Doctors believe that good rest and comfortable sleep during gestation are no less important than proper nutrition, the inclusion of useful components in the diet and the exclusion of harmful ones. There are a number of recommendations on how to sleep during pregnancy: in the 1st, 2nd and 3rd trimesters, so as not to harm the baby. Find out what you can do to help you sleep safely without discomfort.
Things to Consider
For women who are carrying a baby for the first time, it may seem that the question of how to sleep during pregnancy is not so important as to give it paramount importance. However, there is a nuance: the duration of sleep at this time increases, which is necessary for the normal formation of the child, the healthy well-being of a pregnant woman.
Somnologists during their research have noticed that each person is characterized by the prevailing posture for a night's rest. It depends on several criteria:
physical activity during the daytime; physique and age; psychotype; states; the presence or absence of chronic diseases.
The body, at the subconscious level, chooses the most comfortable posture in which the signals of inconvenience in position, pain or deficiency of nutrients from nerve receptors are not audible or sufficiently muffled.
To wean oneself from a habitual position requires considerable effort, self-control, special adaptations, and a certain amount of time. Therefore, you need to decide in advance on a suitable posture for this period in order to gradually get used to it, to start learning how to sleep properly during pregnancy already in the 1st trimester.
In medicine, there is the concept of a conditional norm that does not restrict a person in the choice of options for spending a night's rest. It is interesting that the morning well-being, the health of the spine and the circulatory system depend on the posture. All this affects the cycle, phases and depth of sleep.
Feeling uncomfortable and disgusting in the morning is a direct consequence of sleeping on an uncomfortable bed or in an inappropriate position:
Sleeping on his stomach stays in a free fall position, does not snore during sleep, but provokes the degradation of the cervical vertebrae and flexes the lumbar region. The embryo position is more typical for the fair sex, it is recommended for pregnant women and those with spinal diseases, but leads to adverse consequences if the knees are too bent to the chest. Sleeping in a supine position in a different physiological state is useful and comfortable. With this position, the correct distribution of weight occurs, problem joints - knee and hip joints - rest, cephalalgia practically does not occur, and the body relaxes.
At the first stage of pregnancy, a woman can sleep in the usual position, but over time, it will become necessary to follow other rules in order to create comfort for two - herself and her child. Therefore, it is necessary to carefully study the recommended features of day and night rest, monitor sleep and take a safe position.
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Limitations and Tips
In the first trimester, the choice of a sleeping position is not critical, but those pregnant women who have severe toxicosis can argue with this. During this period, sleeping on your side helps to reduce heartburn and nausea, because this position promotes better bowel function and largely eliminates morning heartburn.
Somnologists recommend during this period to gradually accustom the body to a safe location during rest. To determine the direction, you need to find out how to sleep during pregnancy in the second trimester, and how it differs from the third:
It is categorically not recommended to sit on the stomach: for the mother it is fraught with just unpleasant sensations caused by the bending of the cervix and pain in the growing mammary glands. But the baby can not only be traumatized by the mass of the mother, but also experience a lack of blood supply, oxygen starvation, psychoemotional stress. On the back - the picture is also far from encouraging. In a pregnant woman, compression of the vessels of the legs increases, the effort on the lower back and vena cava increases. For a child, this is fraught with hypoxia due to insufficient blood circulation. The 2nd trimester is the time to sleep on your side, but which one is still possible to decide by the position of the child or by your own feelings. In a position that is uncomfortable for the baby, he makes himself known, and it's time to turn over to the other side.
You can sleep during pregnancy in the late stages in the most comfortable position, trying to follow medical advice: on the right side, with the left leg bent and the right leg straightened, on the left - on the contrary, the right lower limb bends at the knee and the left straightens.
With a breech presentation or pregnancy with twins, it is recommended to simply repeatedly roll over from side to side, the expectant mother simply has no other way out.
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Most difficult trimester
Left-sided arrangement is the only recommendation for late periods, and this is due to the peculiarities of the anatomical structure of the human body. A common misconception says that it is dangerous to sleep on the left side, because the heart is located here. However, upon careful consideration, it turns out that settling on the right side is not so optimal:
blood supply, oxygen and nutritional components reach the placenta more slowly and worse; lying on the right side, a person inevitably squeezes the liver, and in fact it is she who is responsible for important metabolic processes and detoxification of the body; the urge to urinate on the left side appears less often, this allows you to sleep better; the risk of seizures is reduced, since the muscles relax better, thanks to the maximum relaxation of the spinal muscular corset.
When changing position (turning from the right side to the left and back), you need to carefully monitor the negative consequences of being on the right side. Discomfort can be manifested not only by flatulence and heartburn, but also by dizziness, shortness of breath, nausea, and hiccups.
These are all signs of an inconvenience experienced in a dream. Therefore, it is worth considering the recommendations of experts on how to sleep during pregnancy in the 3rd trimester.
Useful Tips
On an industrial scale, special devices are produced that partly solve the problem of how to sleep during pregnancy in the 3rd trimester, so as not to harm the child. These are pillows (of different sizes, with hypoallergenic filling) for pregnant women. They are used to mitigate negative feelings, to optimize the adopted posture:
The embryo position will reduce the pressure of the enlarged organ with the child on the hepatobiliary system. If you hug the pillow with your hands, you will be able not to tighten your knees, straighten your lungs, and reduce possible difficulties with the respiratory system. Sleeping on the right side (for changing positions during the night's rest) will be safer if the correct height of the headrest is selected and the second device is placed between the knees. You should turn with the whole body, and not with its individual segments, although this is difficult in the last months before childbirth. It is easier to do this if there is a thin wool or silicone pillow under the lower back.
Research by somnologists has shown that one in ten prefers to sleep on his stomach, and one in three sits on his back. The advantages of sleeping on the side are weighty - the intestines work better, heartburn is eliminated, there is no discomfort in the cervical vertebrae, the brain tissue is cleansed. Sleeping on your side is considered to be the prevention of nervous diseases. Of the minuses - only periodic pain in the shoulders. According to observations, older people and those who have gained excess weight sleep this way.
Outcomes
During the second and third trimesters, a pregnant woman should choose a sleeping position on her left side. It helps to avoid fetal hypoxia as a result of circulatory disorders in the mother. On the left side, the liver is not compressed and there are no breathing problems. The choice of position may depend on the number of babies in the womb or the position of the baby. There are special devices to relieve negative feelings during the day and night rest.
