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Jude's avatar

Sleeping on your stomach, is it a good thing?

Asked by Jude (32204points) December 28th, 2009

My girlfriend does it all of the time. When I try, I don’t find it all that comfortable/my lower back aches and I last about 2 minutes.

I remember reading somewhere that it’s not good for your back? Jellies, what do you think? And, do you sleep on your bellay?

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35 Answers

Simone_De_Beauvoir's avatar

Who knows – it’s the only way I can fall asleep..I slept on my stomach through both of my pregnancies as well, throughout the entire pregnancy, too

stranger_in_a_strange_land's avatar

Hard on the back. have sleep apnea and must sleep on my side with a positive pressure mask on. Makes sleeping easier and more restful,

john65pennington's avatar

Never have, never will. my wife is like your girlfriend, she sleeps on her stomach and i for the life of me, cannot understand how she does this, without a morning visit to the emergency room. are women built different in this respect? i cannot master the art of belly sleeping. i value my back too much.

Likeradar's avatar

I sleep on my stomach a lot of the time.
I kind of have to trust that our bodies wouldn’t let us sleep in a potentially harmful position for too long.

Zen_Again's avatar

I’m like you @jmah but that doesn’t mean it isn’t comfortable for some people, especially pregnant women like @Simone_De_Beauvoir How’re you and the baby doing?

mowens's avatar

TO each there own. I start off on my stomach, switch to my back in the middle of the night, then in the morning I am in a little ball.

Moral: We are all a little F’d up. :)

marinelife's avatar

I cannot. I do not find it comfortable for my back, but my husband does it. He uses a pillow to prop himself on his side, but he still ends up on his stomach a lot.

sliceswiththings's avatar

Yeah, I love it. It could be different for women…the angle of our hipbones? You’d think men would be the ones to do it though cause they don’t have smooshed boobs to worry about.

Simone_De_Beauvoir's avatar

@Zen_Again all babies are great and growing, thank you
look at how big wis.baby is now
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=49568919&l=3d00639dac&id=805316

Axemusica's avatar

I’m the oddest sleeper you’d probably ever heard of. I can sleep in any position wake up with unconscious limbs and can hold full conversations in my sleep, yes that’s with someone conscious talking to me too. I’m also a mover. Constantly on the move, lol.

Jude's avatar

@sliceswiththings I’m a lady and I can’t do it. I’d love to, though, because it looks so damn comfy (your arms stretched out underneath your pillow and your face all nuzzled in).

JesusWasAJewbot's avatar

I have to sleep on my stomach, sleeping on my side usually makes my arm fall asleep or just hurt (maybe in wrong position) and i cant sleep on my back.

El_Cadejo's avatar

It is bad for your back to sleep on your stomach. I learned all this after my accident. Evidently sleeping on your stomach all the time will put a bigger curve into your lower back over time thus increasing pain. This is annoying because thats one of the only ways i can fall asleep normally but i need to try and force myself to sleep on my back.

SarasWhimsy's avatar

I’ve been told it’s bad for the back. I don’t care though. It is SO comfortable. I sleep on my stomach every night. I admit though that I always wake up with my hands and legs asleep. I’m guessing there’s a connection.

puckbunny's avatar

I love to sleep on my stomach. It just seems comfortable to me. Its possible that most women can sleep on their stomach better than men because of their boobs. I guess because they keep us level when sleeping.

NUNYA's avatar

It is the only way I can fall alseep. (my tummy) After I am asleep I sleep on my right side or back as well. It could be hard on the lower back, I’m sure. Great Question!

El_Cadejo's avatar

@puckbunny how would boobs keep you level? If anything i would think they would increase the curvature in your lower back since your upper back is elevated from said boobies.

Facade's avatar

I sleep on everything

Axemusica's avatar

@Facade oooh yea, tell me more about this….. um ... everything, you speak of. ;P

Facade's avatar

@Axemusica Boobs, hips, and ass lol

simpleD's avatar

Mattress matters. I fall asleep on my stomach and wake up on my back. I used to wake up with lower back pain. Now I have a somewhat softer mattress, and I haven’t woken up with back pain since. Talk to someone who knows about these things, and spend 5 or 600 dollars on a decent mattress.

puckbunny's avatar

@uberbatman True I guess. I’m not sure how to really answer that. My mom used to be able to sleep on her stomach until she had her breasts removed due to cancer. She now finds it hard to sleep on hers stomach. There is something about having boobs and being able to sleep on our stomach. I just don’t know what that is.

El_Cadejo's avatar

@puckbunny well thats just because boobs are the most comfortable things known to man. I would love to have a bed made entirely of boobs (in a non creepy way lol) itd be soo fuckin comfy :P

puckbunny's avatar

@uberbatman I don’t know to many men that don’t like the feel of boobs.

lucillelucillelucille's avatar

I sleep on my back.It’s easier to leap up and beat the snot out of burglars that way.

scotsbloke's avatar

I go to sleep on my side but sometimes wake up on my tummy.
We are all different though, @jmah have YOU tried sleeping on HER back to see how comfy it is? lol
(Only kidding laddie)

Snarp's avatar

I’m not sure anybody knows an objective answer to this question that applies generally. If there were a “best” sleeping posture or mattress, etc. we would all be doing it. Seems to me that people claiming such a thing either want to sell you something, or are just telling you what works for them or for some subset of the population without knowing if the advice is generalizable. We evolved sleeping on the ground in whatever position felt good, it’s not as if we’re designed to sleep a certain way or on a certain surface.

mellow_girl's avatar

i sleep on my stomach, it’s the most comfortable for me. i can’t go to sleep if i’m on my back or side…

El_Cadejo's avatar

@Snarp i couldnt disagree more. Here is an example to prove your logic wrong. Is brushing your teeth good for you? Fuck yea. Does everyone do it? Nope. Did we evolve to have brushed teeth? No we evolved eating whatever and never cleaning our teeth. Yet we know there are clearly benefits from brushing your teeth, just as there are clearly benefits from sleeping in a certain way.

Snarp's avatar

@uberbatman You have a point. But then, my main point is that we don’t have the American Medical Association telling us how to sleep because they’ve done so many studies and know what’s best. We know that brushing our teeth is good for us because there have been a number of scientific studies that prove it. I’m still waiting for some scientific evidence that there are benefits from sleeping in a certain way.

Also, the idea that there is a right way to sleep has implications that tooth brushing does not. Proponents of various postures and furniture will tell us how we were designed to sit, lie, stand – but we weren’t, and they’re just making that up.

Why the completely uncalled for use of foul language?

El_Cadejo's avatar

@Snarp i suppose. But im only saying this as i know from experience. The way i slept my whole life curved my spine inward more. I got in a car accident a year ago and since my spine was so curved its made everything much much worse for me.

about the foul language…..im part sailor :P

shego's avatar

I can’t sleep any other way except for on my stomach. My hips hurt like hell, when I am on my side, and then one of my boobs tries to suffocate me. I can’t sleep on my back because it is way too uncomfortable, and both of my boobs try to strangle me. So I sleep on my stomach, to stay in control of the strangulation.

TheHaight's avatar

I love sleeping on my stomach, when I sleep on my back I have nightmares!

PixieDuster's avatar

I have ALWAYS been a belly sleeper. I now have degenerative disc disease and spinal stenosis and have been told by my doctors to NOT sleep/lay, etc., on my belly; but I instinctly do it anyway as this is the most comfortable position I can get into when I really hurt. Sometimes I wake up very stiff, but not always. Regardless of what the doctors say, most of the time I feel like if I could lay over a 55 gallon drum, I could alleviate a lot of my pain. Anyone else ever feel this way?

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