Best Ways to Sleep While Pregnant

Pregnancy and sleep disorders are strongly connected. During the first trimester, you can barely keep your eyes open due to exhaustion and fatigue, thanks to pregnancy hormones.

On the other hand, as your pregnancy progresses into the final trimester, you may find it difficult to even catch a wink at night owing to the sheer heaviness of your belly and frequent trips to bathroom.

You may have to give up your years old habit of sleeping on your stomach or back and adopt some new ways of sleeping in order to protect your baby and assume a comfortable position for yourself. In fact, you may have to experiment with different ways to sleep while pregnant, to find what position suits you the best.

Sleeping on the left side offers maximum support to the pregnant woman, puts minimal pressure on the baby as well as her internal organs and also ensures adequate supply of blood and oxygen to the baby. However, maintaining left side position while you are asleep is impossible.

In that case, you may switch sides throughout the night, while making sure that you spend most of it on your left side. If you simply cannot make yourself sleep on your left side and feel the need to roll over to the right side every few minutes, then there is really no harm in sleeping on your right side as well. 

The best technique to sleep while you are pregnant is to use some pillows as props. Place a thin pillow between your legs, under your stomach and under your breasts for maximum support and comfort. You may also invest in a full body pregnancy pillow which adjusts and supports your pregnancy contours in an effective way.

However, it may take up a substantial amount of space on your bed. Nonetheless, these pregnancy body pillows reduce the numbness in your feet and pain in your back. They may also prevent swelling of ankles and feet.

While you can go for any of the comfortable ways to sleep when pregnant, there are a certain positions, that one should avoid strictly. These include sleeping on your stomach and on your back. Sleeping on the stomach is not recommended for the obvious reason.

Sleeping on back also has its own disadvantages. For one, your heavy uterus puts a lot of pressure on the spine and a major artery in the back. You also end up squashing your intestines and other vital organs.

Besides, this position limits the supply of blood, oxygen and nutrients to the placenta. This position may also give you a serious backache along with swelling of feet. If you must lie down on your back, make sure you roll over on your side within few minutes.

Although it is not necessary to alter natural ways to sleep when pregnant, you must certainly avoid the mentioned positions. Apart from that, there is no need to fuss over your sleeping position.

Many women get paranoid about their sleeping position and keep waking every few minutes to check on themselves. One must understand that getting enough sleep is absolutely necessary for the to-be mom's health.

Besides, once the baby arrives, you may feel deprived of sleep all the time. Hence, make the most of your sleeping time now without bothering too much about the perfect ways of sleeping.