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Sleeping Positions

What is your favorite position for sleeping? On your side? ...Your stomach? ...Your back? Some people (especially kids) sleep in very strange positions sometimes -- like for instance, on their forearms and knees, with their bottoms in the air! (Horses can sleep standing up.)

Doctors say there is not one best position for sleeping. But there are a few rules:

  • Babies should sleep on their backs to avoid accidental suffocation.

  • Adults with back pain or reflux should not sleep on their backs.

  • Pregnant women should sleep on their sides.

Most people change position many times in a single night's sleep -- although they may not realize it. This is exactly what physical therapists advise. Elderly people who are bedridden may develop bedsores if they stay in the same position too long.