Does Your Sleep Position Affect Your Dreams?

If you’ve ever woken up panicked the night before a big work presentation, you know that what’s going on in your real life tends to find a way into your dreams. It’s not just you — dreaming does seem to mirror the situations and challenges you face during the day, according to the Cleveland Clinic.

And that’s not all. It’s possible that your sleep position (whether it’s your stomach, back, or side) can also play a role in what you’re dreaming about all night.

Keep in mind, though, that there isn’t much research on this topic and, like dreaming in general, there’s a lot that experts don’t know. Some sleep experts are dubious that sleep position has any effect. “Sleeping position should not affect dream content, and any research on this supports a very weak, if not absent, correlation,” says Alex Dimitriu, MD, founder of Menlo Park Psychiatry and Sleep Medicine in California and a medical reviewer for Everyday Health. One problem with the existing research is that it relies on self-reported data, which can be inaccurate since many people switch sleep positions throughout the night and can’t accurately report it in the morning, according to the Sleep Foundation.

But there are a few commonly held beliefs when it comes to sleep position and dreams. Here are four of them and the theories behind each.

Back Sleepers Have More Nightmares

Back sleepers are said to be plagued with more nightmares, and this could be a response to obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), says Lisa Billars, MD, chief of neurology and sleep medicine at Kaiser Permanente in Atlanta. OSA is a sleep-related breathing disorder that results in episodes of stopped breathing throughout the night, according to  Mayo Clinic.

“For individuals with known or unknown OSA, it is common for the degree of apnea to be worse during supine (back) sleep compared to lateral (side) or prone (stomach) sleeping positions,” Dr. Billars says. “In people with OSA, the airway collapses or nearly collapses, and this results in a decrease in oxygen and increased carbon dioxide levels in the body.”

Those middle-of-the-night fluctuations may trigger a fight-or-flight response with the potential to arouse the sleeper from deeper to lighter sleep. “This physiological response could be experienced as stressful, or the apnea could cause a feeling of outright suffocation,” Billars says. “Either of these scenarios could contribute to the development of disturbing dreams or nightmares.”

In fact, according to research, people with the highest number of apnea episodes during the night reported higher unpleasant dream content compared with those with fewer episodes. Dr. Dimitriu says people with sleep apnea or poor nighttime breathing tend to dream of suffocating, being underwater, or holding their breath, which he says could be connected to apnea episodes experienced while sleeping on the back.

Back Sleepers Have Trouble Remembering Their Dreams

There’s also a theory that back sleepers cannot recall their dreams, and this also seems to be linked to OSA and the lack of continuous sleep these people experience throughout the night. Someone with moderate OSA has between 15 and 30 episodes per hour of sleep, according to Johns Hopkins Medicine. And according to research, sleeping on the back is associated with more severe OSA, so back sleepers may be disrupted even more often.

Dreams tend to occur in REM (rapid eye movement) sleep, which occurs on and off throughout the night, according to the Cleveland Clinic. “OSA is known to worsen during REM sleep, so that may result in increased sleep fragmentation during dream sleep, particularly for back sleepers,” Billars says. “This fragmentation would interrupt REM sleep, not allowing dream sequences or ‘stories’ to develop.”

As a result, you may be less likely to dream, and if you do, the dreams may be less memorable. “This is speculation, but it does make sense with what we know physiologically about sleep and sleep apnea,” Billars says.

Stomach Sleepers Have More Erotic Dreams

Are you regularly dreaming up steamy scenarios? It could be the result of sleeping on your stomach, according to research that involved data from nearly 700 people.

Billars suspects this could be because sleeping on the stomach puts pressure on areas of the body that are sexually stimulating. “That feeling of stimulation is likely the origin of the erotic dream content,” she says.

The researchers behind the previously mentioned study also found that these face-down sleepers were more likely to report having dreams of being locked up, smothered, or tied down. Again, this seems to be the subconscious reacting to the body’s sleep position. “This could be related to their having limited limb mobility,” Billars says.

Right-Side Sleepers Have More Pleasant Dreams

According to research involving 63 people, those who slept on their right side experienced more positive dreams than others. The researchers found the emotional content of the dreams of these right-side sleepers included happiness, joy, excitement, hope, peace, restfulness, longing, relief, safety, and love more often than their left-side-sleeping counterparts.

Left-side sleepers also tended to have more nightmares compared with right-side sleepers, though stomach or back sleepers were not surveyed. The researchers found that just over 40 percent of left-side sleepers reported nightmares compared with less than 15 percent of right-side sleepers. Interestingly, the researchers also found that right-side sleepers had higher quality sleep.

Should You Change Your Sleep Position to Alter Your Dreams?

If you’re often bothered by nightmares, it may be worth trying to change your sleep position to see if that influences your dreams.

“But not every person can sleep in every position, and sleep comfort is critical to optimizing sleep quality,” Billars says. “Most people default to sleeping in the position that is most comfortable for them, thereby increasing the likelihood they will fall asleep quickly and stay asleep longer.” She adds that you can certainly experiment with a new sleep position, and adding pillows to properly support your neck, back, and legs in that new position may help.

There are other ways to change the content of your bad dreams. Billars says prioritizing sleep hygiene is a good place to start. The Sleep Foundation suggests practicing relaxation techniques to relieve stress and anxiety, winding down before bed, avoiding screen time and alcohol close to bedtime, and sticking with a regular sleep schedule.