Without Dash

Note: Many people wonder if sleeping on your stomach can cause a headache or if sleeping and a headache are related at all. I can answer this question with, yes. In my experience sleeping on my stomach can cause migraines. Read on, if you want to know how I found out.

I started to have headaches when I was in my late teens. Some of the headaches were caused by a lack of sleep, some by a little too much partying and others by smoking too much or spending hours and hours reading with a flashlight. Later, as a student, I had to learn to live with pain in the back of my neck and at the base of my skull during weekdays, and a dull throbbing in my head with occasional flashes in front of my eyes in the weekends. Now, being a combi woman trying to combine a daughter with a job does not help much either.

I have tried painkillers, migraine tablets and homeopathic remedies. The first dulled the pain a little, the second made me vomit and lose sense in my arms and legs, and the latter did have exactly the same effects as taking water diluted with water; nothing.

Then earlier this year, I explained this to my chiropractor neighbor and told him that I found my headaches and occasional migraines getting very mysterious. I can understand a headache when you do not get enough sleep, or when you are under a lot of stress. Or when you do not drink enough water during the day, you might get a headache in the evening. And even when you sleep in a little too long in the morning. I had ruled out all these possibilities already. Besides, my headaches would all of a sudden come up in the middle of the night or early in the morning around the time I woke up. And then my neighbor asked me: “how do you sleep?” I said not very well with these headaches, but that was not what he meant with his question. He meant my sleeping position.

I have slept on my stomach my whole life, and apparently this can cause headaches. Lying on your front makes you turn your head to one side and this can trouble the circulation to the brain, which in turn will bring on a migraine. Who knew that? I didn’t. Otherwise I would not have had to endure the headaches for many years.

I learned to sleep in a different position and the headaches were nearly all gone. Every once in a while, I could not get to sleep in this ‘new’ position and decided to sleep on my stomach again. And the next morning I always had to pay the price for it with a headache. But at least I found a reason for my headaches; bad circulation.

Recently, I have been reading upon the topic of headaches and bad circulation and came across a study from Sydney Ross Singer about how gravity influences our circulation and related health issues.

The study points out that in a normal standing position gravity drains the brains from blood. We can test this ourselves by standing on our head for a while. You can feel that the brain is then not drained from blood and that a pressure that’s to build up in your head. Of course, our body has ways of controlling this pressure. One of the ways is to lower the overall blood pressure, but this is not enough when we put our heads down for a prolonged period: “Despite the defense mechanisms, intracranial pressures increase after hours of lying flat.” And what happens then? Brain ventricles swell, brain cells bath in excess fluid, blood backs up in the venous system and the brain’s circulation becomes near stagnant. And that happens all because we are sleeping flat for prolonged periods at the time.

Furthermore, the study shows that the majority of migraine sufferers find relief by a simple sleep position change, even after suffering migraines for over 30 years. It could reduce allergies, asthma, strokes, glaucoma, and even prevent Alzheimer’s disease.

Are you convinced? I know that I am. The website of the Self Study Center suggest a few changes in your sleeping position and all are ways to elevate your head, so you can lower the pressure in your brains. But we could also look at native cultures, where people do not suffer from these ailments and sleep in a hammock or other non-flat surfaces. And in cultures that do not sleep for prolonged periods, but do siestas instead.

Tags: headache, Health