Inclined Bed Therapy - Sleeping With The Head End Of The Bed Elevated

vulture

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After 2 or so weeks at full inclined sleep, I can't really say there was improvement. I definitely sleep less hours. Where I used to sleep 7 hours, I find it hard to do so without forcibly making myself sleep one more hour. Six hours seem to be the new normal for me now. Yet, I am dismayed to to see my sleep app showing me having no REM sleep, around 50% deep sleep, and 50% light sleep. Sometimes, light sleep is at 75%. Yet I don't really feel much more sleepy during the day. If I felt sleepy, it has more to do with lowered blood sugar due to skipping a meal.

My waking heart rate and oxygen saturation stays the same as well. This doesn't speak bad of IBT though as I think my condition simply limits my heart rate to protect me from excess oxidative activities, to minimize generation of ROS (reactive oxygen species).

I have to observe my cats more, as I failed to do that, as far as where they face. I sleep with my head in the northern direction.
3” incline.
I also feel that I’m sleeping about half an hour and wake up feeling fine, I sleep slightly less. Feel more natural being inclined this way.
Varicose veins hasn’t improved, it’s being about a month
 

Birdie

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@Birdie try sleeping on your sides to see if this makes a difference with hands swelling. It may be that the pressure on your tummy is increasing the pressure in your vessels when laying prone. It may also be medication related, so worth checking contraindications on any meds.
Thank you, Andrew for the food for thought. No new meds or supps. The swelling began the first morning with the latest increase.

Usually sleeping on my side will result in shoulder, arm and hand numbness in my case. Sometimes shooting pain.
Still, I am on my side for brief times during the night with no problem. I have post polio syndrome/fibromyalgia going on, so lots of experience and considerations.

I added about 2 2/3 inches. Probably could have averted the finger swelling if I'd gone up more gradually with my situation.
Will forge ahead. Am at 5 1/2 inches measured today....

Rested 20 minutes today and no swelling with that.
 
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3” incline.
I also feel that I’m sleeping about half an hour and wake up feeling fine, I sleep slightly less. Feel more natural being inclined this way.
Varicose veins hasn’t improved, it’s being about a month
Thanks for your input. It takes around 4 weeks to see reductions in veins swelling. Check your veins in the morning before you get out of bed to see if they are flatter.
 
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Try sleeping on your side but with your body tilted towards opposite side so your weight is on your shoulder blade to take pressure off your shoulder.
 

biffbelvin

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For anyone who wants to work out the angle of inclination but has forgotten trigonometry; This website will sort you out.

simply input your desired inclination into angle A and the length of your bed into edge C. Edge A will be the amount you need to raise your bed by.
 

Birdie

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After thinking about my reaction to increasing my incline to 5 1/2 with the fingers swelling, decided to take action by sleeping slightly diagonally on my bed to reduce the incline a little. The diagonal sleeping lowers my head slightly and raises my feet a little. Have done this for the past two nights. It works.

Will continue this for a while.

For background, I had started with one book under each bedpost, then after some weeks, added another book. Then made longitudinal bed slats that were 2 1/2 inches at the head end and tapered to the end. I kept that height for maybe two years, and then, recently, added blocks and got to about 5 1/2 inches about 4.4 degrees..

I'm in a full size bed with the mattress length at about 72 in.
 

Queequeg

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Couldnt face my bed north so thought south would be next best thing. Been sleeping much more soundly without a lot of waking up in middle of night. Not sure if this was already posted but found a pretty good study out of Iran on sleep direction and it confirms that S-N is pretty close to N-S as being optimal.

http://oaji.net/articles/2015/1170-1437069936.pdf
 
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Couldnt face my bed north so thought south would be next best thing. Been sleeping much more soundly without a lot of waking up in middle of night. Not sure if this was already posted but found a pretty good study out of Iran on sleep direction and it confirms that S-N is pretty close to N-S as being optimal.

http://oaji.net/articles/2015/1170-1437069936.pdf
Great find, thank you very much for posting this.
 

Birdie

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On Sunday.. Got a neighbor to move headboard onto 1 inch blocks to replace the 2 1/2 inch that was a little too much of a jump for me. Love this setup. I am probably at 4 inches now. Unfortunately IBS attack this evening so hard to write. But slept very well since new blocks.

And no finger swelling.
 
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Velve921

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Last night I tried IBT for the first time. Recently, I've had some serious discomfort and pain through my sacral discs... Upon waking in the morning it would be difficult to barely get up. A few weeks ago I had a fall that caused these initial issues... over 2 weeks it's improved significantly but the final straw had not been complete. I've dealt with this before and usually heals over the course of a month. However, after my first night of IBT I woke up with absolutely no pain or discomfort and the best my back has felt in months. After reading this forum yesterday, the concept of decompressing the discs stuck as I do a lot of hanging in my training which has always helped my back discomfort. So logically, I thought to myself, imagine the results I could find if I were to hang in a manner for hours at a time. So, potentially this could be the mechanism of action and/or the combination of blood flow and gravity.

Another added effect, I always have to sleep on my stomach due to excessive urination to hold my bladder in place throughout the night....So I started sleeping vertical on a curvy pillow face down a few years ago. Naturally, the curvy pillow would help decrease excessive extension in my lower back. Now, combine the vertical sleeping position on a curvy pillow while sleeping on an incline bed could be an increased reason why I saw more benefits after one night.

I've also haven't been able to sleep on my back for years due to poor breathing function... if I continue to see improvement on my stomach I will give sleeping on my back a try.

As it was comfortable regardless sleeping with an inclined bed and so simple, I will do this for the next few months and see how it pans out. Keep everyone posted and message me on the forum or privately if anyone wants to hear my progress as well.
 
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@Velve921 Thanks for reporting in. It's not unusual for people to experience relief from back pain after only 1 night on IBT. I think it will be advantageous to rotate during the night rather than stay in one position. I saw a post about hanging, which recommended having feet on floor when doing it, so it raises the pelvis slightly. It seems to work better.

Confused about sleeping vertical, could you show a picture so we can see what you mean?
 

Fractality

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Last night I tried IBT for the first time. Recently, I've had some serious discomfort and pain through my sacral discs... Upon waking in the morning it would be difficult to barely get up. A few weeks ago I had a fall that caused these initial issues... over 2 weeks it's improved significantly but the final straw had not been complete. I've dealt with this before and usually heals over the course of a month. However, after my first night of IBT I woke up with absolutely no pain or discomfort and the best my back has felt in months. After reading this forum yesterday, the concept of decompressing the discs stuck as I do a lot of hanging in my training which has always helped my back discomfort. So logically, I thought to myself, imagine the results I could find if I were to hang in a manner for hours at a time. So, potentially this could be the mechanism of action and/or the combination of blood flow and gravity.

Another added effect, I always have to sleep on my stomach due to excessive urination to hold my bladder in place throughout the night....So I started sleeping vertical on a curvy pillow face down a few years ago. Naturally, the curvy pillow would help decrease excessive extension in my lower back. Now, combine the vertical sleeping position on a curvy pillow while sleeping on an incline bed could be an increased reason why I saw more benefits after one night.

I've also haven't been able to sleep on my back for years due to poor breathing function... if I continue to see improvement on my stomach I will give sleeping on my back a try.

As it was comfortable regardless sleeping with an inclined bed and so simple, I will do this for the next few months and see how it pans out. Keep everyone posted and message me on the forum or privately if anyone wants to hear my progress as well.

Which method did you use to implement the incline?
 

Cirion

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I have something interesting to report after sleeping inclined a while.

While I have not noticed anything immediately beneficial from the sleeping inclined itself, I discovered something else somewhat by accident...

I started sleeping in a sleeping bag, after reading someone increased his waking temp/pulse doing so. So I thought, can't hurt to try right?

Well I did it, and I've brought my waking temp from 97.7 or so to 98.1, and also my waking pulse from 70-75 to 80 this morning.

There are three possible causes

1. Stress reduction from sleeping in a tight enclosure, making the body feeling safe.
2. Keeping warmth close to the body
3. Keeping CO2 around most of your body.

I am thinking it may be #3 actually. And the reason why I say this, is because CO2 is heavier than oxygen and could "accumulate" inside the bag because you are sleeping inclined. In any case, I recommend trying it. I'd be curious to see if this works for anyone else or if it just a fluke.
 
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New testimonial.
Amazing results
Since I have raised my bed 6 inches I have seen the following improvements:
1) After 4 weeks of sleeping in the inclimed bed I started to wake up very early - at 5 a.m. - rested and energized. I have to wake up that early but before it was continuous struggle , taking always 5 more minutes to sleep... I was dizzy and irritated that I have to wake up. Now it all is gone, which greatly improved my start of every day.
2) I also noticed increase of energy during the day since then.
3) After 4 months my celulitis I had since 30 years decreased very significanly.
4) I had periods of loosing sharpness of my sight and I was affraid I will have to visit an ofthalmologyst but it all stopped and I see perfectly.
5) I had one, bumpy varicose vain which dissapeard ( I am not sure after what time since I was not checking it), although spider vains did not dissapeared they improved in aparience and do not hurt anymore. I hope they will also vanish.
6) After three moths I noticed my knees got stable, my back stopped to bother me in sacro area and my cervical bones stability improved greatly. I felt all these diferences and in general I felt more stability in my skelet. I wanted to see what my ostiopat would say after checking me and he congratulated me since it was the first time in years where he said there is a great improvement in all my body.
I must say that I inclined my bed because I heard this recomendation from a person I follow in youtube. I did it without any expectation more as preventive step. I did not even imagined all the benefits I would get after such short time. I considered myself as fairy healthy person and I raised my bed rather as preventive thing. I had now idea I will get all the wonderful benefits I got.
Thank you very much Mr. Andrew Fletcher for sharing these blessings. God bless you !
Inclined Bed Therapy IBT - Restore & Support Your Health - Testimonials
 

vulture

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I have something interesting to report after sleeping inclined a while.

While I have not noticed anything immediately beneficial from the sleeping inclined itself, I discovered something else somewhat by accident...

I started sleeping in a sleeping bag, after reading someone increased his waking temp/pulse doing so. So I thought, can't hurt to try right?

Well I did it, and I've brought my waking temp from 97.7 or so to 98.1, and also my waking pulse from 70-75 to 80 this morning.

There are three possible causes

1. Stress reduction from sleeping in a tight enclosure, making the body feeling safe.
2. Keeping warmth close to the body
3. Keeping CO2 around most of your body.

I am thinking it may be #3 actually. And the reason why I say this, is because CO2 is heavier than oxygen and could "accumulate" inside the bag because you are sleeping inclined. In any case, I recommend trying it. I'd be curious to see if this works for anyone else or if it just a fluke.
Would you mind repeating with and without the bag and tell us if results are similar?
 

Cirion

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I had already done it without the bag. Generally wake up with a temp around 97.7 without it, and 98-98.1 with it. I got lazy last night and didn't use it, sure enough back down to 97.8.

I realized another possible reason could be EMF. I ordered an EMF meter and plan to measure EMF on my bed both with and without the bag.
 

vulture

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I had already done it without the bag. Generally wake up with a temp around 97.7 without it, and 98-98.1 with it. I got lazy last night and didn't use it, sure enough back down to 97.8.

I realized another possible reason could be EMF. I ordered an EMF meter and plan to measure EMF on my bed both with and without the bag.
Are you in winter? What’s your room temp? Recently my temps are up, but now I’m in summer...
 

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