This video is sponsored by Manscaped.
Brew: We’ve all been there— awakening from
a long, dream-filled sleep, but instead of
feeling rested, your body feels tight and sore.
It’ll happen to all of us every once in a while,
and y’know, a bad sleep now and then isn’t the
end of the world, but what if every sleep was bad?
For one Reddit user, every single
night was a practice in pain tolerance.
They write in the subreddit “Today I Effed Up”.
Grill: “To paint the scene, I have horrible
spinal issues with names I cannot pronounce.
After several neck injuries and a pinched nerve,
I no longer can lift objects more than 10lbs.
Most of quarantine I was practically bed
ridden because the pain was so severe.
My neck is beginning to lose its curve.
I have paid thousands of dollars in chiropractic
and physical therapy fees in an attempt to
reduce the pain and reverse the damage.”
Brew: As it turns out, the source of their problem
might have been something you do every single night.
Today’s episode concerns sleep science!
As always, we recommend speaking to
your doctor if you have any questions.
And with that out of the way, Let’s get into it!
If we wake up with pain, the first thing we can
try to fix it is changing our sleep positions.
Each one offers different benefits.
Let’s go over what they do to our bodies!
Even if you don’t like sleeping this way, I’m
certain that you’ve used this position before!
It’s the fetal position!
According to Healthline, it can help
reduce snoring, and lower back pain.
By pulling your knees into your chest, you can
reduce bending of the spine and open up your joints.
If you don’t keep a loose posture however,
you’ll limit your deep breathing, and you could
wake up in the morning with joint stiffness.
This position is more uncommon than the others.
It’s upright!
Sleeping upright raises the head above the body,
which has the benefit of keeping your airway open
and reducing the risk of snoring and sleep apnea.
It can also help with lower back pain, although,
it should be mentioned that sleeping upright
greatly limits your ability to move while sleeping,
and you may experience some soreness that way.
Prone— sleeping on your stomach, according to Healthline,
among others, is likely the worst way to sleep.
It’ll help with snoring, and sleep apnea,
but might exacerbate neck and back pain.
In addition to putting extra strain on your muscles
and joints— which may make you wake up sore.
If you must sleep on your stomach, then one way you can
mitigate some of the negative effects of this position
is to place a thin pillow under your stomach and hips.
This will improve the way your spine bends overnight,
giving your less back pain when you wake up.
Sleeping on your side might be one of the best for your body.
Like sleeping on your stomach and in the fetal
position, sleeping on your side can alleviate snoring,
but did you know it can also reduce heartburn?
A study asked 10 participants to eat high fat meals
before going to bed in order to compare experiences.
Researchers found that when participants slept on
their right side, their heartburn symptoms worsened.
Another review from the British Medical Journal
found that it protected individuals from spinal pain.
Sleeping on your side can also lead to stiffness in your
shoulders and jaw on the side you choose to sleep on though.
Putting a pillow between your knees can help
align your hips and prevent lower back pain.
There is also some data that connects sleeping on your
side to the development of wrinkles earlier in life.
But, a few wrinkles never hurt anyone, right?
Supine— in terms of back pain, sleeping flat
on your back will give you the most support.
By sleeping this way, you use gravity to keep
an even pressure along your entire spine,
limiting extra pressure on any one joint or disc.
If you want to make sure that your back is aligned
properly, you can place a pillow just under your
knees to keep the natural curve of your spine.
It’s also been suggested that sleeping
on your back can help with wrinkles.
It won’t make you young again, but you’ll
avoid any pillow related wrinklige.
Grill: Ah yes, Pillow Wrinklige,
my favourite Game of Thrones actor.
Brew: That being said, sleeping on your back
won’t help with snoring and sleep apnea.
Just like how ignoring your health won’t help you with it.
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Let’s face it, cancer isn’t always an easy topic
to remember, especially if you haven’t had a close
brush with it, but it’s important to keep it in mind.
Just like it can be hard to think about
our sleep habits as a part of our culture.
The Western concept of sleeping in a raised bed is
not so universal as it may seem from inside of it.
For example, in Japanese culture, most people sleep
on the floor on futons, and in the past they would
simply sleep on tatami mats made out of rice straw.
Michael Tetley, a physiotherapist from the UK, has
studied the relationship between other primate species,
indigenous populations, and sleeping positions.
He believes that nomadic and forest dwelling peoples
exhibit fewer musculoskeletal issues than those living
in western societies because of the way they sleep.
He also argues that pillows are completely unnecessary.
Chill: What!? No no no I—I need a thicc pillow.
Grill: “A” thick pillow?
You’ve got at least 10 on the bed right now.
Chill: Don’t shame me dawg.
Brew: Tetley grew up in Kenya speaking Swahili,
so he has personal experience of sleep both
in a Western context, and an African one.
In the mid-50s, he commanded a platoon of
soldiers from various tribes who taught him how
to sleep on the ground comfortably and vigilantly.
He describes a few different “instinctive” sleeping positions.
Recovery Position— The first looks a lot like
the recovery position when you give first aid.
Chill: That makes sense!
It’s comfy, and it opens your airway right?
Brew: Exactly right!
The next is called “Sleeping on Shins”, which requires one to
kneel on the ground, and curl up into a little ball to sleep.
He says that Tibetan caravaneers sleep on
their shins in order to limit the amount of
flesh that’s in contact with the cold ground.
Tetley also mentions that this will conserve body heat,
as well as allowing “both ears to listen for danger”.
It also comes with the added bonus of helping sleep apnea.
Grill: Yeah sleeping on your shins
sounds more like punishment than comfort.
Brew: For some, maybe.
But if you’re looking out for predators, and trying to stay
warm, this might be as comfortable as you’re gonna get.
The third position he describes is what he calls
the “lookout” position, where you tuck your hands
under your chest, using one arm as a pillow.
Tetley believes that this position is not
only comfortable, but increases survivability,
as it allows both ears to listen for danger.
He notes that he has seen howler monkeys
using this position in Costa Rica.
Quadrupedal Lying— the last position Tetley describes
is similar to the way that quadrupedal animals rest.
He argues that this position can aid
the body to repair spinal lesions.
He speculates that perhaps animals adopt this position
to use the sun’s rays to help relax their muscles.
Tetley’s main argument is that these“instinctive”
positions are used by bipedal mammals to
alleviate low back pain and joint stiffness.
Our bodies evolved before we had beds, so it’s
possible we’re adapted for these positions, and
sleeping in beds may have thrown us out of wack.
Does this explain Reddit user Millkyliz’s experiences?
Could sleeping instinctively fix their back problems?
Well, there’s another factor we need to
consider before we can truly have our answer.
Michael Tetley mentioned that pillows
were entirely superfluous, but are they?
Chill: They’re not.
Brew: Well, they might be.
Chill: Oh I’m Brew.
I know everything.
I hate pillows and sleeping.
myeh myeh muh muh
Coffee, facts facts.
Brew: Hey everyone it’s me it’s Chill, and I’m just gonna
jump to conclusions and not let Brew finish his episode.
Yeah, not fun is it?
It’s possible that pillows might not be needed to ensure
that you have a full, restful sleep, but using a pillow wrong
will guarantee that you wake up with a crick in your neck.
Dr. Andrea Hornstein, a North Dakota chiropractor, has said that
pillows play a much larger role in a good sleep than we think.
If you sleep with your head in a non-neutral position,
you may be setting up your sleep for neck pain.
Not only that, if your pillow is too thin, or too thick,
you can push your neck into an uncomfortable angle.
Your neck muscles will then work all night
to compensate, and you’ll wake up sore.
If you’re sleeping on your side, then it’s best
to lay your head flat on the pillow, and tuck
into your neck, and let your shoulders relax.
Hornstein also recommends to never sleep
with your shoulders on your pillow.
Only rest your head on your pillow, otherwise, you will bend
you back into an unnatural angle, and wake up with back pain.
Chill: Wait… did pillows give that reddit person back pain?
Brew: You wanna do the honors?
Grill: Don’t mind if I do.
Milkyliz says “Here I am laying in bed thinking I need a
larger pillow when I look over to my significant other.
Just his head is on his pillow.
Today is the first day in my entire life that I’ve ever
heard your shoulders shouldn’t go on the pillow too!
I’ve just been laying with my neck and shoulders flat on the
pillow slowly flattening the spine in my neck for 21 years.”
Chill: I can’t believe pillows would betray us.
HOW COULD YOU, I TRUSTED YOU-
(distressed Chill noises)
Grill: There there, it’s okay, just remember to breathe.
Brew: Long story short, if you rest your shoulders
up on your pillow, you run the risk of tightening up
the muscles in your neck, shoulders, and upper back.
And after 8 hours every night of that,
you’re gonna wake up a little worse for wear.
At the end of the day, your comfort is yours to determine.
If you like sleeping on your back, go for it.
If you like a dozen pillows, go nuts.
There are specific sleeping positions that
will cause you pain or soreness, but as long as
you’re not experiencing any negative effects,
then your sleep habits are likely to be fine.
If you’re experiencing long term pain, speak
to your doctor about what is best for you.
Everyone loves to sleep, even those night-owls
among us cannot deny that curling up under a warm
blanket is one of the sweeter things in life.
I’m not here to tell you how you should or shouldn’t sleep.
I mean, honestly.
I haven’t had a good sleep since 1997.