Sleep is an essential part of our daily routine. We spend a third of our lives sleeping, which means the way we sleep is incredibly important. Our body’s orientation during sleep can significantly impact our overall health and well-being.
Dr. Peter Martone, a chiropractor, exercise physiologist, and inventor of the Neck Nest, a pillow specifically designed to improve sleeping postures, shared his insights on how sleep positioning affects the body. Sleeping on our backs is the best way to distribute our weight over the greatest surface area and when you sleep on your side, you lose the cervical curve in your spine, leading to scoliosis in your lower back over time.
Dr. Martone adds that your sleep center and pain center are right next to each other, so if you sleep in an uncomfortable position, your body will toss and turn out of it. Therefore, it’s essential to sleep in a comfortable and healthy position to get a good night’s rest. Sleeping on our backs is the ideal position, as it can help restore the natural curvature of our spine.
Many people struggle with sleeping on their backs, including me. However, using the Neck Nest pillow has made a significant difference. The pillow uses traction to support and restore the cervical curve of our spine, which can help reduce neck and back pain. Dr. Martone recommends using the pillow for two to three hours a night to restore the natural curvature of our spine. This way, we can fix our spine while we sleep, get better sleep scores, and virtually eliminate neck and back pain.
Our modern lifestyle, including long hours of sitting and using electronic devices, can cause significant damage to our spine. As Dr. Martone notes, our spines are getting destroyed, and our sleep scores are getting affected because we’re tossing and turning all night long. Therefore, it’s essential to learn how to sleep in a different position to maintain a healthy spine and get better sleep.
Dr. Martone also shares some insights on heart rate variability, vagus nerve stimulation, deep sleep, energy spikes, and circadian rhythms. Heart rate variability is a measure of the variation in time between each heartbeat. It’s an essential marker of our overall health and wellbeing, as it indicates how well our body can adapt to stress. By recommending various techniques, such as diaphragmatic breathing, to stimulate the vagus nerve, which can help improve heart rate variability and promote relaxation.
Deep sleep is critical for our body’s recovery and restoration, as it’s the time when our body repairs itself. Dr. Martone recommends taking a warm bath or shower before bedtime to help promote deep sleep. He also suggests using blue-light blocking glasses to protect our circadian rhythms, which are our body’s natural internal clock that regulates our sleep-wake cycle.
In conclusion, the way we sleep is incredibly important for our overall health and wellbeing.
Neck and spine positioning can significantly impact our sleep quality, leading to neck and back pain, scoliosis, and other health issues. Sleeping on our backs is the ideal position to distribute our weight over the greatest surface area, which can help restore the natural curvature of our spine.
Using a pillow like the Neck Nest can help reduce neck and back pain and improve our sleep quality. Additionally, adopting healthy habits such as vagus nerve stimulation, promoting deep sleep, and protecting our circadian rhythms can also help improve our sleep quality. By prioritizing our sleep and adopting healthy sleep habits, we can achieve better health and wellbeing.
