Day 121 - Sleeping on your Stomach? Help with Back Problems

 

My back hurts - allot

I have always been sleeping on my stomach - its my comfortable sleeping position since i can remember. Its nice and cozy sleeping on my stomach and any other position is uncomfortable and it takes longer to fall asleep.

It has been fine sleeping on my stomach until recently...

I’ve been having lower back problems and needed to go to a chi ropractor often. at first i believed it was because of the farm activities i have been doing - like hauling sand bags for weeks or carrying 25 liter water bottles and not using my back correctly. But low and behold it was not that.

i noticed it was when i woke in the mornings with neck pain and back pain. I did some research and found out that sleeping on your back for a long time causes lower back pain eventually. Yeay for me...

Basically what happens is when you sleep on your stomach your neck is turned while you back is straight which causes tension on your lower back where it is constantly under strain. Now when i sleep on my stomach for one night my back is out. This is problematic for me, because living on the farm and participating in activities i require my back to NOT be out and in pain so it limits me.

The solution to this is to simply not sleep on my stomach anymore, but as it turns out it is not as simple as that for me. I force myself now to sleep on my side or back, but during the night while im asleep I roll over onto my stomach, lol.

The first time what i did is strap something to my chest so that when i do roll over in my sleep it will hurt me and ill wake up and not sleep on my stomach. This worked for about 2 days until i woke up the 3rd day with a sore chest bone and a mark form sleeping on my stomach regardless. After that i ''willed'' myself to not sleep on my stomach and that worked well for a while - i would still some days wake up on my stomach, but mostly it worked. Until recently this has not worked anymore.

And it is linked to my previous blog of loosing focus. I am very uncomfortable everyday with my stomach problems and even more so going gluten-free. So what happens ''sub consciously'' when i am asleep  is that i want to be comfortable and thus roll over and sleep on my stomach. yes - even asleep you are still the one who decides what happens - i make the choice to sleep n my stomach.

Tomorrow i will reveal the steps to assist myself how not to sleep on my stomach anymore then its goodbye to back pain.