You go to bed at eleven o'clock. You sleep through the night, no waking up, and you’ve slept for eight hours.
And yet you wake up as if you’ve been tossing and turning half the night. Dry mouth, heavy head, that feeling that you need an hour before you can do anything.
Most people then look at the hours. Go to bed earlier, stay in bed longer, sleep in on the weekend, but the hours were not the problem. It’s about what your body was doing during those hours.
And that starts with how you lie down.
What happens as soon as you lie on your back
On your back, gravity pulls everything straight down. Your lower jaw shifts back a little. Your tongue, which during the day should rest neatly against your palate, falls backward toward your throat.
During the day you don’t notice it, because your muscles keep everything in place. While you sleep, those muscles relax completely. That’s how it should be, but it also means there is nothing left to stop your tongue and soft palate from sinking back.
As a result, your airway becomes narrower. Not closed, just narrower, and a narrower airway means your body has to work harder for the same amount of air.
Often your body solves this by opening your mouth. More space and less resistance, which means the problem is immediately solved (that’s what your body thinks).
But it isn’t. From that moment on, you breathe through your mouth for the rest of the night. Your mouth dries out, your throat becomes irritated, and your breathing becomes shallower. You do sleep, but you recover less.
That’s why you can have eight hours on the clock and still not feel any better the next morning.
Why you don’t notice this yourself
This is the annoying part. You just sleep right through it.
You don’t wake up from a narrower airway. Your body makes hundreds of small corrections every night and they last too short for you to become aware of them. You only notice the result.
That’s why most people blame something else. Busy work, stress, getting older, a mattress that needs replacing.
The clues you’re left with are small. A dry mouth when you wake up. A sticky feeling in your throat. The sense that sleeping no longer gives you what it used to.
What you can do about it
Sleep on your side. This is the most important one. On your side, your lower jaw stays in place and your tongue doesn’t fall backward, because gravity pulls sideways instead of downward. Your airway stays wider without you having to do anything.
Left or right makes little difference to your breathing.
Place a pillow behind your back. Almost everyone who starts on their side rolls back during the night anyway. A firm pillow or a rolled-up blanket behind your back keeps you in place without waking you up.
Choose a pillow that suits your position. On your side you need a thicker pillow than on your back, because the distance between your shoulder and your head is greater. If your neck is tilted, you’re tensing exactly the muscles that should be relaxing.
Raise your headboard a few centimeters. This reduces pressure on your airway and also helps if your nose often gets blocked at night.
And make sure your nose can handle it. Sleeping on your side only helps if you can actually breathe through your nose. If your nose is often blocked at night, you’ll naturally fall back to breathing through your mouth. Nasal strips pull your nostrils outward and keep your nasal passage open with a splint that holds everything under tension. Mouth tape keeps your mouth closed, even if you end up on your back halfway through the night.
The habit for this week
Starting tonight, sleep on your side and place a pillow behind your back or between your legs so you don’t roll back. Don’t buy a new mattress, that’s a waste of money :)
After a week, pay attention to one thing. How does your mouth feel when you wake up? Dry and sticky means you’ve still been breathing through your mouth. Normal and fresh means something has changed.
1% Better Every Night.
Guy Veeke
PS: Do you keep rolling onto your back every night anyway?
Then the combination of nasal strips and mouth tape is the easiest solution. Your nose stays open, your mouth stays closed, and your sleeping position becomes a lot less important.
