Your Best Sleep Position
You spend 6 to 8 hours a day sleeping, and if you wind up in a funky position, it can dictate how you feel during the rest of your day.

The absolute best way to sleep is on your back with the flattest pillow you can stand under your head (or preferably, no pillow at all). This gives your spine support and proper alignment, allowing your muscles to relax as your sleep.

Sleeping on your stomach? Forget it! It’s the worst way you can sleep. When you are on your stomach, your head is cranked to one side or the other, and the pressure on your neck causes a dramatic drop in blood flow through your carotid arteries to your brain, which can result in neck or nerve problems, not to mention sluggishness throughout the day. However, there's hope - you can train yourself yourself out of the habit by trying a side-lying position (re-training yourself to sleep on your side is much easier than going directly to being a back sleeper. For the best chance of success, check out the instructions below.)

And what if you are pregnant? You’ll certainly be doing a lot of extra sleeping. During the course of pregnancy massages, I often find that no one in the traditional medical field teaches expectant mothers about the details of proper sleep positioning. Eventually during your pregnancy, you’ll no longer be able to sleep on your stomach or your back. Using the side-lying position with proper support will help reduce your aches and pains.

The Side-Lying Sleeping Position
This side lying position is all about having the right kind of pillows in three areas of the body.

Pillow 1: Your Head
Lie on your side, and place a pillow beneath your head. You want your head supported in line with your spine, and your neck straight. The pillow (or pillows) should match the space between the outside of your shoulder to your neck when holding the weight of your head. Too little mass will cause you to drape your neck down towards the bed, and compress your shoulder to the front of your chest (where many important nerves live.) Too much mass piles your head high, stretching your neck and causing misalignment. This may take some experimentation to get right… mix and match thick and thin pillows til it feels right.

Pillow 2: Your Legs
Ever notice when you are lying on your side that your top hip isn’t even with your bottom hip? Your legs are usually centered beneath you, but when you lie on your side, your top leg moves down with the force of gravity to rest on the bed’s surface, creating torsion in your pelvis and extra tension in your low back. If you are pregnant, it already exacts a huge toll on your pelvic bowl - the weight of the baby rests there and the three separate bones that create the pelvis become hypermobile and can painfully move out of alignment. 80% of pregnant women report low back pain at some time during their pregnancy, so your back needs all the support it can get. To return your legs to alignment (and hips, and back), straighten your bottom leg, then bend your top leg and add a large pillow beneath it. The mass of the pillow ought to allow your top hip, knee and foot to sit at the same height, and ideally, the pillow will be pretty much the length of your leg. There are large specialty pregnancy pillows you can buy, or in a pinch, try a very firm king-sized bed pillow. Either way, this is going to release low back tension and keep you centered.

Pillow 3: Your Arms
I like to call the last pillow ‘the teddy bear.’ Because everyone knows what to do with a teddy bear… you hug it. It’s basically a place to rest your top arm so that your upper body doesn’t roll forward and compress your bottom shoulder. (This also keeps you from compressing the nerves in the front of the chest.) This pillow should also be a little on the substantial side, enough to hold the weight of your arm, and to keep you from rolling forward. I find that a regular-sized bed pillow works great.

The end goal is that you are on your side, with your spine relatively straight, and your hips and shoulders square and even. If you want a live demonstration, just come in for a massage and let me know; I give most pregnancy massages (and some regular massages, too) with my clients in this position and have some super comfy propping pillows. You can schedule your massage at andreacmt.com. Sweet dreams!

We’re Moving Nov ‘09!
Our massage studio is moving to a great new location, a few blocks over in the Lakeshore shopping district! As of November 1, we’ll have more free parking nearby, a reliable security door, and some amazing new digs… complete with our own waiting area. The address is 585 Mandana, and it’s just above L’amyx tea bar (just at the end of the Lakeshore shopping area. The building has sides on both Lakeshore and cross street Mandana - our entrance is just steps away from Lakeshore on Mandana.) It’s been great to be in the space on Grand Avenue, but we look forward to the peace and quiet that will come with a smaller building. And hey, we’ll even have bicycle parking inside.

All appointments until November 1 will be in our current space at 580 Grand Avenue. And, for the first couple of weeks after the move, we’ll contact everyone with appointments to remind you of the change.

Stay tuned for our upcoming "space warming" event in November!