There's one thing in life that we can never get away from we must do it or we can't survive and that's called sleeping although many of us sleep in the wrong position even though you don't wake up with pain it doesn't necessarily mean it's good for you so I want to tell you the two worst positions to be in the two positions you really need to avoid to allow your musculoskeletal system your spine your structure of your body to stay healthy now if you have underlying pathologies or problems like herniated discs bulging discs osteoarthritis degenerative joint disease pinched nerves shoulder issues rotator cuff adhesive capsulitis bursitis these positions.
you don't want to do otherwise you're going to hurt yourself the first position is sleeping on your stomach when you sleep on your stomach you have to turn your head either to the right or turn your head to the left now think about this if you're taking your head and you're turning it left or right because you have to breathe it's no different as you being on a computer and looking off to the left or looking off to the right for six to eight hours it's the same thing the body is not used to be in that position for prolonged periods of time so what happens is the body starts to compromise it starts to compensate the body is saying wow this is the position.
I need to be in is going to start causing changes particularly in the structure the ligaments the muscles and tissues and potentially start causing permanent problems in the future also, understand when you lay on your the stomach you can't expand the ribs you're not getting the full amount of oxygen the amount of oxygen is limited therefore the cells in your whole body becomes less efficient so if you have to be on your stomach until you initially can get off of it i recommend you use a pillow underneath your chest area maybe a pillow underneath the neck area so you don't rotate that head and that 45 to that 90 degrees okay.
Because when you go to that max degree of rotating all the way over that potentially can do a lot of harm to those ligaments and affect the nerve roots the next position you need to avoid is being on your side but cuddling that pillow and keeping your arms above your head very common people sleep that way now here's the problem the problem is that you're putting excessive stress on the head of the humerus, you're pushing it forward most people already have the problem of rounded forward shoulders forward head posture.
If you have a condition a previous problem bursitis a tendonitis a rotator cuff involvement or any other type of situation that you've had in the past with the shoulder you don't want to keep the hands above the head as you're holding that pillow because it's going to exacerbate that particular problem so by pushing that shoulder forward the head of the humerus forward you are really causing potential issues in there and the body can lay down scar tissue and different types of tissue to help support that weakened area.
If you continue to do this over time so the best thing to do in that situation if you're a side sleeper is sleep on the other side you'll say well it's difficult well if it's that difficult and you have the sun coming in through your the window you might want to sleep on the opposite side or turn the bed around the another way so you don't face the sunlight that may be a good reason or a good excuse not to sleep on that side so there you have it very important now you're asking how should I sleep preferably if you sleep on your side keep the knees bent keep those arms out in front of you or below you not above you, it's good to change positions frequently if you're on your back obviously very good position to be and keep the knees slightly bent pillow underneath the knees again if you're on your side pillow between the knees uh it's very important to change positions but although when you're sleeping.
I know it's difficult but we're talking precisely with narrowing that the space of the humerus as it moves forward anterior as it caused compression upon the neurovascular bundle that bundle of nerves uh and that vascularity of tissues that run through that area it goes all the way down the arms of the hands of the fingers so you'll notice you wake up middle night and you're shaking your hand or you're trying to get that numbness out of your hand or you're having pain or whatever it is that is because a neurovascular bundle is being compressed you can't keep fiddling with that otherwise, it's going to give you lots of problems.