Maybe you have a family history of cardiovascular disease and you’re trying to implement as many heart-healthy strategies as possible. Or you may have heart disease yourself and want to put meaningful lifestyle changes into place. You already know that sleep quality is crucial to your health, but does the position you sleep in matter?....READ ORIGINAL & FULL CONTENT FROM SOURCE |
Effects of Left Side Sleeping
“A few small studies have suggested that sleeping on your left side may affect the heart’s electrical conduction system,” says Mary Greene, M.D., a cardiologist with Manhattan Cardiology in New York City. However, “to date, there are no studies that have demonstrated any clinical significance of this hypothesis.” In other words: It’s not worth changing your preferred sleeping position based on the findings, she says. Even if your heart may have some subtle changes if you sleep in a certain position, it doesn’t translate into actual harm for your cardiovascular system.
Still, your nighttime sleeping position can affect certain other issues related to your cardiovascular health, like sleep apnea. We asked experts for the lowdown on how side sleeping vs. back sleeping may affect your health.
Although research doesn’t yet support the idea that a certain sleeping position can affect your heart in a significant way, different positions can cause small, temporary changes in your circulation, says Kevin Rabii, D.O., a cardiologist with Memorial Hermann in Houston, TX. For example, if you sleep with your arm under your head, it will restrict some blood flow to that limb, which is why you might wake up with a numb arm—followed by the “pins and needles” sensation as the blood flow goes back to normal.
“In healthy individuals, the heart and vascular system can adapt to these conditions and function normally,” he says. “For most people, there is no particular sleep position for optimal heart health.”
If you have heart concerns, there’s simply not enough evidence supporting the claim that you should choose a right-side sleeping position while avoiding the left side, agrees Rigved Tadwalkar, M.D., a cardiologist at Providence Saint John’s Health Center in Santa Monica, CA, although he acknowledges that the literature is not totally clear.
“Some studies, particularly those focusing on individuals with congestive heart failure, have suggested that sleeping on the left side may lead to changes in heart and lung function,” he says. These same studies have found that people with heart failure often prefer to sleep on their right side, which could be a protective mechanism, as one study in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology concluded?.
“It is hypothesized by researchers that the preference for avoiding the left side might be related to alterations in heart positioning, increased lung pressure, or discomfort due to the sensation of the heart beating against the chest wall” that occur in the left-side sleeping position, Dr. Tadwalkar says.
However, he adds that it’s essential to note that the exact mechanisms and the overall influence of sleeping position on heart health are not fully understood. While studies have found associations between sleeping position and heart conditions, that doesn’t imply causation, he says.
The Best Sleep Positions for Your Heart
When it comes to heart health, the best position is the one in which you get quality, restorative sleep, says Dr. Greene. She says this applies to anyone, whether you have heart issues or not.
“Based on the current research, a person’s sleeping position is not widely recognized as a risk factor for heart disease or other cardiovascular issues,” adds Dr. Tadwalkar. “The choice of sleeping position should primarily be guided by individual comfort.”
The Worst Sleep Positions for Your Heart
Any position that results in poor quality sleep should be avoided, says Dr. Greene. Additionally, if you have or are at risk for sleep apnea—a condition in which the airway temporarily becomes partially or completely blocked during sleep, leading to lapses in breathing—sleeping on your back can increase the risk of this obstruction?.