Erotic dreams, dying infants — understanding sleep posture

LAHORE:

Are asthma, heartburn, back and neck pain recurring themes in your life? Are you often under-rested, even after a full night’s sleep? The problem may be not the hours of sleep you get, but the way you are sleeping: your sleep posture. About one third of our lives are spent sleeping; most people overlook that one’s sleep posture is a crucial pillar of health and lifestyle.

There are varying recommendations regarding what sleep posture to assume. Sleep researchers unequivocally state that the foetal position is ideal, while dermatologists favour supine and psychologists find a unique benefit in spooning. There is consensus, however, that the prone sleeping position is unadvised under all circumstances.

How come?

• The Telegraph: Physiotherapists cite that in the course of the day the spine is subjected to gravitational forces which exert pressure on the discs of the back. In the foetal position, the body is curved inward, which reduces pressure on these discs and helps repair. Supporting muscles and ligaments are also aligned naturally. Experts in sleep disorders point that sleeping in this position also minimizes stomach reflux.

• The Huffington Post: Dermatologists explain sleeping supine prevents wrinkles because your face is not pressed against anything during sleep. In addition, for women, sleeping on your back scores the highest for ‘breast perkiness’ and prevents sagginess. However, sleep researchers are quick to confirm that this position retains the highest likelihood of making you snore.

• Daily Mail: American psychologist Dr. James Coan has found that touch, even during sleep, is effective in mitigating the effects of stress. The spooning position may thus be endorsed conditionally, during difficult times. Note, though, that regularly assuming this position may lead to back, shoulder and neck pain, since lying on your partner’s body precludes good sleeping form.

On virtually all the variables at hand — wrinkles, spinal, nervous and musco-skeletal health — the prone sleeping position invariably scores the lowest.

Most interesting, though, is the connection between one’s physical environment during sleep and dream content. A new study titled ‘The Effect of Sleep Position on Dream Experiences’, published in the American Psychological Association’s journal Dreaming, has revealed that those sleeping on their stomach are more likely to have erotic dreams than those sleeping in other positions, with a high incidence of dreams containing scenarios of oppression or sexual violence. The author of the study, a Hong Kong University student, hypotheses: sleeping prone ‘limits access to air’ and the mind responds by conjuring related scenarios. He explains that the dreaming brain is not shut off from the external world and will try to incorporate external stimuli — a connection that goes back to ancient times and was fully documented by Sigmund Freud in The Interpretation of Dreams.

Special note

If you are a parent with an infant of less than one year, it is critical to know that prone-sleeping in babies is a significant risk factor for Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) — a poorly understood phenomenon where otherwise healthy babies die in their sleep. In the mid-1990s, aggressive campaigns were launched across the first-world, urging parents to only put babies to sleep on their back. Quite notably, the incidence of SIDS has declined upwards by 50% ever since.

The authors are involved in a project called Scholars By Profession which intends to pioneer introducing graduate-level research to Pakistan. Please visit their Facebook page for further details.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 19^th, 2012.

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