Rise and grind! Nobody wants to wake up with that nagging neck ache, a stiff lower back, or creaky knees and shoulders. Paying attention to how you snooze could be one way to help you feel great to start your day! Here are three suggestions you should consider if you aren’t sleeping well and constantly wake up with aches and pains.
1) Avoid sleeping on your stomach! Sleeping on your stomach causes excessive arching of your low back, and forces your neck to rotate to lay on your pillow. With your head propped up your spine is predisposed to too much extension and applies a great deal of pressure on your intervertebral discs.
2) Sleep with a pillow under your knees or between your knees. This will help keep your pelvis aligned and encourage a more neutral spinal position, relieving pressure on those intervertebral discs. This also forces us into two of the most favorable sleeping positions, lying on your back (pillow under knees) and on your side (pillow between your knees).
3) Ever experience your arm engulfed in pins and needles? Sleeping with your arm above your head is also a position to avoid. This flexed position of the arm can lead to blood flow restriction and possibly an impingement of the rotator cuff muscles over time. Instead, try to keep your shoulder down to your side, or at least below 90 degrees.
Sleep easy!
