Some individuals prefer sleeping on their stomach, commonly known as the prone position. Unfortunately, this poses stress on your spine and could result in herniated discs over time.
Sleeping on one’s stomach can result in many health complications, including snoring, sleep apnea, acid reflux and neck pain – it may even contribute to wrinkles or other skin conditions.
Back and Neck Pain
Though sleeping on your stomach may help reduce snoring and sleep apnea, it can be taxing to both your neck and back. Sleeping this way forces your muscles into an awkward posture that compresses ligaments, tendons and spinal discs – potentially leading to pain and stiffness upon awakening each morning. Over time it could even accelerate degenerative conditions in the spine.
Stomach sleepers also often turn their head onto a pillow while lying on their stomach, forcing their neck backwards and bending back the upper vertebrae in their neck backwards, which may cause pain and tightness as well as damage to the labrum, the ring of cartilage which keeps your shoulder securely within its socket.
Most people who sleep on their stomach use a large pillow. While this helps to maintain neutral head positioning, the pillow often results in neck pain as it pushes back on upper vertebrae of the neck and causes extra strain on these tissues.
Sleeping on one leg while lying down is another risky situation, as this “skydiving” posture puts undue strain on hips and lower back, and causes the spine to twist or compress which in turn may result in pain elsewhere in the body as the spine serves as a conduit for nerves.
Wrinkles
Sleeping on your stomach strains key pillars of the spine, can cause neck and back pain, can exacerbate acid reflux symptoms in some individuals, and can worsen skin conditions like acne and wrinkles as well as increasing SIDS risk in infants. For these reasons, stomach sleeping should generally be discouraged for most adults as well as being the worst position during pregnancy.
Even though switching positions cold turkey may be challenging for stomach sleepers, making an effort to change sleep positions could improve quality and avoid long-term health issues. Stomach sleepers are particularly prone to developing face wrinkles from being pressed against pillows for hours at a time; this causes premature creases and folds to form in their skin and increases friction between it and fabrics like silk or satin, leading to wrinkles or fine lines forming between skin and pillowcase resulting in unwanted wrinkles or fine lines forming on skin surface.
Stomach sleepers may also be more vulnerable to shoulder issues as they frequently raise or tuck their arms up in the air or under a pillow, placing added strain on joints and muscles in their shoulders and leading to chronic problems such as rotator cuff issues or chronic shoulder discomfort over time.
Shoulder Pain
Stomach sleeping (also known as the prone position) puts more strain on your neck and spine than any other position, resulting in back, shoulder, jaw and neck pain for stomach sleepers. Furthermore, this position causes your head to rotate all night long which reduces blood flow to your brain as well as leading to stiff neck issues.
Sleeping on your stomach also involves rotating the head, leading to twisting of the shoulder joint. This can irritate cartilage that helps the joint move smoothly; over time, repeated twisting could result in rotator cuff tears or osteoarthritis of the shoulder joint.
Shoulder pain can result from trauma, overuse or aging; but any pain that continues or worsens at night is an indicator that something might be wrong with the rotator cuff. A provider can run diagnostic tests such as ultrasound or MRI to check for any tears, arthritis or tendonitis in your shoulder that might need treating.
Avoid shoulder pain from keeping you awake at night by positioning your body in an ideal sleeping posture – meaning ensuring that the hips are straight, the spine remains undulated without curvatures, and both hands rest at your sides.
Pregnancy
Early in your pregnancy, sleeping on your stomach may be very comfortable; however, as your uterus grows and body gets rounder this position becomes increasingly challenging to maintain. The expanding uterus puts pressure on major blood vessels which provide oxygen and nutrients to both you and your unborn baby, according to chiropractor Andrew Bang. When compressed these veins reduce blood flow; thus doctors recommend sleeping on left side in later stages.
Stomach sleeping may also be uncomfortable for pregnant women as their expanding uterus presses against the spine, altering its natural curvature and increasing the chance of back, neck, joint, and shoulder discomfort. Since nerves travel along this pathway through which tension builds in our bodies and stress can result in numbness or pain throughout various parts of their bodies.
Stomach sleeping may offer pregnant women some advantages during gestation: forcing gases out of the system faster may speed up digestion; but this may not make up for all of its other drawbacks; pregnant women sleeping on their stomachs are more likely to experience heartburn, constipation and indigestion, which may lead to vomiting that increases miscarriage risk.
