If you sleep in this position every night you are aging your skin by 10 years

Like many people, you have probably just been worried about getting enough sleep at night to help yourself stay energetic for the next day. However, if you have been sleeping in a certain position it doesn’t matter if you sleep more than 12 hours a night because the damage to your skin has already been done and is prematurely aging you.

Stomach sleepers are giving themselves wrinkles

Sorry stomach sleepers but you are giving yourself wrinkles. You may think those pillow lines on your face you wake up with are cute but they are just a foreshadowing of the wrinkles to come.

What happens is friction occurs between your face and the pillow. “Side or stomach sleeping in a position that causes wrinkling of the skin. i.e. hand under your face while on your side,”  Dr. Bruce Robinson, a board-certified Adult and Pediatric Dermatologist, and Clinical Professor of Dermatology at Lenox Hill Hospital, told Eat This. Stomach sleepers in particular tend to see those pesky forehead lines.

Stomach sleeping is the worst but side sleepers get their share too. Side sleepers may be especially prone to deeper wrinkles or creases on the sides of their faces plus creases on their cheeks and chins.

The best sleep position for preventing wrinkles is sleeping on your back. Not only do you avoid the skin friction but also the bacteria that live on your pillow so major bonus! But the real key to back sleeping is that because your face is up your skin is less likely to come in contact with germs or rub against other materials. Do make sure your head is slightly elevated if you are on your back as when you lay flat fluid gathers around your eyes leading to puffiness the next day.

Sleeping on your back can save your skin

Sleeping on your back is good for your health overall.  It is “by far the healthiest option for most people,” according to new research from Sleep.org. When you sleep on your back it allows your head, neck, and spine to all be in a neutral position which will reduce the possibility of back pain. You aren’t putting any extra pressure on those areas like you would in the other positions which are really going to benefit you later.

Sleeping on your back may also make you more productive. According to a survey of 1,021 people from The Sleep Judge, 32% of people who sleep on their backs every night reported feeling content and 16% of them reported feeling motivated when they woke up. Plus 64% of back sleepers said they had quality sleep while that number was only 57% for stomach sleepers.

Interestingly though sleeping on your back, despite its many health benefits, is not very popular. According to Sleep.org, only 8% of adults sleep this way. Most adults opt for the fetal position as Apparently, we all slept best in the womb because the fetal position came in at number one with 41%.