How you can beat BACK PAIN with a new pillow

SIX WAYS TO EASE THE ACHES

LYING on my stomach, right arm flung over my head and with my left cheek squashed against the pillow, I feel snug and secure as I drift off.

Apart from during my two pregnancies, this is the position in which I’ve slept all my life. But I’m starting to wonder if — despite the initial comfort — it is causing me pain.

Increasingly, my upper back hurts and I have a sporadic tingling in my right shoulder that no amount of stretching or exercise will alleviate. Could these be connected to my sleeping position? A recent report by leading Australian bedding manufacturer Bed Threads warned that the worst position in which to sleep is on your stomach, because it cranes your neck at a 90degree angle and puts pressure on your muscles and joints.

Doctors at the Mayo Clinic in the US also claim that sleeping in this position places a strain on your back and spine.

‘When you lie on your stomach, you’re arching your neck and your upper back and this can lead to pain,’ says Hannah Williams, an

osteopath and owner of Burton Joyce Osteopathy. ‘Also, you have to twist your head to one side to breathe, which can cause neck pain the next day.’

It leads to pain because ‘on either side of the spine are facet joints, which get squashed as you extend and rotate your neck’, says Hannah Williams.

‘There are important nerves and blood vessels passing between each facet joint, and if the spaces are narrowed as the joints are squashed during sleep, the nerves might become impinged and irritated, which can lead to pain in the neck, shoulders and arms, and pins and needles in the hands.’

For a short period of time, a healthy body can cope with being in this position, she says. ‘But if you’re lying in it for six to eight hours, the compression of the nerves and blood vessels may reduce circulation and damage the vessels, leading to neck and shoulder pain, and even headaches.’ Raising your arms above your head when sleeping can make any tingling worse, she adds, as it reduces blood flow from the neck to the arms. ‘It’s like stepping on a hosepipe — blood flow isn’t going to be as effective as you are squashing the blood vessels.’

A review of studies into the link between sleep position and health, published in The BMJ last summer, concluded: ‘Some sleep postures, such as prone [sleeping on your stomach], are clinically believed to increase load on spinal tissues, reducing recovery and provoking waking spinal symptoms.’

In other words, sleeping on your stomach may cause back pain. But not everyone is convinced that this position is bad for you.

‘Your body wouldn’t put you in a position that would cause you discomfort or pain,’ says independent sleep expert Dr Neil Stanley, who adds that, in any case, we change position between 12 and 20 times a night, completely unconsciously, which releases pressure on the joints.

Is there an optimal sleeping position, then — and if there is, can we persuade our bodies to stay in it? Sleeping on your back is believed to be best because your head, neck and spine rest in a neutral position, without any pain-inducing kinks and curves. It is also most likely to minimise the onset of wrinkles, as facial skin has no contact with the pillow, say some dermatologists.

However, sleeping on your side is more common, with 74 per cent of people adopting some variation of this position.

Hannah Williams adds that, as long as your head and spine are in a neutral ‘straight line’ and are supported, ‘there’s not a big difference’ to your spine between sleeping on your back and on your side.

Given that the skin on the left side of my face is more lined because it is constantly compressed against my pillow at night, as well as the niggles in my back and shoulder, I’m keen to learn to sleep on my back.

I searched for tips, techniques and gadgets that claim to help prevent stomach sleeping and, with the help of experts, put them to the test. My husband Chris wakes up at 4am for work, so he took note of how I was sleeping at that time.

I recorded my waking position at 6am each morning. Here are the results . . .