sleeping in uncomfortable beds. The recliner chair allows your body to recline at varying angles to provide the ultimate comfort.
The unique sleeping position offered by a recliner can make it much easier to breathe as you sleep with the head slightly raised. Easier breathing will make for a more restful night for anyone, but this change in sleeping position can be life-changing for those suffering from conditions like sleep apnea or COPD.
Improves Circulation
By elevating your legs and feet on a recliner, your body circulation is naturally redirected, helping blood flow.
You should have good foot contact with the floor or have a large footrest for support. Seat depth should allow you to sit back to make contact with the backrest with about 3-fingers clearance between underside of knee and the front edge of chair.
A recliner keeps knees and hips bent through the night; that can lead to tight hips, calves, and hamstrings, and posture problems. Additionally, tight muscles can increase risks for falls. Sleeping with knees bent for long periods can weaken blood vessels in the lower body.
Recliners are only bad for leg circulation when they are used in the wrong way and for long hours. But, recliners can actually be good for leg circulation as they provide multiple ways to adjust the back and footrest to control its position.
Sleeping flat allows the spine to take a break, so sleeping only on a recliner may cause back pain to develop. Tightening of the joints, especially in elderly people. Pressure sores (although these can develop in bed too).
Many people think they need to sit up completely straight but research suggests sitting in a reclined position is actually better for the spine as it reduces pressure. Back in 2006, academics in Canada and Scotland found that reclining by at least 135 degrees was effective in relieving back pain.
Research has found that reclining your chair puts the least stress on your spine when it is reclined to about 135 degrees and may reduce your risk of back pain. The ability of riser recliner chairs to move to this position with ease makes them a good choice for people who sit for long periods.
But reclining is not bad for back pain. In fact, research has identified that sitting in a reclined position is better for your back than sitting upright.
Sleeping upright can help those who experience pain when side-sleeping. It may also reduce sleep apnea symptoms. However, if done too often, it can increase the risk of blood clotting and back pain. For better sleep while sitting up, shoot for a 60-degree angle and use a pillow for back support.
Recliner chairs can help with sleep apnea
Staying at an upright angle can alleviate people with sleep apnea and emphysema. It's recommended that those with conditions like sleep apnea and emphysema sleep at a more upright angle versus on their backs, says Dr. Kadar, but that's easier said than done.
Because they are generally made with the same types of material and framework as sofas, quality recliners will often last as long as sofas, about seven to fifteen years – about seven if they see daily/nightly use, fifteen if they are used more as a decorative/accent piece, and as high as 20 if they are leather.
Sleeping sitting up in a recliner shouldn't be harmful. It could, in some cases, raise your risk of deep-vein thrombosis, a blood clot in a limb that can occur if your arms or legs are bent and you are motionless for hours.
If you suffer from lung problems like asthma, sleep apnea or COPD, sleeping in a recliner probably isn't the best thing for your health. Bad posture can block airflow, reducing the amount of oxygen your lungs can take in.
Conventional chairs and sofas can exacerbate joint pain but the right rise and recline chair has the opposite effect. Versus Arthritis, a leading UK charity, agrees that “some people like to use a reclining chair so that they can change their posture easily but remain supported”.
There are two main types of recliners – riser recliner chairs, and recliner chairs. Recliner chair beds can even be turned into a temporary bed when needed. For very elderly or infirm people, getting into and out of a bed or chair can be a struggle.
Inclined Bed Therapy Side Effects
Adults at a higher risk of blood clots should consult with their doctor before using Inclined Bed Therapy. This is because the elevated position is similar to sleeping while seated, which is known to increase one's chance of developing deep vein thrombosis.
Another common factor is that most recliner have a large fluffy cushion or pillow behind the head that pushes the head in front of the shoulders even though you maybe reclined backward. As a landmark the ear lobe should be over the middle of your shoulders when you are standing up.
Applying heavy-duty felt pads to the bottom of your furniture's legs will also prevent scratches. This is a cheap and easy solution that's perfect for sofas, recliners, tables, dining chairs, and more. Simply peel and stick these felt pads to the bottom of your furniture's legs.
Some customers worry that they have picked the wrong size chair if their feet extend past the end of the footrest of their recliner. If you've noticed this, don't be alarmed – this is actually the ideal positioning for your legs and feet.