What Is the Best Sleep Position for You?

Are you tossing and turning all night long? Or waking up with a stiff neck day after day? Your sleeping position might be to blame. The way you sleep can affect everything from how deeply you rest to how your body feels when you wake up.

When you crawl under the covers, you probably have a go-to sleep position you always find yourself in. Maybe you’re curled up on your right side, stretched out on your back or flat on your stomach.

The good news is that there’s no one-size-fits-all answer when it comes to the best sleep position (although certain postures can be beneficial for specific health conditions). But whatever way you sleep, maintaining proper spinal alignment is key—it helps your muscles relax, keeps circulation flowing smoothly and can even ease issues like snoring, neck pain or acid reflux.

Here’s what experts say about finding the ideal sleep position for your comfort and health—plus tips for adjusting your pillow and mattress setup so every night’s rest feels restorative.

Most people don’t put much—if any—thought into their sleep position. But given that you spend about a third of every day in bed, the sleep position you use is more important than you might think.

“Sleep position has a huge impact on not only your sleep but also how you’re feeling throughout the day,” says Julia Kogan, a health psychologist who focuses on behavioral sleep medicine at the Department of Veterans Affairs.

First and maybe the most obvious, a proper sleep position can keep your body comfortable. That, in turn, promotes high-quality slumber, which helps you feel more rejuvenated when you wake up, and ultimately ready to wind down once bedtime rolls around.

In the right sleep position, your spine is aligned, enabling your torso, limbs and joints to all be supported without pressure points, says Megan Anderson, director of merchandising at Mattress Firm. If your spine is aligned, ideally, your neck and head are properly supported, too.

This will help you get the restorative sleep you need, night after night. Accordingly, a poor sleep position does the opposite.

“Patients will tell me they’re waking up stiff and sore in the morning or tossing and turning all night long because they’re not aware of what sleep position is best for them,” explains Thanuja Hamilton, a sleep medicine specialist at Advocare Sleep Physicians of South Jersey and board member of the New Jersey Sleep Society.

That can lead to pain during the day, which has been shown to make it more difficult to get quality sleep at night. Repeatedly sleeping in a bad or uncomfortable position can create a detrimental long-term cycle for both your body and sleep.

That said, there’s no single sleep position that’s best for everyone. The best sleeping style for you depends on how comfortable you feel, factoring in your sleep setup and any health conditions.

“It’s really a personal preference, but once you’re in your ideal sleep position, there are ways to optimize it from there,” explains Anderson.

There’s no single best sleep position for overall health. No matter which posture you take, it’s possible to get high-quality, restorative sleep that leaves you feeling rejuvenated in the morning—as long as you’re well supported and your spine is aligned for most of the night. And that’s where finding the right pillows and mattress to match your sleep position becomes important.

Here’s a look at the various sleep positions, how to find spinal alignment in those postures, and the pillows and mattresses experts recommend for those sleeping styles.

Sleeping on your back involves lying flat on your back, facing up, with your legs extended out in a neutral position and arms either lying flat alongside the body, bent at the elbow with hands across the torso or arms bent into right angles with palms facing up beside your head. This sleep position evenly distributes your weight across your body, which can alleviate back pain.

You’ve got a wide variety of options when it comes to the best mattress for sleeping on your back, says Anderson.

“Back sleepers can go plush all the way to super firm,” she says.

Beyond a wide range of mattress options, there’s another upside to back sleeping: It naturally promotes spinal alignment. After all, your spine is generally straight and supported when you’re lying flat on your back.

Strategic pillow placement or an adjustable base can help you avoid pressure points in your lower back and back of the head in this sleep position. Anderson recommends adjusting your bed setup so that your head and feet are slightly elevated and placing a pillow beneath your knees. That offers support in places that need it most when sleeping on your back and creates a “zero-gravity” effect that lends itself to more sound sleeping.

“Another tip I’ve taught others who sleep on their back is to put two pillows on each side of their body to keep their arms a little above their hearts to keep that circulation going,” Anderson adds.

Ask a random adult about their ideal position for sleeping, and there’s a good chance they’ll say it’s on their side. Researchers estimate that side sleeping accounts for about 54% of the time people spend in bed, and some studies suggest it might be even higher. Sleeping on your side involves lying on your side, in what’s typically called the fetal position, with your knees and arms bent slightly inward.

There’s a reason it’s so popular: Side sleeping is not only comfortable, it’s widely considered one of the best sleeping positions. Research shows that side sleeping can reduce sleep apnea symptoms and help people snore less frequently. Sleeping on the left side, in particular, can reduce acid reflux at night.

This sleep position comes with its own drawbacks, though. It can cut off circulation to the arm tucked beneath you, put extra pressure on your shoulder or cause soreness in your shoulders if you don’t have the right type of mattress.

“Side sleepers need a mattress that’s medium to plush because your shoulder is really compacted against that surface, and if it’s really firm, you’re not getting the pressure relief that your upper body and hips need,” explains Anderson.

Side sleepers also need plenty of pillow support to promote alignment in this position.

“A pillow between the legs is going to help keep the hips in alignment and prevent collapsing of the knees, which can pull on the spine,” Anderson says.

She also recommends finding a pillow that provides support for the gap between your shoulder and head. For people with broad shoulders, that might require a high loft pillow, whereas a thinner pillow might be fine for those with narrower shoulders, Anderson adds.

From a comfort perspective, spending the night belly-flopped on the bed is an ideal sleep position for some people. But from an alignment perspective, it’s one of the trickiest.

“When you’re sleeping on your stomach, it’s close to impossible for your body to be in alignment,” says Kogan. “That can lead to tension in the neck and spine that impacts you during the day, making it more difficult to sleep later.”

Research has found that sleeping on your stomach is more likely to lead to lower back pain due to lumbar strain than any other sleep position.

That doesn’t mean that all stomach sleepers are doomed to waking up sore, though—you just need the right bed setup to make sure you have support in key places.

“It’s fine if you’re a stomach sleeper, but you want to be careful about mattresses that are too soft. That could cause your lower back to fall out of alignment because you’ve got less resistance from the surface,” Anderson notes.

Instead, opt for a mattress that’s fairly firm, and consider adding a pillow under your abdomen to prevent your lower back from curving inward. That extra support can go a long way toward keeping you comfortable in your ideal sleeping position and waking up without pain.

You might also consider swapping out your pillowcases for fresh ones frequently to ensure your face is always on something clean.

For most people, the best position to fall asleep is whatever one feels natural to you (with the right pillows and a mattress suited to that posture, of course!). With that being said, the healthiest sleeping position may be different than your go-to one if you have certain medical conditions.

Here’s a look at the best sleeping position for specific conditions:

• Back pain: back sleeping 
• Snoring: side sleeping 
• Sleep apnea: side sleeping 
• Acid reflux: left side sleeping 
• Pregnancy: left side sleeping 
• Neck pain: back or side sleeping 

If you’re dealing with a health condition, whether it’s temporary or chronic, it can be worth talking to a doctor to see if changing your sleep position could help your symptoms and promote healing.

At baseline, you should avoid any sleep position that throws your spine out of alignment or causes pain either during the night or when you wake up in the morning. Not only will that cause discomfort, but it will also make it harder for you to get the deep, restorative sleep that’s so important for health and well-being.

“As a best practice, find ways to maintain hip and spine alignment, and circulation within the limbs,” Anderson says.

Often, that just means adding some extra pillows in places that need them based on your sleep position. However, you may need to avoid certain sleep positions if you have certain health conditions.

If you’ve been diagnosed with sleep apnea, you might find that your hypopnea episodes become more severe when sleeping on your back, whereas they tend to get better when lying on your left or right side. Got lower back pain? Avoid sleeping on your stomach, which can strain your back muscles, and opt for lying flat on your back to keep your spine in a neutral alignment instead.

Your sleeping position can also be an important part of staying healthy while pregnant. Experts generally recommend that pregnant people avoid sleeping on their backs, as the uterus can press against a major blood vessel and potentially reduce circulation to the baby. Sleeping on your stomach while pregnant also isn’t recommended—it puts extra weight on the uterus and can be uncomfortable. Doctors typically encourage pregnant people to try sleeping on their left side to promote blood flow to the fetus and improve kidney function. This sleep position can also help alleviate acid reflux symptoms, which can flare later in pregnancy.

If you experience an injury, you may also need to avoid certain sleeping positions. For example, a dislocated shoulder may prevent you from lying comfortably on the injured side while you recover. Talk to a healthcare professional for personalized recommendations on which sleeping positions to avoid for your circumstances.

In general, the best sleeping position is the one that helps you sleep soundly throughout the night and allows you to wake up feeling rejuvenated. But if you have certain health conditions, such as acid reflux or sleep apnea, certain sleep positions may offer some relief from symptoms, so talk it over with a doctor.

Overall, finding the right position for you will require some trial and error. It may involve choosing a new mattress, throwing out your pillows or going through a few nights of practice before your new sleep position becomes a habit.

And keep in mind that sleep position isn’t the only factor in getting a good night’s rest. Practicing relaxation techniques (like box breathing), optimizing your bedroom for sleep, avoiding blue light close to bedtime and making exercise part of your daily routine can all help foster better sleep—no matter how scrunched up or sprawled out you lie in bed at night.