Pregnancy challenges sleep in many ways, leaving you often exhausted. However, exploring the various sleep positions when pregnant may help you find the most comfortable one, ensuring you get adequate rest. Many women may be able to sleep in their usual sleeping positions early in pregnancy. But you need to adopt new positions to sleep as the pregnancy progresses and your belly bump becomes more pronounced. In this post, we acquaint you with the most suitable pregnancy sleeping positions and a few tips to get sound sleep.
What Are The Most Suitable Positions To Sleep During Pregnancy?
There are three common sleeping positions, sleeping on the side, back, and stomach. Read on to know how suitable they are during each trimester of pregnancy (1).
1. First trimester
The first trimester offers you the convenience of sleeping in all three positions since the uterus is not large enough to cause discomfort when sleeping in any position. However, you may use the first trimester as a phase to condition yourself to sleep on the side, preferably the left side, since you will have to switch to a side-sleeping position in later trimesters. Practicing from early on in pregnancy can make you habituated to sleep comfortably later (2).
2. Second trimester
Below are some notable points about various sleeping positions and the second trimester (3).
Sleeping on the stomach: You may avoid this sleeping position from the second trimester. Nevertheless, if you wish to sleep on your stomach, you may do so for up to 16 weeks and stop after it. Sleeping on the stomach may be uncomfortable as the belly grows since this sleeping position can compress the uterus and blood vessels.
Sleeping on the back: You must stop sleeping on the back from mid pregnancy since the uterus is large enough to potentially block the inferior vena cava, a vein that carries deoxygenated blood from the lower body to the heart when lying on your back. Compression of these blood vessels could interfere with the blood supply to the placenta and the baby. It could eventually cause you to feel dizziness, nausea, and shortness of breath.
Sleeping on the side: It is the best position to sleep during pregnancy, and if you are already used to it, then you should continue with it. If you are not yet sleeping on your sides, you must begin to do so by the 20th week when your uterus expands enough to compress major blood vessels if you sleep in other positions.
3. Third trimester
You must sleep only on your sides, and preferably the left side, from the third trimester (4). Sleeping on the left side can ensure the placenta and other organs in the torso, such as the kidneys, receive adequate blood supply. Research indicates that sleeping on the right side has no harmful implications (5). Nevertheless, you may give preference to sleeping on the left side since it has been widely noted to cause no complications (6).
What If You Accidentally Sleep On Your Back?
Do not worry if you find yourself waking up on your back in the morning even if you went to sleep while on your sides (7). Lying on the back occasionally and for a few moments does not cause adverse effects. If you wake up in the middle of the night and notice that you are on your back, you may change your position. You may wake up with breathlessness, dizziness, and nausea if you accidentally rolled over on your back and stayed there for long enough to compress the blood vessels. Therefore, if you do not wake up and continue to sleep on your back, your body will warn you with signs of blood vessel compression before it causes any adverse effects to you or your baby. Despite the potential adverse effects of sleeping on the back, research indicates that it does not increase the risk of complications, such as stillbirth, high maternal blood pressure, and reduced size of the baby at birth (8). However, more research is needed to understand the implications of sleeping on the back in different trimesters of pregnancy (9). Therefore, until then, give preference to sleeping on your sides, yet do not panic if you find yourself on your back once in a while.
How To Sleep Comfortably During Pregnancy?
Below are a few tips to help you sleep in a comfortable position during pregnancy.
