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Haven’t you always heard that the ideal sleep position is on your back? Well, that advice is for babies. Our friend Dr. Steven Park, who specializes in breathing problems during sleep, recommends that you try sleeping on your stomach to combat a host of problems, including morning fatigue, headaches, and sore throats. All these can be due to sleep apnea, Steven tells us, which can occur when your muscles relax during sleep. There’s nothing wrong with relaxed muscles, mind you! Except that if you’re sleeping on your back, your relaxed tongue can actually block your breathing, which will wake you up just enough for you to change position. That can happen often enough each night to make sleep an exhausting proposition. And it’s a condition that increases with age. See a sleep specialist if any of these problems persist, but here’s hoping that rolling over will have you sleeping like a baby, or at least the way babies wish they could.
—For more advice on sleep problems, check out Steven’s new book, Sleep, Interrupted.
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Useful information. In an exhausted world, a simple fix to feel better is a gem indeed.