This video is sponsored by Manscaped. Brew: We’ve all been there— awakening from a long, dream-filled sleep, but instead of feeling rested, your body feels tight and sore. It’ll happen to all of us every once in a while, and y’know, a bad sleep now and then isn’t the end of the world, but what if every sleep was bad? For one Reddit user, every single night was a practice in pain tolerance. They write in the subreddit “Today I Effed Up”. Grill: “To paint the scene, I have horrible spinal issues with names I cannot pronounce. After several neck injuries and a pinched nerve, I no longer can lift objects more than 10lbs. Most of quarantine I was practically bed ridden because the pain was so severe. My neck is beginning to lose its curve. I have paid thousands of dollars in chiropractic and physical therapy fees in an attempt to reduce the pain and reverse the damage.” Brew: As it turns out, the source of their problem might have been something you do every single night. Today’s episode concerns sleep science! As always, we recommend speaking to your doctor if you have any questions. And with that out of the way, Let’s get into it! If we wake up with pain, the first thing we can try to fix it is changing our sleep positions. Each one offers different benefits. Let’s go over what they do to our bodies! Even if you don’t like sleeping this way, I’m certain that you’ve used this position before! It’s the fetal position! According to Healthline, it can help reduce snoring, and lower back pain. By pulling your knees into your chest, you can reduce bending of the spine and open up your joints. If you don’t keep a loose posture however, you’ll limit your deep breathing, and you could wake up in the morning with joint stiffness. This position is more uncommon than the others. It’s upright! Sleeping upright raises the head above the body, which has the benefit of keeping your airway open and reducing the risk of snoring and sleep apnea. It can also help with lower back pain, although, it should be mentioned that sleeping upright greatly limits your ability to move while sleeping, and you may experience some soreness that way. Prone— sleeping on your stomach, according to Healthline, among others, is likely the worst way to sleep. It’ll help with snoring, and sleep apnea, but might exacerbate neck and back pain. In addition to putting extra strain on your muscles and joints— which may make you wake up sore. If you must sleep on your stomach, then one way you can mitigate some of the negative effects of this position is to place a thin pillow under your stomach and hips. This will improve the way your spine bends overnight, giving your less back pain when you wake up. Sleeping on your side might be one of the best for your body. Like sleeping on your stomach and in the fetal position, sleeping on your side can alleviate snoring, but did you know it can also reduce heartburn? A study asked 10 participants to eat high fat meals before going to bed in order to compare experiences. Researchers found that when participants slept on their right side, their heartburn symptoms worsened. Another review from the British Medical Journal found that it protected individuals from spinal pain. Sleeping on your side can also lead to stiffness in your shoulders and jaw on the side you choose to sleep on though. Putting a pillow between your knees can help align your hips and prevent lower back pain. There is also some data that connects sleeping on your side to the development of wrinkles earlier in life. But, a few wrinkles never hurt anyone, right? Supine— in terms of back pain, sleeping flat on your back will give you the most support. By sleeping this way, you use gravity to keep an even pressure along your entire spine, limiting extra pressure on any one joint or disc. If you want to make sure that your back is aligned properly, you can place a pillow just under your knees to keep the natural curve of your spine. It’s also been suggested that sleeping on your back can help with wrinkles. It won’t make you young again, but you’ll avoid any pillow related wrinklige. Grill: Ah yes, Pillow Wrinklige, my favourite Game of Thrones actor. Brew: That being said, sleeping on your back won’t help with snoring and sleep apnea. Just like how ignoring your health won’t help you with it. April is National Testicular Cancer Awareness month, a topic that this video’s sponsor, Manscaped is all too aware of. Did you know that around 9,000 cases of testicular cancer are diagnosed in the US alone every year? Thankfully, if caught in time, testicular cancer is treatable in 99% of cases and remains one of the most curable forms of cancer Manscaped, purveyors of full body grooming equipment, have now partnered with the Testicular Cancer Society in order to spread awareness and provide support for fighters, survivors, and families. And that’s where more good news comes in — checking for early signs is easy to administer yourself while using Manscaped genital hygiene and grooming products like their Crop Mop wipes, Crop Preserver deodorant, and the SkinSafe Lawn Mower 3.0 body trimmer. Just go to Manscaped.com/TCS and learn how you can keep your eye out for early signs of testicular cancer! Click the link below the video or use our code BREWSOLVES20 for 20% off plus free shipping at Manscaped— every purchase contributes to the Testicular Cancer Society. Let’s face it, cancer isn’t always an easy topic to remember, especially if you haven’t had a close brush with it, but it’s important to keep it in mind. Just like it can be hard to think about our sleep habits as a part of our culture. The Western concept of sleeping in a raised bed is not so universal as it may seem from inside of it. For example, in Japanese culture, most people sleep on the floor on futons, and in the past they would simply sleep on tatami mats made out of rice straw. Michael Tetley, a physiotherapist from the UK, has studied the relationship between other primate species, indigenous populations, and sleeping positions. He believes that nomadic and forest dwelling peoples exhibit fewer musculoskeletal issues than those living in western societies because of the way they sleep. He also argues that pillows are completely unnecessary. Chill: What!? No no no I—I need a thicc pillow. Grill: “A” thick pillow? You’ve got at least 10 on the bed right now. Chill: Don’t shame me dawg. Brew: Tetley grew up in Kenya speaking Swahili, so he has personal experience of sleep both in a Western context, and an African one. In the mid-50s, he commanded a platoon of soldiers from various tribes who taught him how to sleep on the ground comfortably and vigilantly. He describes a few different “instinctive” sleeping positions. Recovery Position— The first looks a lot like the recovery position when you give first aid. Chill: That makes sense! It’s comfy, and it opens your airway right? Brew: Exactly right! The next is called “Sleeping on Shins”, which requires one to kneel on the ground, and curl up into a little ball to sleep. He says that Tibetan caravaneers sleep on their shins in order to limit the amount of flesh that’s in contact with the cold ground. Tetley also mentions that this will conserve body heat, as well as allowing “both ears to listen for danger”. It also comes with the added bonus of helping sleep apnea. Grill: Yeah sleeping on your shins sounds more like punishment than comfort. Brew: For some, maybe. But if you’re looking out for predators, and trying to stay warm, this might be as comfortable as you’re gonna get. The third position he describes is what he calls the “lookout” position, where you tuck your hands under your chest, using one arm as a pillow. Tetley believes that this position is not only comfortable, but increases survivability, as it allows both ears to listen for danger. He notes that he has seen howler monkeys using this position in Costa Rica. Quadrupedal Lying— the last position Tetley describes is similar to the way that quadrupedal animals rest. He argues that this position can aid the body to repair spinal lesions. He speculates that perhaps animals adopt this position to use the sun’s rays to help relax their muscles. Tetley’s main argument is that these“instinctive” positions are used by bipedal mammals to alleviate low back pain and joint stiffness. Our bodies evolved before we had beds, so it’s possible we’re adapted for these positions, and sleeping in beds may have thrown us out of wack. Does this explain Reddit user Millkyliz’s experiences? Could sleeping instinctively fix their back problems? Well, there’s another factor we need to consider before we can truly have our answer. Michael Tetley mentioned that pillows were entirely superfluous, but are they? Chill: They’re not. Brew: Well, they might be. Chill: Oh I’m Brew. I know everything. I hate pillows and sleeping. myeh myeh muh muh Coffee, facts facts. Brew: Hey everyone it’s me it’s Chill, and I’m just gonna jump to conclusions and not let Brew finish his episode. Yeah, not fun is it? It’s possible that pillows might not be needed to ensure that you have a full, restful sleep, but using a pillow wrong will guarantee that you wake up with a crick in your neck. Dr. Andrea Hornstein, a North Dakota chiropractor, has said that pillows play a much larger role in a good sleep than we think. If you sleep with your head in a non-neutral position, you may be setting up your sleep for neck pain. Not only that, if your pillow is too thin, or too thick, you can push your neck into an uncomfortable angle. Your neck muscles will then work all night to compensate, and you’ll wake up sore. If you’re sleeping on your side, then it’s best to lay your head flat on the pillow, and tuck into your neck, and let your shoulders relax. Hornstein also recommends to never sleep with your shoulders on your pillow. Only rest your head on your pillow, otherwise, you will bend you back into an unnatural angle, and wake up with back pain. Chill: Wait… did pillows give that reddit person back pain? Brew: You wanna do the honors? Grill: Don’t mind if I do. Milkyliz says “Here I am laying in bed thinking I need a larger pillow when I look over to my significant other. Just his head is on his pillow. Today is the first day in my entire life that I’ve ever heard your shoulders shouldn’t go on the pillow too! I’ve just been laying with my neck and shoulders flat on the pillow slowly flattening the spine in my neck for 21 years.” Chill: I can’t believe pillows would betray us. HOW COULD YOU, I TRUSTED YOU- (distressed Chill noises) Grill: There there, it’s okay, just remember to breathe. Brew: Long story short, if you rest your shoulders up on your pillow, you run the risk of tightening up the muscles in your neck, shoulders, and upper back. And after 8 hours every night of that, you’re gonna wake up a little worse for wear. At the end of the day, your comfort is yours to determine. If you like sleeping on your back, go for it. If you like a dozen pillows, go nuts. There are specific sleeping positions that will cause you pain or soreness, but as long as you’re not experiencing any negative effects, then your sleep habits are likely to be fine. If you’re experiencing long term pain, speak to your doctor about what is best for you. Everyone loves to sleep, even those night-owls among us cannot deny that curling up under a warm blanket is one of the sweeter things in life. I’m not here to tell you how you should or shouldn’t sleep. I mean, honestly. I haven’t had a good sleep since 1997.
