How To Sleep On Your Back: Sleep Training

Find out the benefits of sleeping on your back and how to train yourself to stay on your back at night below. Let’s go.

Benefits of Sleeping on Your Back

There are numerous benefits to back sleeping. For example, sleeping on your back is good for your spinal alignment and supporting the natural curve in your back (www.urmc.rochester.edu, n.d.).

This can decrease back pain and other body aches.

Back sleeping comes with numerous other benefits, such as:

• Reduced tension headaches
• Reduced acid reflux
• Improves deep breathing
• Relieve sinus buildup
• Helps chronic conditions via pressure and compression reduction
• Fewer facial wrinkles and creases
• Relieved back and neck pain
• Better sleep posture and spinal alignment
• Doesn’t irritate facial skin

Sleeping on your back can even help you fall asleep faster!

This is because your lungs and diaphragm are less depressed than during side or stomach sleeping positions.

How To Train Yourself To Sleep on Your Back

1. Start by lying flat on your back in a relaxed position.

2. Make sure your head and neck are properly supported using a low or memory foam pillow that keeps everything aligned.

A pillow that’s too high can strain your neck, so aim for just enough support without creating an angle.

3. Keep your arms resting naturally by your sides rather than overhead, which can lead to shoulder discomfort.

4. Let your legs stretch out comfortably without crossing them or curling up. If you feel tension in your lower back, a pillow under your knees can help take the pressure off.

5. To avoid rolling over in your sleep, place a pillow alongside your body as a gentle barrier. It might feel unusual at first, but it can help you stay in position through the night.

With consistency, your body can get used to this new sleep posture.

Additional Tips for Sleeping on Your Back

Use these extra tips to stop side sleeping and embrace the benefits of back sleeping!

Use the Right Next Support

Sleep aids (such as latex and memory foam pillows) provide additional sleep support. For example, you can use specialised memory foam pillows with dips to ensure your head and neck are straight and your spine is supported. These can also reduce movement throughout the night, leaving you more likely to stay on your back.

Other benefits of memory foam pillows include neck and back pain relief, pressure point relief, and long-lasting support.

Invest in a Good Mattress

Similarly to the point above, you can invest in a memory foam mattress. Rather than supporting your head, neck, and upper back, memory foam mattresses provide support and pain relief for your whole body. Goodbye upper and lower back pain.

Sleep Hygiene

Keeping up healthy sleep hygiene will also improve your sleep quality. Following a constant sleep routine, avoiding blue light, and only practising sleep and intimacy in your bedroom will help you sleep better and toss and turn less. Sorry, no phones before bed here!

How Long Does It Take To Train Yourself To Sleep on Your Back?

Learning to sleep on your back takes time, and how long it takes can vary from person to person.

Some people adjust within a couple of weeks, while others may need a few months.

So don’t be discouraged if it doesn’t happen right away.

Changing your sleep position means changing long-standing habits. Research suggests it can take anywhere from 18 to 254 days to form a new habit (Lally et al., 2010).

If you wake up in a different position, simply shift back onto your back and try again.

The longer you’ve been a side or stomach sleeper, the more time your body may need to adapt.

But with consistent effort, good sleep hygiene, and supportive tools like pillows or other sleep aids, getting comfortable with back sleeping is absolutely possible.

Final Words

Learning how to sleep on your back might seem challenging, but it’s much easier than it sounds. Make sure you familiarise yourself with a healthy back sleeping position and prioritise this posture in bed. And remember, you don’t have to do it alone.

You can always use sleep aides if you want some extra help!

Explore expert-approved memory foam pillows today. Meet the Original Groove Neck Pain Relief Pillow now.

References

• Cazan, D., Mehrmann, U., Wenzel, A. and Maurer, J.T. (2017). The effect on snoring of using a pillow to change the head position. Sleep and Breathing, 21(3), pp.615–621. doi:https://doi.org/10.1007/s11325-017-1461-1.
• Lally, P., van Jaarsveld, C.H.M., Potts, H.W.W. and Wardle, J. (2010). How are habits formed: Modelling habit formation in the real world. European Journal of Social Psychology, [online] 40(6), pp.998–1009. doi:https://doi.org/10.1002/ejsp.674.
• www.urmc.rochester.edu. (n.d.). Good Sleeping Posture Helps Your Back - Health Encyclopedia - University of Rochester Medical Center. [online] Available at: https://www.urmc.rochester.edu/encyclopedia/content.aspx?ContentTypeID=1&ContentID=4460.
• Zhang, Y., Xiao, A., Zheng, T., Xiao, H. and Huang, R. (2022). The Relationship between Sleeping Position and Sleep Quality: A Flexible Sensor-Based Study. Sensors, 22(16), p.6220. doi:https://doi.org/10.3390/s22166220.