The Best Sleeping Position, According to Experts

It’s the American way to assume that all life’s problems can be solved by making the right purchase, especially when it comes to getting a good night’s sleep. Blackout curtains, an organic mattress that’s supportive but not stiff, a cooling foam memory pillow…. There’s no shortage of products marketed as the solution to your sleep problems.

While having a comfortable bed outfitted with high-thread-count sheets and pillows that feel like you’re resting your head on heavenly clouds can enhance sleeping, nothing you can buy matters more than your sleep position. “Mattresses and pillows get a lot of attention, but we’re not really built to be very luxurious animals,” says Avinesh S. Bhar, MD, a sleep medicine doctor and founder of Sliiip, a sleep and pulmonary medicine telehealth company.

Dr. Bhar explains that general sleep hygiene habits (like avoiding caffeine too late in the day, minimizing alcohol, and having a screen-free wind-down routine) matter more than what you’re sleeping on. He adds that sleep position matters a great deal too. As sleep doctors explain here, sleep position also impacts how well you’ll sleep and how you’ll feel when you wake up.

Why sleep position matters

Maybe you’re wondering why sleep position even matters. As long as you’re comfortable and able to drift off to sleep, who cares what it looks like? But think of it as a matter of ergonomics. It matters how you’re sitting at your desk for eight hours every day. And the same goes for how you’re lying in bed at night.

Roger Washington, MD, FAAFP, the medical director and founder of the Sleep to Live Well Foundation, says that sleep position is especially important because it impacts how well we can breathe during sleep, which in turn impacts immunity. “In order for the immune system to work, you have to be able to breathe deeply, allowing air to come into the chest and allow the lymph to move around the body,” he says.

Lymph is watery fluid that delivers nutrients and removes harmful substances, protecting the body from infection. Dr. Washington explains that proper breathing during sleep is important for lymph fluid to move throughout the body. Scientific research backs this up. According to a 2024 article published in Annals of Neuroscience, sleep is when immune cells migrate from the bloodstream into the lymph nodes (bean-shaped areas of tissue that filter lymph fluid in the body for harmful substances or cells) to more efficiently fight inflammation.

Anne Marie Morse, DO, a neurologist, sleep medicine specialist, and founder of DAMM Good Sleep, says that how well you can breathe while you’re asleep is important for other reasons too, namely avoiding obstructive sleep apnea.

Untreated obstructive sleep apnea can lead to a whole slew of health issues, including high blood pressure, heart disease, and stroke, according to an article published in the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine. A 2023 article published in the Journal of Personalized Medicine shows that it impacts quality of life too, increasing the risk for depression, mood swings, and daytime drowsiness. If you do have obstructive sleep apnea, changing your sleep position may not be the only way to treat it, but Dr. Morse says it does play a key role.

If you regularly suffer from nighttime heartburn, Dr. Morse says your sleeping position can impact symptoms for better or for worse, depending on what position you choose. This is another reason why sleep position matters.

Finally, your sleep position impacts how your body will feel when you wake up. If you want to avoid pain in your neck and lower back, how you sleep matters.