I knew someone would say that, but I didn't think it'd be you.
Well, the fact that you fall asleep most easily in the position that gives you nightmares? waking nightmares? is peculiar, to say the least. I'd think oxygen deprivation or something, but it doesn't make sense.
I'm not falling asleep because of the nightmares. The sleepy feeling and scary stuff are separate, I think.
I have mild sleep apnea that affects me when I sleep on my back, and the oxygen deprivation absolutely gives me nightmares. So it may be something like that.
I normally sleep on my side, but it seems to give me back problems make my back problems worse. For awhile I tried sleeping on my back--it is more comfortable, to be sure--however, as you noted, it is almost impossible to fall asleep in this position. Thus--last night, actually--I decided to try sleeping on my stomach, facing right (since it seems to matter). I dreamt that there was a Kierkegaard seminar at Target, yet (luckily) I couldn't get in.
Introspection: once it was content to slosh around in diffuse pools of self-knowledge, but over time its burbulous mass congealed. Under intense heat and pressure there crystallized a diamond: Unfogged.
You can learn to sleep on your back. It just takes a few nights to get used to it.
And, since you're polling, no, I have never heard of the kind of experience you are describing.
when you sleep on your tummy, the demons from hell are closer to your mouth, through which they enter to give you nasty dreams.
seriously, if you always get nightmares on your stomach, why would you ever sleep on your stomach?
when you sleep on your side, angels fly up your nose and defeat the demons. The refuse from the battle gives you morning gas, another pleasant side effect.
Sleep on your side, ogged.
f you always get nightmares on your stomach, why would you ever sleep on your stomach?
Because that's how I can fall asleep, of course. Not so much luck otherwise.
but you can sleep on your side -- you have admitted such!
Do you mistake, dear sir, or do you lie?!
You need a slumber-spatula to flip you over before the demons fill you up.
ok, what I meant was on your stomach facing left v. facing right. The same analysis applies.
So, I'm curious. You said you were meaning to ask about it, but you didn't actually ask. Did you want to ask, do we have similar experiences? Or did you want to ask, do we have any exceptional, text-quality advice for how to stop it?
Or both? or neither?
Was this post an attempt at automatic writing? Who were you trying to channel?
Ogged is questioning his orientation.
Ogged is questioning his orientation.
But he's always been uncomfortable both on the left and on the right.
notice that ogged didn't mention who was repeating "you're a horrible person" over and over. It was me.
can you deny it?
I thought that was a suspicious use of the passive voice.
I can only fall asleep on my back or side if I am completely exhausted. Once asleep, I always roll onto my stomach. If I'm not just dropping from exhaustion, I have to be on my stomach, facing left with my left leg pulled up at a right angle to my body. I almost never remember dreams.
apostropher understands. I'm exactly the same way.
Maybe ogged should make a nightly effort to put himself in "that circumstance".
20. I assumed it was a young, black kid. (or his mother. or both.)
I used to sleep on my stomach, and loved it. But, but, but, sadly that position seems to be bad for the spine in the long run. One day in my early 30s I woke up with awful back and neck pain which it took a chiropractor to remove. Since then it's back and side sleeping for me.
I'd recommend, Ogged, that you try to wean yourself off stomach sleeping before the back pain kicks in, or at least ask a doctor what the usual long term consequences are.
I was having nasty back pain, and talked to my doctor, and a DO and a chiropractor about it, with each saying something different. Then I read this book (short version: pain in your back is how the body distracts you from what's really stressing you out; quit babying your back; you're fine, you weenie), and it went away.
What ended my back pain was buying a really kick-ass, top-of-the-line mattress. Spend top dollar on those things and they'll change your life. Totally worth the money.
I'm with Apostropher. Except not only do I have to be sleeping on my stomach, facing left, with my left leg at a right angle, but I also have to be resting my head on the crook of my right elbow, with a window open at my head (or near enough), and my feet out from underneath the covers.
Oh, and in the winter, I have to have flannel sheets.
I don't mind the colour though, that would be nit-picky.
I have been told I am a high-maintenance sleeper. Position isn't as important to me as environment -- it must be very dark and I need some kind of white noise. I require lots and lots of pillows. The weirdest part is that my legs and arms get cold at night but my back gets hot so I tend to sleep in only pajama bottoms while lying on my side, with my arms, chest, and legs wrapped up in the comforter but my back exposed.
I require it to be cold to sleep. Above 65, I cannot sleep. But that is perfectly normal, and you are all deviants.
I also have to be resting my head on the crook of my right elbow
Me too, but my arm is underneath a flat pillow.
Becks, I know your comment says "high-maintenance," but every time I read it I just see "Titties!!"
I also have to be resting my head on the crook of my right elbow
Me too, but my arm is underneath a flat pillow.
Ok apostropher, this is just getting weird. (Which is to say, me too, exactly.)
We could probably share a queen-size bed comfortably.
Well, the titties make the high-maintenance worth it...
I'll bet you say that to all the boys.
Oddly enough, I'm the same way--stomach sleeper, facing left, flat pillow, head on crooked right elbow. My left leg, however, is only at a 70 degree angle, with bent knee. This forces my left hip upwards and makes room for my massive cock and ballsack.
Introspection: once it was content to slosh around in diffuse pools of self-knowledge, but over time its burbulous mass congealed. Under intense heat and pressure there crystallized a diamond: Unfogged.
Was this post an interoggedatory?
I don't know about the sides issue, but I definitely have similar experiences, where I'll realize that my half-dozing mind has "cancer" or "death" on repeat. Fucking horrifying.
w/d, you talking to me?
I often go to sleep on w-lfs-n's back.
There's no one else in here. So, I guess I must be...Nah, I just liked the sound of interoggedatory.
With respect to sleeping position, I'm exactly like Ogged and Apostropher, except everything that's left is right and vice versa.
The arm under the pillow thing is really important.
Also, I can not bear to wear socks while sleeping. And like Ian, I can not have my feet under the covers. Unless it's REALLY cold.
And I just have hallucinations while falling asleep that I've very small (like mouse-sized), then very large (tree-sized), then very small again (with the transitions being like every 1-2 seconds), and I can only get a sense of dimension and stop being freaked out by opening my eyes. This happens pretty much every night.
Can anyone bear to wear socks while sleeping?
why would it be damp . . . wait a minute!
I for one cannot wear socks; it has to do with requiring that it be cold.
My ex-boyfriend wears/wore socks pretty much all the time except for when showering (obviously). It drove me insane.
That's a funny place to wear your socks.
All these stories about hallucinations are off-putting to me, everone doesn't drink themselves to sleep?
Seriously, I've had something like that happen to me once or twice, but only when I was very sleep-deprived beforehand. I'm surprised it's so apparently common.
the sock is supposed to prevent the wet spot.
I require it to be cold to sleep. Above 65, I cannot sleep. But that is perfectly normal, and you are all deviants.
Aha! Text, you are German!
Sleeping on your right side can exacerbate heartburn because it straightens out a stomach curve. Other than that stomach sleep can increase the chance for SIDS, but I think you are past that point. Some religions care which way the bed is facing, and some so-called experts claim stomach sleep means you want to control things and back sleep means you are like a king, or some other hog wash.
Having your head direction influence dreams is, well, unusual. Could it be a learned habit? Did you grow up sharing a room with a brother who would pound you if you faced him during sleep?
I shared bunk beds with a younger brother who had the top bunk and would wet the bed. No WAY will I sleep on my back!
My dad had a story from the Navy--there was a guy who slept on a lower bunk who had the habit of fidgeting while he slept, and sometimes he would move so much that his head would actually be off to the side of the bed, and of course the weight of his head would pull his mouth open. Well, one night the guy in the top bunk felt sick to his stomach, realized he was going to throw up, leaned over the side of the bed...
I'm jealous of all these hallucinations. I only ever think I'm falling.
Tia,
A friend claimed he knew someone from Chicago who would lean backwards out a window and yawn and a pigeon pooped in his mouth. I have no idea if it is true - but - my cousin once had a bird poop on her head while we were in a boat cruising across a lake. I saw that one happen.
Yay! I'm not the only one who "sleeps like a freak," (on tummy turned left with leg sticking out) as I've been told.
I used to have a hell of a time with waking nightmares and paralysis and it didn't matter what position I was in. Those freaked me out alot until I discovered they were fairly common.
I've had the hypnogagic paralysis a couple of times (probably less then ten, lifetime) and that is no fun at all. Really, really no fun.
I went through a period of two or so years where I got the paralysis quite a lot. It sucked lots. I still get it every now and then. You kind of just have to go with it, and admit you can't really get up, and fall into some other sort of dream. Fighting through it is awful. I used to try to nudge my girlfriend (ex-girlfriend) so that she would nudge me back -- it never worked.
I'm so glad that it has basically stopped. It was getting to a point where I would be paralyzed and then start hallucinating and see all sorts of incredibly frightening things coming towards me. Eventually I ended up with insomnia for a few months.
Hmm. I couldn't sleep on my back for a long time because my legs would get sore because it was stretching out my hamstrings. (I have really inflexible hamstrings.) But I started spending like twenty minutes a night with them stretched out (i.e., with my body completely straight), and at various points during the day, and now I can sleep on my back. I'm more comfortable on my back because otherwise my knees knock together or I have to splay out my legs in various directions, which feels weird.
And I also have to have a pillow over my ears, because otherwise the crickets outside of the window will drive me crazy. My biggest current problem is that my ears get sore when I sleep with my head facing left or right.
I think I could do really well sleeping on my stomach if I could find a special pillow that let my nose have plenty of room, and gave me some fresh air (that would be seriously cool, like one of those things in those massage chairs you see here and there). But it hurts my neck to face left or right.
I never could remember my dreams after my childhood, but I think mainly that's because I didn't try. I found out about lucid dreaming a while back, and one of the advices given was to try to remember as much as possible about all your dreams. When you start trying to remember, you start remembering. Simple as that. I would recommend it. Haven't had any lucid dreams, but dreams are interesting enough without being lucid.
Hi, you guys. Hi, ogged.
I found your post because I googled "sleeping position affects dreams," because sleeping on my left side makes me have weird thoughts and insane nightmares.
I don't know why, either. But at least I can assure you that you're not the only one.