I notice that all of the sleep positions are either on the stomach or side. I usually go between side and stomach when sleeping, and can't really fall asleep very well on my back. But, my impression is that most people go between side and back, with stomach sleepers being a minority (I've even heard it called weird).
This study backs that up (54% side, 37% back, 7% stomach)
I wonder if the difference is cultural, or technological: that is, do we learn to sleep a certain way, or is it that the mattress changes the equation somehow and makes people 5x more likely to sleep on their back than on their stomach?
In the past, I've hypothesized that it's cultural, and my just-so etiology for the phenomenon is that it comes from TV and movies. It's much easier to get a good shot of an actor delivering dialog while lying in bed on their back, compared to their stomach, so we see people sleeping on their back and learn to do it that way.
This is all just uninformed speculation, and of course it assumes the original, linked article is valid at all.
How do you breathe when you sleep on your stomach? My back and hips feel amazing when I try it, but my neck starts to hate me from the way I have to twist around to get air.
Looks a lot like figure 4 in that article, but with my arms wrapped around a pillow. The arms hold up the head, and the neck isn't rotated so much that it hurts. There's usually a little twist at the hips, and my legs are kinda jackknifed as in the second figure 2 picture (I just noticed the caption points out how "the penis is protected from insects", ha ha). Very comfortable, though my ribs will get a little sore after a while, so I rotate with a side sleeping position throughout the night.
This study backs that up (54% side, 37% back, 7% stomach)
https://www.dovepress.com/sleep-positions-and-nocturnal-body...
I wonder if the difference is cultural, or technological: that is, do we learn to sleep a certain way, or is it that the mattress changes the equation somehow and makes people 5x more likely to sleep on their back than on their stomach?
In the past, I've hypothesized that it's cultural, and my just-so etiology for the phenomenon is that it comes from TV and movies. It's much easier to get a good shot of an actor delivering dialog while lying in bed on their back, compared to their stomach, so we see people sleeping on their back and learn to do it that way.
This is all just uninformed speculation, and of course it assumes the original, linked article is valid at all.