Read the transcript for this video:

Good morning, and welcome to Your Weekly Cup of Joe. My name is Joe King. I'm the owner of Physical Therapy Advantage in North Aurora , and we're here for our second part of the two-part series of sleeping and sleeping posture and using pillows and whatnot, just to have a better position, and so you can have a more restful sleep. So we talked about just head alignment and using pillows last time. Today, we're going to use about body and legs and look at everything else about using pillows and supporting yourself correctly. So we are going to go to our makeshift bed again here. We talked about trying to keep ourselves in good alignment, your head pillow, but also a lot of times we have back aches when we're sleeping and sometimes we'll be sleeping and we'll have our legs crossed and things like that, and that contortion of that hip and low back can cause you back pain. What we'd like to do sometimes is we'll put a pillow between the legs and now it helps keep your hips in a little better alignment. So now our head is supported up here, and good alignment back is nice and straight, and now our hips are good, and our legs are in a good position. So we just try to keep ourselves here, or if you have shoulder complaints, sometimes what we like to do is if we are sleeping and I'm going to do this pillow for my legs. So I have a nice pillow there, but when we sleep, sometimes we curl up in a ball like in a good fetal position. We just like to round ourselves. And we have a lot of tension in our neck and our chest and our upper back. But what you can do is you can put a pillow underneath your arm like this, and that can sometimes help you block from coming into this position. You can also hook your top hand back around your hip and holding the top of your thigh, so you can put it there. Once again with all these positions, we don't know what we do when we sleep; we have no control over most of the night. So you may start in a good position, but you may not end up here, but that's okay. You can reposition yourself throughout the night.

Another good position or a tip you can use is sometimes it's the down shoulder that bothers you so much. It's not so much the up shoulder that bothers you. When you lie down, you don't say the arm goes to asleep, but it may be the down shoulder. So what you can do there is you can put a pillow underneath you, just above your hip, along your trunk, and then you go like that. And what that does is elevates your trunk up a little bit and takes a little pressure off your down shoulder. And now you can be in a good position here, it's another great tip to try. Some people don't like having that underneath them, and some people do. You have to just find the right amount of, maybe it's a blanket folded up, maybe it's a pillow, but it's a little softer pillow; whatever works best for you. Also, when lying on your back, you may want to put a pillow or a towel or something underneath your knees, so your knees aren't locked out straight, they're a little bend in there, which takes a little pressure off your low back. So that's another good tip to have. And finally, if you happen to be a stomach sleeper, which I am not, but what you may want to do is put a pillow underneath your hip to your waist. Now, obviously, the armrest down here is blocking my feet, that's the norm, not going to be there but you would put a pillow underneath your hip and your waist to give yourself a little curve here to unload that low back. Because a lot of times with beds, they're a little softer maybe, and your back will sag deep into it. This would be a little more support, so your back will be without sag, and you can keep a little better alignment with that. As I said, I don't like to be on my stomach, so this is very uncomfortable to me, but for most people or for some people, I should say it is very comfortable, but a lot of times they have back pain when they sleep on their stomach. So putting the pillow underneath your hips, to your waist and finding that comfortable position for they can be a lifesaver and allow them to sleep on their stomach again, and they really enjoy it.

If you have any other questions about sleeping posture, sleeping tips, sleeping, pain, or posture when you're asleep or even just posture in general, please don't hesitate to give our clinic a call at (630) 892-8003, and we'd be more than happy to talk to you about that. Maybe have you come in for a quick screening and talk to you if we have to, that's okay. And we look forward to seeing you next week on your, this Weekly Cup of Joe. Bye.