Doctors Say Certain Sleep Positions Actually Have A Lot To Do With Our Personalities

Freefallers lay flat out on their beds, with their bellies touching the mattress and their hands up high on their pillows. Now you see where exponents get their name: it looks like they’re skydiving from a great height back down to earth. The Better Sleep Council has stated that younger adults are more prone to sleeping in this way.

The freefalling position has its practical advantages, as it’s said to be beneficial to the workings of a person’s digestive system. Plus, it helps keep snoring to a minimum. But in terms of what it says about someone’s personality, the position apparently indicates something of a forthright and playful temperament.

The log sleeping position’s pretty self-explanatory: the person resting that way resembles a felled log. Basically, they lie with their straightened arms at their sides. It looks like a rigid, frosty stance, but sleep experts think a person sleeping that way actually has a personality in total contrast to those first impressions.

According to the mental health website Psycom.net, log sleepers are pretty relaxed and warm in nature. They find it easy to trust other people, which generally is a positive attribute to have. But as SleepFoundation.org warned, this tendency to be trusting of others may, at times, veer into outright naïveté.

People who take up the thinker position at night curl up in a ball, with their legs scrunched up high by their chests. Where the stance takes its name, though, is from the positioning of one of the hands. This will be beneath the chin, as if the person concerned is deep in thought.

A blog post on the ConservatoryBlinds4Less website claims that the thinker stance can show someone to be quite emotional. It might be a sign of worry, for instance, or of being overwhelmed. On the other hand, there are practical advantages to the position — particularly if you’re pregnant. It’s supposedly good for blood circulation and for relieving pressure on an expectant mother’s uterus.

The starfish takes up the maximum amount of mattress space available. It sees a person totally splayed out on the bed, facing up to the ceiling, with their arms and legs all stretched out in different directions. It can be a great pose for easing neck or back aches, but it might also be bad for the shoulders. A mixed bag, then.

ConservatoryBlinds4Less has a pretty audacious claim about people who sleep in the starfish position. The site claims that such individuals make for great friends, committed to listening and helping pals out. And contrary to the way they take up the whole bed at night, they apparently don’t like being the focal point of a room when they’re awake.

Pillow huggers grasp their pillow snugly, wrapping themselves around the thing and holding on tight. This can have quite a comforting effect on people, as it mimics hugging an actual person. It’s obviously not exactly the same sensation, of course, but it can be a decent alternative from time to time.

According to ConservatoryBlinds4Less, pillow huggers tend to be pretty loving folk. They care deeply about the closest people in their lives, be that their pals, relatives, or lovers. By and large, these connections mean everything to pillow huggers and are at the forefront of their priorities. Nothing’s more important to them.

Not to be confused with the starfish, the stargazer involves a person lying on their back with their hands behind their head. It’d be much the same pose they’d adopt if they were outside at night, staring up at the stars. Sleeping in this way’s a pretty good way of preventing acid reflux.

ConservatoryBlinds4Less says stargazers are pretty similar to pillow huggers, in that their sleeping position of choice indicates that they make for good friends. These people will go above and beyond for their loved ones, doing whatever it takes to look out for their interests. The website added that stargazers are usually fairly serene otherwise.

The yearner sees sleeping individuals lying down on their sides with their arms pointed forward in a straight line. To see someone in this pose, you might say it looks almost like they’re trying to grasp something or someone. Or, to put in another way, it’s as if they’re yearning to hold whatever’s in front of them.

According to Psychom.net, the Boomer generation’s far more prone to the yearning pose than their younger counterparts. The website then makes something of a provocative claim, implying that yearners can be cynical and sluggish in reaching decisions. The site does also say that yearners are open-minded and complicated sorts, though, so it isn’t all negative.

One of the most well-known sleeping poses is undoubtedly the fetal position. Twisted up in bed like an unborn baby in its mother’s tummy, this shape’s a really common one for people to adopt at night. Perhaps surprisingly, Psycom.net says ladies are more prone to lie this way than their male counterparts.

People sleeping in the fetal position are apparently sensitive souls who can be pretty introspective. But their choice of night-time stance has its advantages. Given that it involves lying down sideways, snoring’s less of an issue. Similarly, heartburn can be more effectively kept at bay this way.

People in the soldier sleeping position lay back rigidly, arms to the side, fingers facing down toward their feet. Basically, it looks like they’re military personnel standing to attention and awaiting orders. It isn’t the most popular of nighttime poses, but it’s meant to be really good for our backs and necks.

Sleepy soldiers are pretty strong and quiet types, according to a blog post on the Nectar Sleep website. They’re fairly serious personalities who live their lives in a structured manner. They set the bar high for themselves, and they might demand similar standards of their loved ones.

There are plenty of people who mix things up when they’re sleeping. We might call them “freestylers.” They shuffle around all through the night, trying out different poses as and when it feels right. According to research undertaken by mattress company Sealy, most freestylers fall into the 35 to 44 age bracket.

On the other hand, a designer from another mattress firm, Somnium, spoke to Reader’s Digest to point out how common freestyle sleeping really is. Susanne Flother explained, “We’re all much more active at night than we think we are. We naturally move 50 to 80 times every single night, and all that so-called tossing and turning is actually a good thing.”

There’s clearly a whole range of different positions that people can adopt in bed, each of which reveal something different about the person adopting them. But all the ones we’ve looked at so far have presumed that a person’s sleeping alone. What if you share a bed, though? What positions can a couple adopt — and what do they say about the relationship?

Let’s start with the obvious. Spooning’s definitely one of the most common sleeping positions that two people adopt. One person takes the “big spoon” role, essentially acting as a securing sheath for the “small spoon.” It can imply that the individual in the big spoon position feels protective of the other person.

A variation on the typical spooning position, the loose spoon’s just a little less intense. There’s less physical contact going on, which might actually be a good sign of the health of the relationship. It’s still intimate, after all, but it also allows the pair involved to not feel overly smothered.

Yet another alternative to the common spoon is the chasing spoon, which is maybe a little less wholesome. It involves one person slipping over to the edge, with the other reaching out for them as if in pursuit. This might mean the individual at the side’s looking for some space.

Some couples sleep with their faces aimed at each other and parts of their bodies making contact. This implies a lot of love between the two people, but it may also lead to a bad night’s sleep. After all, it can become intense and uncomfortable to feel someone breathing over you for prolonged periods.

This version of sleeping face to face might imply problems. The two heads involved are still directly opposite one another, but there’s no touching with the rest of the body. According to Healthline, this could suggest both people want attention from the other, but for some reason neither’s getting it.

The back kiss involves a pair lying down with their backs to each other, but with some contact being made. Healthline claims that this is most often observed from people in a new relationship, typically no more than a year old. It’s a relaxed, comfortable position that shows off a closeness between the two individuals.

The liberty loving couple’s position is really similar to the back kiss, except no contact’s made. This may indicate a new stage in the relationship, as it illustrates a degree of independence from one another. It might be best for the pair to talk about this new position if they’ve recently been sleeping some other way together.

The cradle’s considered to be another sleeping position in which one person’s in some way protecting the other, just like spooning. This one’s different, though, as it sees one individual lie on their back while their partner lays their head on their chest. Healthline suggests there’s a hint of passionate energy to this one.

At a glance, the cliffhanger might seem like things aren’t going so well. Both people are at their respective edge of the bed, meaning the gulf between them is as big as can be. That might reflect a gulf in their relationship, but it could also indicate that they’re just independent people who are confident in that.

When a couple lie in the paper doll position, they’ll basically both be on their backs looking up at the ceiling. This might seem a little rigid, but the warmth comes from the fact that they hold hands — or at the very least touch the other’s side. This implies closeness, without either person having to feel smothered. It isn’t a great stance if you want to avoid snoring, though.

Lots of couples like to touch when they’re sleeping, but that can often come at the expense of comfort. The tetherball’s an attempt to overcome that. It involves one person recoiling into a ball shape, while the other lays back and has a hand on their partner’s body. It’s a simple way to make contact without being overbearing.

Leg hugging can be revealing. On the one hand, if both people have instigated it, then it says the relationship’s going strong and is well balanced. But, according to Healthline, if only one person’s trying to leg hug the other, it could indicate some unevenness that needs to be addressed.

It isn’t clear why this position has as unpleasant a name as “shingles,” but that’s what Healthline calls it. Yet despite the horrible term that it’s known by, the shingles position can be comfortable for a couple. It sees both people on their backs, with one resting their noggin on their partner’s shoulder. Apparently, it’s another protective sleeping stance.

Lying face down with your belly pressed into the mattress can be bad enough when you’re alone, but it’s even more ominous if it’s done as part of a couple. That’s because it might indicate that there are trust issues for one of you — or even both. And on top of everything else, it can cause serious backache.

The tangle’s very full-on, so it isn’t all that common. It’s basically spending the night locked in a tight embrace, which is pretty constricting. Where you do see this, it tends to be when a relationship’s brand new. If it occurs in an older union, it might suggest the couple are a bit too reliant on one another.

The unraveling knot’s a step on from the tangle. It starts out in that intense embrace, before loosening up and allowing each individual to sleep in their own manner. This way, the closeness in the relationship is acknowledged — but it’s a far less intense way to sleep. Long-term and happy couples are fond of this one.

All in all, there are lots of theories out there about the positions we sleep in and what they say about us or our relationships. But can we really believe these claims? Well, it depends on whom you ask. Some experts are fairly resolute that our sleeping positions matter only in so much as they affect our night’s sleep. But others believe that this can have a broader impact on our behavior, too.

As nurse and “sleep educator” Terry Cralle explained to Psycom, “The better we sleep, the better we are in so many ways. We’re more motivated. We’re better in relationships. We perform tasks, communicate, and handle stress better. And we’re less reckless and less likely to get into accidents. So, on some level, how we sleep does impact our behavioral tendencies.”