Dear gerry the neck

I understand your frustrations and your idea with regards the influence of sleep on c/s, however in practice this is very hard to control. people do not develope c/s because of sleeping or sleeping positions, their everyday lifestyles and posture creates a cascade that starts the process which gets worsened by some unhealthy positions some of which you can get from sleeping. This is why the focus of treatment is on everything else that you do during the day, for sleeping there is very little you can do to control problems. I can advise you as a therapist to sleep in a certain way but because you move about in your sleep you find yourself in another position. I can say put x amount of pillows on certain areas of your bed and by morning all the pillows are on the floor. This is why inherently the onus is on the sufferer to find what works, unless of course you are a neurological patient that needs help moving generally. Its not as simple as you describe it, what position works for you may not work for someone else. There are so many factors to consider, comorbidities ie postural hypotension, breathing issues, postural issues ie.kyphosis, now when you are awake, the therapist can give good advice as to how you should sit, stand or walk because you are "awake" and can make necessary adjustments whenever alignment issues arise. To try and research problems with sleep and the cervical spine is a long shot.. im sure there are companies out there claiming to have the best sleeping equipment to protect your spine and what not however these equipment mean nothing for the restless sleeper, for the person with orthostatic bp issues, for the COPD patient, or for people with recent surgeries, im sure my colleagues will have even more factors that need to be considered to investigate this. I dont think you can get the best advice on how to sleep to protect your neck from a therapist, you may be better off discussing with an occupational therapist who can give the necessary equipment to mitigate these problems but it will always be a long shot for as long as you have the capacity to move independently.