Let’s start with you lying on your side. The first important position is the angle of your legs. The more problems you have with your pelvis and lower back, the more important becomes the specific the angle of your legs. In other words, the healthier you are, the greater the angle at which you can keep your legs. Rub the muscles on both sides of the lower back; these should be soft. If they are tender or contracted, raise or lower your legs to find the position where these muscles are relaxed. This is especially important if you have any low back problems. Sleeping for hours with these muscles contracted just aggravates the local injury, severely retarding the healing process.

Rub the muscle on the outside of your pelvis. If this is sore, place a pillow between your legs. The correct height will dramatically reduce the tenderness over this muscle.

If you lie on your back when you fall asleep, have someone reach in under your back and rub the muscles beside the spine. If these are tender, place a small pillow under the kneesand see if this reduces the tenderness. This is more common in people who are sleeping on extremely hard mattresses.

The easy answer to poor sleep is that your
mattress is too hard, too soft, or just worn out.

The next thing to check is the height of your pillow. The function of the pillow is to support your neck and head. The height depends on whether you sleep on your back or on your side. On your side, the pillow has to fill the space from the tip of your shoulder to your neck.

Lie on your side with your pillow under your neck. Reach up and rub the muscles on the front and side of your neck. If these are tender, your pillow needs to be altered. It is just as bad to be too high as to be too low. If you view the spine from the side, the neck should be supported in a direct line with the back. The head should not angle down or up.
                                                                                                                                                    

Find a pillow or combination of pillows that supports your neck
so that there is little to no tenderness in the neck muscles.

If you lie on your back to sleep, you will need less support than when you are on your side. If you have your pillow height elevated above the optimum, you will have increased contractions in these same neck muscles.

Now you have the optimum position in which to fall asleep. If you wake in the night in another position, just roll back into the ideal position for you.

You should practice getting into the correct position with someone rubbing the muscles to ensure that you have attained the optimum sleep position for yourself.

If you can’t find a correct position on your bed, try another bed. If your mattress is too soft, worn out or too hard, you will find it difficult to find a relaxed position for your spine.

If you have any problems checking these positions, please ask us about them. Bring in your pillow(s) if you want us to check your sleep posture.

It is extremely important for you to be able sleep in a relaxed position.