Many of us have trouble finding a comfortable position for sleep. We toss and turn during the night trying to find the one that would keep us happy for a long time. To rescue come complex systems of pillows and expensive mattresses promising the best night sleep.
Past injuries and traumas aside, a lot of issues spring from the fact that the body is not ‘letting go’ even in the sleep. Habitual holds prevent it from sinking nicely into the mattress and create sensations of pressure or unpleasant tension here and there.
Looking at this picture of a sleeping man, for his neck to be comfortable it has to have some mobility in itself, but then thoracic spine has to follow, and ribs, and shoulders. If the ribs are not letting go and many vertebrae can only move as one piece, this person would feel tension in the neck. And since the holds are habitual and thus outside of our awareness, he would not even know that the problem is not the neck itself, but somewhere else.
In Feldenkrais Method almost every class starts and finishes with students lying on their back and they observe that after the class they have become flatter with more contact between their bodies and the floor. Habitual tensions are going and they feel like sinking into the floor. Result after several classes – softer body and a better sleep. A Feldenkrais colleague of mine has shared that her personal achievement is that she can sleep in any position.
As usually, the Feldenkrais Method is not dictating anyone what to do. It only expands one’s choices and possibilities, what to invest your limited time and money into – softer body, or a better mattress, or both – your call, dear reader.
Acture FM 