More than 20 years. It is the time we sleep in our entire life. Have you ever wondered?
Could it be that I sleep in the correct position? Wouldn't it be better to sleep on the right side of the left side, on your stomach or on your back? That's what I'm going to talk to you about.
But I'm not only going to tell you what the best sleeping position is, for your health, of course, but also other aspects such as things we do as soon as we get up that will alter our dreams, drinks and foods that worsen our sleep. . What happens if you sleep with your mouth open and the curiosities of the new tapes that help us breathe through the mouth?
And as a bonus track I'm going to talk to you about natural supplements that will help you sleep better, like melatonin, glycine. But I'm also going to talk to you about clonazepam and those drugs that they prescribe us to sleep better. Let's start and start with a question.
Are you sleeping well because 1/3 of your life will be spent sleeping? The first mistake that I find in most people is that they don't even know what the correct position is. The most frequent positions are these.
The first one I want to talk about is the prone position . This is one of the worst sleeping positions, because it is unnatural for your back. When you lie face down with your head twisted, your spine looks misaligned.
And also the normal curvatures that occur in it are altered. That's why after being face down for a while, your back generally hurts. If you are young and watching this video, you probably sleep on your stomach, but I don't recommend it.
Over time it will bring you health problems. I tell you more, if you are a person who cares about how you age and those expression lines that appear on your face, sleeping on your stomach can make this worse, since the pillow generates small folds that become marked on the face. If this happens routinely and frequently, these folds or wrinkles will be marked, that is, it is likely that your face will even look older.
That's why, for me, sleeping on your stomach is the worst position. I'm going to tell you how to choose the correct position. First I'm going to talk to you about the pros and cons.
What happens if I sleep on my right side? Two things happen here when it comes to the spine sleeping on the right side, one of the best positions, in fact. I tell you something?
This is the position I sleep in, especially if you add a pillow between your legs, between your knees, because this allows the lumbar spine to align correctly. But there is a problem most adults have problems with gastroesophageal reflux. That is, there is a muscle that is in the lower part of the esophagus in the part that connects with the stomach that does not function properly.
And at night, when you are lying down, gravity does not push the liquids in your body downwards, the liquid from the stomach returns to your mouth, it burns your esophagus, it burns your larynx and the next day you are there all the time, you have colds all over time, you have gum problems, you have mouth problems or you even feel that acidic or ugly burning sensation when you wake up. It is likely that if you have these symptoms you have reflux and sleeping on the right side can be a big mistake, because imagine the tube that connects the stomach with the mouth is the esophagus. The esophagus is more on the right side.
And if the lower esophageal muscle does not work well, when you lie on your right side, all the liquid that is in this part of the stomach will fall towards that tube and it will be much easier for that acidic liquid to rise towards your mouth. It has been shown that stomach sleepers have more reflux problems. It is not the best position for these people, but it is a very good position for, for example, those who have back problems or patients who snore.
As I'm going to tell you face up, one of the most common positions of all is very good for the cervical spine because it perfectly aligns the spine. Even your kinesiologist may recommend that you place a pillow under your knee, a thin pillow so that the lower part of your spine aligns properly. This relaxes the lumbar area quite a bit and allows your spine to be well.
And if your pillow is good, your cervical spine will also be good. That is, it allows good alignment of the spine in general, but it has a small detail if you are a patient who snores or has hypertension and even if you are an obese patient and especially if you are pregnant, this is not a good position. Why obese patients generally snore for several reasons.
Reasons. One of the main reasons is because a part of the posterior pharynx, that is, the part of the roof of your throat, when you fall asleep, those muscles relax, fall backwards and obstruct the passage of air. Many of us breathe through our mouths.
This obstruction of the air passage generates whirlpools that will produce this snoring sound. If snoring were the only problem, it's not such a big deal. Now.
Snoring in obese patients, especially in those who are morbidly obese, is part of a disease called Obstructive Sleep Apnea Syndrome. These patients snore for several periods and then stop breathing for a few seconds. Those periods when you stop breathing.
Carbon dioxide begins to accumulate in the blood and causes our respiratory center to activate and the patient to breathe again. Then they snore, stop, snore, stop. And this causes Microawakenings in the brain that cause adrenaline to be released so that the patient can breathe again.
And this produces an increase in pressure. This disease is one of the worst enemies of hypertension, because it produces refractory hypertension several times during the night and increases the risk of dying from heart disease. So, if you are a snoring and obese patient, perhaps sleeping on your back is not the best position.
It can even worsen hypertension and increase the risk of death in these patients. If you are pregnant, it is not the best position either, because the baby in the uterus weighs a lot and when you sleep on your back it puts pressure on a vein called the inferior vena cava. That is why it is recommended to sleep on the left side.
As I'm going to tell you right away, sleeping on your back can now, according to some small studies, help patients who have headaches or who suffer from fibromyalgia, for example. Let's now go to the position that I like to sleep the most. Left side position, this is the position that everyone recommends.
Because? Because it has great benefits. For example, if you are a patient who has reflux.
I told you that the acid was rising. This is the best position. When you sleep on your left side, all the stomach fluids fall towards the stomach wall and it is much more difficult for them to return to your mouth.
On the other hand, it apparently even helps empty the stomach and improve bowel movements. If you are a snoring patient, sleeping on the right side or on the left side can reduce snoring. Because?
Because that wall that falls now due to the effect of gravity is going to fall to the side or relax much less. And this helps reduce snoring, but it can also help with circulation. I told you if you are pregnant, you are an obese patient or if you simply have poor circulation in your legs, the organs can put pressure on a vein that brings all the blood from the lower part of our body and reaches the heart.
It is called the inferior vena cava. It's back, to the right. When we sleep on our back we can press it and to the right side as well.
That is why pregnant women and others are recommended to sleep on the left side so as not to put pressure on this vein and allow blood to circulate correctly. When blood circulates properly, your heart can pump properly and circulation improves. In some cases.
This, some experts even claim, could improve lower limb swelling, facial swelling, and much more. But then let's get down to the simple, practical. How do I choose the position?
What is the best position? You have to keep three things in mind. One, the most important thing when we sleep is the spine.
You have to have your spine well aligned, that is, it has to be neutral. The best positions for the spine are face up right side or left side, but the best position is the one you feel comfortable with. It often helps to place a pillow under your knees or between your knees and sleep on your sides.
The back should be well aligned. The lumbar should not be too supported and the cervical should not be too twisted or too straight. They should be in a comfortable position without being too upset.
The second, once you have detected what is the best position for the spine, is to see if you have any health problems. If you have reflux on the right side you are not going to sleep because it will make your reflux worse. If you have back problems, never sleep on your stomach.
If you snore, I do not recommend sleeping on your back, especially if you are obese and have obstructive sleep apnea syndrome, unless you are being treated appropriately. That is, each position will help, worsen or improve a pathology. And lastly, and for me, most importantly, comfort.
It's no use if you have less reflux, if your spine is perfectly aligned if you don't sleep, if you sleep poorly, if you stay awake all night because you believe that that is the best position, the best position, is where you are comfortable and sleep adequately. properly all night. Yes above.
To improve your reflux. If on top of that you improve your snoring, if on top of that you take care of your back much better, then take these three pillars and see which is the best position. I'll give you an example: I used to sleep on my right side.
Before, it was a very comfortable position for me, but I realized that I have reflux. In fact, I have a clear throat in the morning when I sleep on the right side, when I sleep on the left side, this does not happen. I fixed it, switched sides and improved my reflux.
Now let's go to mistake number two, what I call enemies of rest. And here there are drinks, food and things we do every day. Let's start with the drinks.
We always tell you: When you get up, drink a glass of water, add a few drops of lemon. Why don't we tell you to drink water before going to bed? Because you are going to get up to urinate all the time.
Shouldn't you drink water about two hours before bed? As long as you have hydrated well before. In fact, there are patients who come to the doctor's office and tell me, I get up to urinate all the time and I saw that this could be diabetes.
I saw that this could be circulation problems. I'm worried and when I ask them until what time do they drink water or drinks before going to bed, then of course you're going to get up to urinate. So, drinking a large amount of water is not appropriate at night because it will interfere with sleep.
The coffee. We love coffee, it powers the mind. It is an anti-inflammatory.
It is an antioxidant. It allows us to work better, increases our mood, makes us perform better, gives us more reflexes. But there are people who are slow metabolizers.
I am a slow metabolizer. I do drink coffee. After two or 3:00 p.
m. , it takes me a long time to eliminate that coffee and at night I don't sleep well. So what do I recommend?
If you drink coffee every day? Look at the effect that coffee has on you. Normally it takes us about four hours to metabolize coffee, but there are people who can take up to 12 hours.
So, if you went to bed at 10:00 p. m. and drank coffee at 4:00 p.
m. and you're a slow metabolizer, you probably won't be able to sleep. If you detect this, reduce your coffee consumption or do not drink after midday as is normally recommended.
Now, if you are a fast metabolizer, you can drink coffee until four or five or 6:00 p. m. and this probably won't affect you.
You have to look at case by case number three for me regarding drinks, terrible alcohol. I know that when you drink alcohol. You have a glass of wine, a beer, you sleep faster, you sleep better.
Or so you think. But do you know what happens to your brain? Sleep more superficially.
Then deep rest doesn't really come. While alcohol can help you induce, that is, fall asleep and give you the false feeling that you are sleeping well, it does the opposite. And if you do it to sleep every night, over time you will have tiredness, chronic fatigue, muscle pain and much more.
I do not recommend alcohol on a chronic basis, Cycles. I put you here. Did you know that to sleep well it matters what we do throughout the day?
It really is that? We need our brain to release a substance called melatonin at night . Melatonin is not released when there are lights, especially sunlight.
That's why melatonin has like a cycle. And here I give you two tips. When you get up, the first thing you have to do is open the window and let the sun's rays enter your eyes so that the cycle begins, inhibiting the release of melatonin.
Then you tidy up the bed, do your activities and at night when you You're going to bed, stay away from lights, stay away from screens, stay away from cell phones and your room has to be very dark. Then a release of melatonin will begin to help you sleep. I'm going to tell you what happens with the melatonin that we can buy and that we can take to improve our sleep.
So the circadian cycle is very important and we must start taking care of it early. As soon as we lift the screens we have already talked exercises. Exercises are good and bad because if we exercise two hours or three hours before going to sleep we will not be able to sleep.
Our body will not be able to reduce the stress of training and we will sleep poorly. No matter how much you are used to it, you are going to sleep badly. The best time to train is early in the morning and not too late in the afternoon.
Because? Because you are going to sleep badly. We should not train three hours before going to bed because it will really affect your sleep.
Now, exercise. As soon as you get up in the morning, at nap, in the afternoon, early it will help you sleep. Because?
Because your body is going to be tired, your muscles have worked and they are going to release substances that after three or four hours are going to relax you, are going to bring you down to earth and are going to improve your health not only in your body, but also in your brain. So, close to sleeping bad, far from sleeping, excellent and it has to be part of your life. We have already talked about light.
Now I will tell you before the supplements, a curiosity that the researchers have studied, they saw that there are some tapes that cover the mouths of the patients because they breathe through the mouth? Well, your nose has little hairs and it has bones. The holes that generate special whirlpools.
These eddies allow microorganisms to become trapped in the hairs, as well as in the mucus of the nose, allowing the air to not only warm, but also act as an immunological barrier. On the other hand, our nose allows air to pass correctly without making noise through it and does not snore. There are many patients who sleep with their mouth open and this produces swirls in the back of the mouth, which increases the risk of snoring.
But we also breathe air that was not warmed by the nose and that did not pass through the adequate barriers contained in the nose. nose. So some specialists have said, What happens if we cover the mouths of these patients?
Could it be that they sleep better? It could be that some diseases improve and some special bandages come that you have surely seen. Now they work.
There are small studies that say they show that some patients can improve their snoring with these bands. What do I recommend to you? First, never use the horizontal bandages, the ones that cover the entire mouth.
In any case, the vertical bands if you are going to use them. Second, if you have a problem like a cold, a deviated septum, a problem with polyps and so on and you don't breathe through your nose because you have nasal insufficiency, for this you have to go to an ENT specialist. Covering your mouth isn't going to help you.
The only thing that was seen in the studies is that you are going to breathe through the holes in those tapes and you are going to worsen your breathing problem. So my recommendation is never to use them without asking your doctor. We go to the bonus track in less than a minute.
Does melatonin work or not? And in fact yes, if you leave if you put melatonin in the comments. I'm going to make a whole video, it's excellent, but what do I recommend?
Quick release melatonin. How long before sleeping? About 30 to 45 minutes before going to sleep.
In a dose of less than five milligrams. It is safe, has few side effects and will help you sleep. Wisteria.
Wisteria is excellent. Can you also make a video if you want and if you tell me where not? Six It is taken about 2 to 3 grams also about 60 to 90 minutes before sleeping and helps in the induction, but also in the depth of sleep.
And finally, doctor, clonazepam. Those pills work, they work, they induce sleep. The problem is that they generate addiction.
If your doctor recommends it, use them, but never use them on your own. When a family member gives you or something. They are drugs that act very deeply in the brain, that generate addiction and that in the long run cause us problems.
They are useful if your doctor prescribed it to alleviate a problem that is probably temporary and then maybe try to take it off or keep it at the lowest possible dose. I hope this talk has been useful and informative for you. I send you a big hug from our part of the world.
Bye Bye.
