Lying Face Down
Sleeping positions vary from person to person. It is also often seen that people sleep randomly and do not question their sleeping positions much. Although habitual sleeping positions may seem unimportant, they are actually very important. Lying face down is not a sleeping position that is highly recommended by experts. Despite this, most people prefer it consciously or unconsciously.
Is Sleeping Face Down Harmful?
Experts emphasize that attention should be paid to the shape the body takes while sleeping. Despite this, there are many people who prefer to sleep face down. However, sleeping face down can have various negative consequences for the body.
- Lying face down for long periods of time creates pressure on the organs.
- Constant contact of the face with the pillow negatively affects blood circulation, which leads to wrinkles on the face.
- The weight of the body is given to the spine. That is why pain is experienced in the spine and neck area.
- Numbness may occur in the fingers and hands due to the sleeping position.
Even if you cannot give up your habits due to all these reasons, you can change your position between sleeps if you condition yourself to sleep in a different position.
Should You Sleep On Your Back or Stomach?
Among the two alternatives, sleeping on your back is always the healthier and more correct one. Instead of sleeping on your stomach, which puts pressure on your stomach and has negative effects on both your stomach and your breathing, experts recommend sleeping on your back. If you cannot give up the stomach sleeping style, choosing a hard bed is another recommended option to minimize the damage to your spine.
Is It Okay to Sleep Face Down?
Sleeping face down is seen as the most dangerous sleeping position. As the body is exposed to this position, it causes the ligaments and muscles around the spine to stretch during sleep. In this case, the holes leading from the spine to the nerves are compressed. As a result, the spine and discs are loaded. The risk created by this situation is great. Curvatures around the waist and neck increase. This causes injuries and diseases such as hernias to occur on the spine.
Does Sleeping Face Down Accelerate Aging?
Giving more intensity to any area during sleep is a factor that increases aging. This situation is actually observed more in long-term sleeping in the side position rather than lying face down. Therefore, it would be beneficial to avoid sleeping on the side. It is not lying face down that triggers aging , but rather falling below the required amount of sleep. Irregular and insufficient sleep brings about an unproductive day and easy aging. However, when we look at the issue in terms of general health rather than aging, the advice of experts is the fetal position. In other words, it is healthiest to sleep with the sides and legs pulled towards the abdomen and a pillow placed between the knees.
Does Lying Face Down Harm the Face?
We do not stay in the same position all the time while sleeping, we can sometimes turn to the back, face down or right and left sides. The care products we use for our hair while sleeping on our backs come into contact with our skin through the pillow when we switch to the face down position. This situation has some harms for the face area, which already has a sensitive structure. It can cause irritation on the face and also cause redness. In addition, if you apply any care cream or care cure to your face, you may encounter the situation that these types of products penetrate the pillow without fulfilling their function.
Why Not Sleep Face Down?
As mentioned in detail above, it negatively affects the body's waist, neck, spine and muscle system. Since all these areas are in coordination, the effects of one are reflected in the others. In this case, individuals spend the whole day restless, aggressive and unproductive. Not only that, it also causes permanent diseases such as hernia that disrupt daily life. Hernia causes pain in the area where it occurs, such as the waist or neck, as well as pain in the arm and leg area. The only problem it can cause is not limited to this.
If you put your hands and arms under the pillow, you may cause nerve compression in the wrists or shoulder joint problems in the shoulder area. It can cause even bigger problems for patients who already have problems in their lumbar spine.
Therefore, it will be beneficial for you to give up this sleeping position as soon as possible before it causes serious diseases. Body health is the first condition for living a quality life. Do not risk your skin health as well as your heart and spine health. The face down position causes the skin in your face area not to breathe during the night.