Way adults sleep rests on their comfort

Is it best to sleep on your back, side or stomach?

“This mainly matters if you have sleep apnea, which is often worse on your back,” said Dr. Carl W. Bazil, director of the division of epilepsy and sleep at New York-Presbyterian/Columbia University Medical Center. “Snoring is often worse as well, as many bed partners can attest.”

Otherwise, for adults, it is much more important what position is most comfortable, Bazil said.

Even in a favored position, though, nerve compression can occur if you do not move during sleep. That explains why you sometimes awaken with a bit of numbness for a few minutes. Fortunately, the body tends to reposition itself naturally.

For infants, the advice is different. Since 1992, the American Academy of Pediatrics has said that babies should sleep on their backs, even if being put down for a short nap.

Although causality has not been shown, sleeping on the stomach is one of the known risk factors associated with sudden infant death syndrome, or SIDS, along with general stress, exposure to tobacco smoke and overheating.

After the academy’s widely publicized “Back to Sleep”campaign was begun in 1994, a 1998 study found that the prevalence of infants placed on their stomachs declined by 66 percent, and the rate of SIDS fell about 38 percent.