The Importance of Your Sleep Position!

He may be having trouble with his neck, as is common in many older people who are belly sleepers. Consider a visit to a chiropractor. Numbness in the hand would likely originate well above T5-6.

I have the head of my bed permanently a bit raised, so I can breathe better. And I use two feather pillows, which I can punch around into different configurations,...or push one over to the side if I don't want it. What I can't do at all is sleep on my stomach. After just a minute on my stomach, I feel trapped,...like I can't breathe,...and I struggle to quickly turn back over. I can't sleep on my back due to a propensity for pressure sores. For me it's "left side", "right side". Those are the options. I have additional factors that almost none of the rest of you have...my left leg is amputated above the knee, and that stump has clonus (It kicks.). So, it's almost impossible for me to "turn over" to my left because my stump is bent from the hip joint, and it's "in the way", preventing me from turning over. To the right, I am able to turn over toward my stomach a little more easily, but that requires pushing the trunk of my body further back, away from the edge of the narrow bed, and this is just too much work. Sometimes both of my shoulders get fatigued and start to go numb,... especially my left shoullder when I lie on my left side...the side with the stump limiting how far I can turn to the left. Still, I'm glad I'm home,...not in a nursing home,...and glad that I can turn myself over without help. I turn over about every three hours.