"Lying flat" has more disadvantages than advantages

This is the 3832nd article of Da Yi Xiao Hu

Recently, a news report about a woman who took a one-hour nap with her arm as a pillow and her right hand became paralyzed caused a heated discussion. This reminds me that lying down and other bad sleeping postures also have disadvantages.

In real life, whether you use your hands as pillows or lie flat, it is actually a sleeping posture, and there is no need to over-hype it. It is midsummer, and the breeze is long. Taking a nap during lunch break is often limited by the venue. Sleeping with your hands as pillows, or lying flat without moving, etc., can cause numbness of the arms, discomfort in the neck, and discomfort in the body. It can be seen that although the sleeping posture is small, it should not be underestimated. From a clinical point of view, if you choose to sit and take a nap, it is best to wear a circular cervical pillow to fix the head position. After falling asleep, the muscle tension of the whole body decreases. If you take a nap directly against the back of the chair, your head will involuntarily flex or droop forward, and it is easy to cause neck muscle strain, i.e. "stiff neck". Especially for those with cervical spondylosis, you should pay more attention to the compression of the carotid artery and nerves. Some of them will also affect the partial compression of the airway, resulting in poor breathing and hypoxia during sleep. In severe cases, it will compress the internal jugular vein, resulting in poor venous return in the head and neck. And if you like to use your arms as pillows, or sleep on your stomach with your hands pressed, it is easy to cause transient paralysis of the arms. Because when you sleep with your arms as a pillow, your head will compress the radial nerve and ulnar nerve. Over time, paralysis will occur in your forearms, wrists, and even fingers.

Generally speaking, the normal sleeping position is lying on the right side, which is the healthiest sleeping position. From the perspective of modern medicine, when lying on the side, the legs are slightly bent, and the whole body is easy to relax, which is conducive to relieving fatigue. For naps, although the time is short, you should pay attention to the posture and don't sleep on the table. Sleeping on your stomach, sleeping with your arms as a pillow, or lying flat will not relax the stomach, cervical spine, and heart, and you will feel "more tired the more you sleep". If conditions permit, you can choose to sleep in a semi-recumbent position, which is more suitable for a nap.

Traditional Chinese medicine has its own unique treatment methods for discomforts such as poor sleep, arm numbness, back pain, etc. caused by sleeping posture problems. Comprehensive treatment based on TCM syndrome differentiation and treatment, such as acupuncture, foot bath, aromatherapy, ear acupuncture, etc., can be used to regulate the body's internal organs, meridians, qi and blood, and provide standardized and personalized professional conditioning for different groups of people. In the past, people never paid attention to sleeping posture and environment, although the sleeping posture is a personal habit. But for some people and special situations, a more suitable sleeping posture is needed. Otherwise, it will not only affect the quality of sleep, but also may damage health.

From the analysis of the polysomnography test report of our sleep disease specialist, it is found that sleeping on your stomach, back or lying flat will increase the frequency of breath holding or snoring. For snorers, sleeping posture is particularly important. People who snore frequently should not sleep on their backs, because when they sleep on their backs, the root of the tongue will fall back, aggravating snoring and easily causing apnea. Therefore, it is recommended to sleep on your side.

It can be seen from this that bad sleeping postures such as lying down will indeed affect people's physical and mental health.

The author's clinic hours: Thursday afternoon and Friday afternoon (No. 274, Zhijiang Road, Shanghai Traditional Chinese Medicine Hospital)

Sunday morning every other week (Shanghai Traditional Chinese Medicine Clinic, No. 1, Lane 67, Shimen 1st Road)

Author: Shanghai Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine

Xu Liang