A lot of computer users don’t think about sleep and posture in the same sentence. They don’t understand that our sleep quality is directly related to the quality of our computer posture the next day. If I sleep poorly at night, I get tired quickly the next day. As soon as I get tired, my computer posture gets significantly worse.
The majority of office workers never think to fix their sleeping posture. If you’re reading this article, you’re in the top percentage of high-performance action takers. And that’s something to be very proud of.
This article will share some of my favorite sleeping posture tips. My goal is always to share the minimal amount of information, that will make the biggest improvement in results. I try to take the boring topic of computer posture, then make it as interesting and as valuable as possible. The specific topic of this article will be sleeping posture correction.
This article is not professional medical advice. It’s based off my personal experience and opinions. For years, my poor computer posture caused muscle tension, inflammation, and chronic pain. Bad posture also decreased my mental clarity, energy level, and work productivity.
All the office wellness tips I write about are directly related to improving posture at a computer. We are our own primary caretakers. Do your research. Make good decisions. And be the best advocate possible for your own healthcare.
Good Sleeping Posture
When I’m creating an ergonomic desk setup, I want it to be an asset that promotes good computer posture before I even sit down. I don’t want my desk to be a liability, where my muscles have to work harder just to get into good computer posture. I have a similar mindset when it comes to fixing sleep posture in my bedroom.
How to improve sleeping posture
I want to create a sleeping environment that sets me up for success before I even lay down in bed.
First, I have a consistent bed time. I wake up at 5:30am, so I make sure I’m in bed by 9:30pm every night. This way, I get 8 hours of sleep. If I go to bed any later than 9:30pm, I’m putting myself at a disadvantage with every minute I’m not in bed.
I use black out curtains over the blinds on my bedroom windows. I used to think I didn’t really need black out curtains. So, I thought my blinds made my bedroom dark enough. I was wrong. Once I got blackout curtains, it helped me sleep a lot better and deeper.
I invested in a temperature controlled mattress cover made by a company called Eight Sleep. I use it to stay cooler throughout the night. Also, I set it to automatically warm up in the morning. This wakes me up more naturally, opposed to a loud alarm clock. It also starts to warm up my muscles before I even get out of bed. This device has improved my sleep in a big way. To learn more about my Eight Sleep pod cover experience, check out my article titled, Top Recovery Tools for Better Posture. I also talk about my other favorite posture correction devices in that article.
I’ve been using mouth tape for sleeping since January of 2023. This is another valuable sleeping posture tip that’s helped me a lot. The most important benefit is that it improves my oral posture. I used to be a chronic mouth breather. Holding my mouth open all night used to cause excessive overuse of my jaw muscles. Since I’ve been taping my mouth shut, my sleep quality has improved a lot. I also breathe a lot better through my nose. The nose has a lot more defense mechanisms against germs compared to breathing through the mouth. My favorite brand of mouth tape is Hostage Tape. If you’d like to learn more about my experience with Hostage Tape, check out my article titled, Benefits of Using Mouth Tape for Sleep.
I use 100% organic, cotton sheets. I make sure they are the color white. This is to avoid any artificial dyes touching my skin all night. I recently took a class on low-toxin living. Things like artificial dyes matter.
I also use something called a grounding sheet. It’s 95% organic cotton and 5% silver. The silver conducts a negative energy from the ground of the Earth. It comes with a small wire. One end clips on to the grounding sheet. The other end plugs into the ground portion of an electrical outlet. This grounding sheet has decreased my inflammation quite a bit since I started using it in December of 2023.
The rest of this article will focus on good sleeping posture and positions.
What is the healthiest sleeping position?
If you’ve read my articles before, you know that I simply talk about what’s worked best for me. It’s by no means an internet-wide suggestion for everyone. We all have different variables in our lives. And my articles reflect my experiences and my opinions.
With that said, the healthiest sleeping position for me is on my back. But, that doesn’t mean I always want to sleep in that position. I change it up often. Although I sleep on my back the most, I also sleep on my right side and my left side.
Can bad sleeping posture cause back pain?
Sleeping posture was not the cause of my back pain. Although, sleeping in a poor posture could easily increase my back pain. My back pain was caused outside of the bedroom. Specifically, while I was slouching forward at my computer desk.
I used to sit at a computer with a rounded spine for 8 hours a day. Working in this compromised, vulnerable position for long periods of time would cause me to be subconsciously stuck in this position 24 hours a day. Even when I laid down in bed to go to sleep. This is why bad sleeping posture made my back pain worse.
How to prevent back pain while sleeping?
My best sleeping position for back pain relief involved (intentionally) reducing my internal shoulder rotation. A rounded back and internal shoulder rotation go hand in hand. They both happen simultaneously. And each makes the other problem worse.
I’d do this sleeping position to reduce back pain when I was sleeping on my back. This is how I’d do it:
- I’d lay on my back, with my arms straight and by my sides.
- Then, I’d bend my elbows at a 90 degree angle.
- Now, my hands are in the air. My elbows are still on the bed.
- Next, I’d let my hands fall outward, away from the center of my body, until the back of my hands rested on the mattress.
- I’d keep my hands in this position for long periods of time, while focusing on breathing slowly, and deeply.
This is a great long-duration, low intensity, external shoulder rotation stretch. It’s the best sleeping posture to prevent back pain for me. Once my internal shoulder rotation is decreased, it naturally corrects the rounding of my spine that I incurred from slouching forward at a computer 8 hours a day.
Is sleeping on your stomach bad for your posture?
Sleeping on my stomach works for me, but only under certain conditions. First of all, I have to turn my head and rest it on the side of my face. Otherwise I wouldn’t be able to breathe. This does put my neck in a vulnerable position. So if I have any neck pain or tension, I won’t sleep on my stomach that day.
One benefit of sleeping on my stomach is that it counter-balances my spine slightly. It reverses the rounding of the spine that I might get from slouching forward at a computer all day.
One of the drawbacks of sleeping on my stomach is that this is a pretty intense counter-balance of the spine. So I don’t want to sleep on my stomach for long periods of time. If I did, I’d wake up feeling sore. With that said, I never sleep on my stomach when I’m in bed at night. Because I don’t want to sleep on my stomach for a long time. I’ll only sleep in this position if I’m taking a short nap on the couch, 20 to 30 minutes or so. It’s just enough to give me a short mental break, while also decompressing my spine from slouching forward.
Side sleeping positions benefits and drawbacks
Although I spend most of my sleep time on my back, I also like to sleep on each side a good amount. I’ll sleep on my left side for a while. Then when I wake up in the middle of the night. I’ll switch to my right side. I make sure I have a firm, foam pillow that’s high enough for me. Also, I want it to support my head well. I don’t want my spine to curve out of alignment just because my pillow is the wrong height. This would definitely cause neck pain and muscle tension for me.
Sleeping positions for acid reflux
I don’t sleep on my right side during the first half of the night. The reason for this is it can easily cause acid reflux. Our digestive system isn’t symmetrical in our body. If we’re lying on our right side, gravity can pull undigested food and stomach acid out of the stomach and back up through the esophagus. This is basically like vomiting.
Our bodies aren’t designed to digest food while we’re lying down. Regardless if we’re sleeping on our side or our back. To avoid this, I like to have my dinner earlier these days. Ideally, around 6pm or earlier. That will give plenty of time for my food to digest before I get in bed at 9:30pm. This is a healthy habit I picked up when I learned about intermittent fasting. If you’d like to learn more about my experience with fasting, check out my article titled, Improve Computer Posture with Intermittent Fasting.
THANKS FOR YOUR INTEREST IN COMPUTER POSTURE.
If you’ve read this far, congratulations! You’re taking valuable steps to reduce computer-related injuries by improving your posture. That’s something to be very proud of!
If you liked this article on good sleeping posture, check out my free ebook titled 3 Ways to Improve Computer Posture Immediately!
>>> Click here to download your free copy
This ebook is a great supplement to the article you just read. In this ebook, you’ll learn 3 of the most painful, poor computer posture mistakes. Then, you’ll learn how to fix those mistakes immediately with 3 simple changes to your ergonomic computer desk setup.
Go to SittingPosture.com/ebook to learn more.
Take care,
Todd Bowen