Different Strokes for Different Folks
8 Members
Created by Angela R.

Sleep On It

It started as a theory.  Just an idea I had.  I did it and it became a habit.  A good habit.  It was just as simple as sleeping at night.  This might be worthy of research, but that takes a lot of time.  There are people who can use it now.  Because it hasn't been researched yet, proceed at your own risk.  I don't see anything bad, though, because we already do it.
 
Sleep on your bad side.
 
A long time ago I remember some OTs talking about "positive pressure" or weight bearing.  I wanted my right side to move. I thought what better way to do this positive pressure than in my sleep.  They were talking about minutes, but I slept for hours.  I guessed I could get therapy for hours while asleep.    After a while of doing this, my paralyzed side responded.  (This probably worked because it was a brain injury.  Everything was still there but the neuropathway.  It wouldn't have worked for a spinal cord injury.  I also kept up with Range of Motion and there weren't any contractures.)
 
I also had something called "sublexed shoulders"; basically the shoulders were out of socket.  I blame positioning.  If a person doesn't use their arms, and is turned on the side (a skin breakdown prevention technique), but pillows have to be used to keep them there, then there's a risk of sublexing the shoulders.  A person needs to be turned all the way on the side.  Then pillows can be put behind as a preventative measure to stop rolling back.  With proper positioning, gravity and bodyweight slowly put my shoulders in place.  Now if there are sublexed shoulders, and the arms' ability comes back, you can't use them.
 
By now it had become a habit--sleeping on the side.    (I alternate to be equal.)  Now something was happening that I didn't expect.  My speech had been getting better.  The other day I looked in the mirror and stuck out my tongue.  It was straightening out.  It deviated, or curved, to the left (my right side was bad).  While sleeping on my right (bad side), gravity was pulling my tongue back to where it should be.
 
So sleeping on my bad side not only encouraged movement, but improved speech.
39 months ago
Results 1 - 10

  • James

    Wow thats crazy!

    I'll try that.

     

    39 months ago

  • marylou

    That's really interesting, my son often sleeps on his left side (his bad side), he prefers it so possibly it has helped. He has made great strides.

    39 months ago

  • Alicia

    I've sleeping on my weak side (left) a lot lately and favor it immensely.  It relaxes me so much more and probably has helped me in my every day life but I haven't paid attention if it has.

    39 months ago

  • Valerie

    This is very interesting!  I think Michael usually sleeps on his back - but he also 'lists' to the right (the injured side).  However, his left leg, although uninjured in the accident, is atrophied due to the brain injuries.  I will definitely mention to the aides, nurses and therapists at the nursing home to try laying him on his left side to see if there's any difference.

    Thanks for the suggestion!

    39 months ago

  • Laura

    Intresting... I will definately mention to his OT and PT as well... Josh has a tendency to sleep either on his left or right side in a fetal position (which is not good because of his hip flexors on the side where he lost his leg), mostly on his left though (his most affected side).

    39 months ago

  • david reid

    I have had problem sleeping for some time. You are right. When I sleep on my 'bad' side it becomes soothed. I use to just hold my head to stop or help the throb or pain. As I have gotten older I try to be in bed by 9 or 9:30 and I am up at 7:30 or 8 - I am finding that sleep is very important to my memory and putting a good face on through out the day.

     

    I had two right side fractures, and sometimes still I am not as empethetic as I should be, but I am learning. Funny, as we heal, or look better on the outside, people forget what it is like on the inside for us.

     

     

    39 months ago

  • Angela

    From an e-mail:

    But I have KNOWN about this issue for a long time and
    my Neuro long time ago had stated he didn't understand but he
    just knew that sleeping on the "bad" side was better than sleeping
    on the "good" side.

    39 months ago

  • Angela

    The side of the body that doesn't work well.  It seems that some neuros already knew this, but it hasn't been documented.

    39 months ago

  • Jenette

    You know what is funny...is after my accident the only side that I felt comfortable enough to fall asleep on was the side that was once paralzed. 

    39 months ago

  • Angela


    I propose the following to explain why sleeping on the side works.

     

    I can explain it with an old, easy to understand illustration.  This illustration can also be used to explain other things.

     

    The brain works through a series of connections, pretty much like the electrical wiring you find in your car or house.  When you fry this wiring, it doesn't work.  Some brain injuries are fried wiring.  This is why you can "look normal".  Outward bodily damages can heal, but you still have this neuropathway damage.  It can even be said you are "healed", but the neuropathway isn't there.  You can't do what you did before.


     

    Someone once asked what a seizure was.  Using this wiring example, a seizure is a short circuit.  Of course it's more complicated, but this is just to give you a simple understanding.

     

    When you lay on the side, body pressure is the message that gets to the brain.  The brain knows it has to develop wiring.  "Every sensory neuron has two ends. One end is connected to a tissue in the body (a piece of skin, muscle, bone, etc.), and the other end is connected to the spinal cord. Under normal circumstances, sensations are generated only upon stimulation of the end of the nerve fiber that is in the body. Then sensory nerve fibers relay this information to the spinal cord, and cells in the spinal cord, in turn, relay this information to the brain."  (from http://www.charcot-marie-tooth.org/about_cmt/pain.php)  The body makes new wiring to replace the fried wiring.  We can then use this new wiring for moving.

     


    39 months ago

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