Side Sleeping Fix

In this video, we are going to go over different sleep positions and the best way to do that. It’s one of the conversations I have the most in my office with people, especially when they’re having pain in this area okay, or pain that’s referring up into the head and neck. It can contribute to a lot of shoulder problems and it can also create a lot of shoulder collarbone problems. This is Julianne, my youngest daughter, and she has a tendency to sleep on her side. When I pushed that upper trap right there, it really is uncomfortable for her. What I’m going to show you, my favorite recommended sleep position is really side sleeping, but you have to do it correctly. But whatever position is most comfortable for you is best, because it’s really important that you sleep well.

When somebody is in a side sleeping position, oftentimes what they do is they sleep and they have their hand up by their head and stack their shoulders. When you do this, it actually drives this upper arm into the shoulder blade and into the shoulder joint, and shortens that upper trap muscle. Any time you keep a muscle in a shortened position for any period of time, the muscle’s going to recalibrate itself to a shorter length.

When you wake up in the morning and you drop your shoulders, there’s going to be a ton of tension in your neck and shoulders. Not only is it going to cause a problem here, but like I said, it can actually radiate up into the neck. It can give you headaches and create all sorts of problems like that.

I’m going to recommend that everybody use a pillow between their knees, because we want to level out the pelvis. It’s really important to level that pelvis to create less problem and stress in the back. You also want to make sure that your shoulders are not in a stacked position. You want to straighten the under arm and pull it down and forward. What you’re trying to do is get the shoulder away from the ear. You want to be on the shoulder blade, rather than the shoulder point.

We also want the pillow big enough to where it’s going to take the head to neutral, but it’s not going to be too low or too high. You also want to try not to go up with the top arm by the head. The only way I’ve found to be able to do that is to have somebody hold a pillow. Body pillows are really helpful for this. Holding a pillow will help you feel more comfortable. You can bring your hand up by your head, but we just don’t want it tucked under the head, because it’s going to stack that shoulder again.

Key points:
+ We want that shoulder away from the ear.
+ We want to be on the backside of that shoulder blade.
+ We want either one pillow or multiple pillows that will go under your head and that you will hold on to. As well as one pillow that goes between the knees.

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