Slightly OT: Sleep position and heart

Is it true that sleeping on the left side is not very good for the heart?

“There is no clinical evidence that sleeping in a given position is bad or good for the heart,” says Dr. Richard Stein, director of preventive cardiology at Beth Israel Hospital in New York City and national spokesman for the American Heart Association. “Whatever position is most restful is probably right for the individual.”

According to the AHA, sleep deprivation has been linked to high blood pressure, and various sleep disorders have been associated with irregular heart rhythm, increased risk of heart attack and even stroke. Rest is essential because it gives the heart a chance to pump more easily. Sleeping—on your left side, your right side or hanging from the ceiling—is good for the heart.

emphasis by me

source:
http://health.msn.com/centers/cardio/ar ... =100143845

Perhaps that idea got started because sleeping on your left side is good for heartburn. I have GERD and this is what the doctor recommended. It has to do with the position of the stomach, esophagus, etc.

Thanks for that, LM!

My mom is always insisting that her heart Dr. told her to not sleep on her left side, so therefore I SHOULD NOT SLEEP ON MY LEFT SIDE.

That is the only way I feel comfortable to sleep. If I happen to get rolled over on my back, when I wake up I feel like an elephant has been sitting on my chest, and feel awful for quite some time. That was before CPAP. Now that I'm on APAP, my pressure goes up so high it wakes me with my mask blowing off my face, if I end up on my back. And that's only on 10.

My hats off to all of you with such high pressure. I'm not sure I could tolerate that full time!

Not an answer, just another question...

Could those instructions be specific to a particular heart problem? I'm just thinking how different areas of the heart can be compromised either thru enlargement or damage, and if position could matter in those situations? For instance, my mother had problems with the blood backing up in her liver and spleen because intake into the heart was poor. Could position have mattered to her? I guess then she would have by instinct slept in the position most comfortable.

I can't sleep very long on my back before I start to feel burning; tingling sensation in my right leg; an injury from a car wreck over 20 years ago so I end up sleeping most of my nights on my sides.




Stevoreno
Biloxi, Mississippi
11/11/07

Well kt, I went off on a search looking for info about sleeping on different sides. All I could really find is what has been posted and that basically sleeping on your side is the best position. Sleeping on the back exacerbates sleep apnea and sleeping on the tummy can cause neck problems, nerve impingement etc.

However, I came across this while looking. It is odd looking. I wonder how it would work out with cpap? It even has a depression in it for your ear, lol. the just need to make a depression for the cpap mask.

http://sleepdisorders.about.com/gi/dyna ... illow.html

For $60., I can take a piece of foam and cut it out to that shape for almost nothing (plus dig a little ear hole!).

I'd be willing to bet that all of us just instinctively end up sleeping most of the night in the position that is most comfortable (and therefore best) for us as individuals.

All my life I was pretty much a tummy sleeper. Never noticeably favoring one side to turn my face over the other but never could sleep w/my face buried in the pillow or even under the covers. My nose always had to be able to breathe in fresh room air. I tended to sleep w/one leg stretched out, the other curled up in the fetal type position, arm on the stretched out leg side above my head and arm on the curled up side curled down towards my ribs and that would be the side my head would be turned to.

After a whiplash in 1994 I could no longer sleep on my tummy w/my head turned like that and that is also when my sleep problems began. For quite some time, a couple of years at least, I also couldn't sleep on either side w/o great chest discomfort. It was weird but the only way to describe it was that it felt like my heart was hanging, suspended, towards the side I was sleeping on and the muscles holding the heart in place on the other side were being strained, almost tearing. It was somewhat more pronounced when laying on my left side as I remember it. I think.

2006 I had the sleep evaluation and titration and started CPAP. I think using CPAP "encourages" us to sleep on our backs in deference to the mask leak problems at first. Once we adjust to wearing the mask and using CPAP and finally find a mask that is comfortable and works for us then I think we start working back to the most comfortable sleep position(s) for us.

The weird thing is that now that I've adjusted to sleeping w/a mask and CPAP and am reverting back to spending more time on my sides - I find it is MORE DIFFICULT to breathe on my sides than on my back!!! Yet during my evaluation my ONLY breathing "events" were when on my back. Go figure!

LavenderMist wrote: http://sleepdisorders.about.com/gi/dyna ... illow.html

ONLY 59.99?!!?!!

Sheesh!

Just thought it was different looking, was never planning to buy it.