We all have decisions that we need to make in life and some of those decisions are not going to be as easy as others. One that seems to be simple is choosing the side that you sleep on.
If you were to ask a group of people how they sleep, you would get a lot of different responses. Some people would say they sleep on their back, others would sleep on their stomach and still others would say that they sleep on their side.
If you do sleep on your side, there is a significant difference between sleeping on your left side and your right side. If you are not yet sleeping on your left side, you may want to try it because it can unlock some very powerful benefits. Those include the seven we have listed for you below.
1. Heart health: We all want to have healthy hearts and sleeping on your left side can promote normal heart function. The left side of your heart pumps blood throughout the body so sleeping on the left side allows your body to work efficiently while you are sleeping. It improves your circulation and uses gravity to do so.
2. Healthy pregnancy: Are you an expectant mother? If you sleep on your right side, that is fine but sleeping on your left side provides advantages. This is especially true because of the increase in blood circulation and reduced strain on your liver as your pregnancy progresses.
3. Lymphatic system: We all want to have a healthy lymphatic system because toxins are removed from the body through that system. The lymphatic system drains on the left side of the body into the thoracic duct so when you sleep on the left side, you allow toxins to be removed more efficiently.
4. Improve your liver: The liver is located on the right side of the body and if you sleep on your right side it can become congested. By sleeping on your left side, the liver can remove toxins before they are stored in the organ.
5. Spleen health: We don’t often give our spleen the attention that it deserves but it does help to remove toxins from the body. By sleeping on your left side, gravity helps blood flow to the spleen and allows your body to filter impurities more effectively.
6. Heartburn: There is nothing worse than having heartburn in the middle of the night. If you suffer from heartburn or GERD, you can sleep on your left side to put the stomach at a lower level than your cardiac sphincter. This keeps your stomach contents from flowing back into the esophagus. Why not try it?
7. Waste elimination: Your gut health is tied to the side of the body you sleep on. When you sleep on your left side, you activate the ileocecal valve, which is between the small intestines and the large intestines. Allow gravity to help you eliminate waste more effectively.
