If you suffer from health issues, you’re going to love sleeping inclined with your head higher than your feet. Sleeping on an incline prevents or alleviates the symptoms of common ailments like acid reflux (GERD), heartburn, headaches, and snoring while you experience deeper, more restorative sleep. This sleep position also helps reduce sinus congestion and improves circulation which also improve sleep.
Dr. Günther Amann-Jennson is a sleep researcher and the founder of SAMINA who believes that how one sleeps is just as important as sleep itself. Sleeping with the body in a straight position with the head raised slightly above the feet is how he defines inclined sleep.
Benefits of Inclined Sleep
Many people who suffer from heartburn and acid reflux already understand the benefits of sleeping on an incline for relief from their symptoms. Because their bodies are tilted from head to toe, gravity keeps stomach acids where they belong.
From space medicine, we have learned some of the benefits of inclined sleep such as
- detoxifying the brain;
- reducing intercranial pressure (relief from glaucoma and migraine headaches);
- less stress on the heart to improve heart health;
- assisting the lymphatic system to rid the body of unwanted materials and toxins);
- improvements in eye, ear, and head pressure; and
- better blood circulation;
- and blood pressure regulation.
The Scientific Research
Prof. Dr. Karl Hecht, MD, PhD, a physiology professor and physician who led
30 years of sleep medicine at the renowned Charité University Medical Hospital (Berlin), was also a member of the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences (Moscow) and the International Academy of Science and Astronautics (Paris). His work in space medicine and his perspective to look at the natural environment for solutions in his professional work made him an ideal collaborator with SAMINA founder, Dr. Günther W. Amann-Jennson.
They studied the research on inclined bed therapy extensively especially the scientific findings of NASA scientist, Dr. Joan Vernikos; the research and experiments of Andrew K. Fletcher (UK / Inclined Bed Therapy); the written dissertations of Ross Singer (USA / Author, “Get It Up”); and many others. Their collaboration and research led to important conclusions.
Pummer Adjustable Bed Frame
The evidence that sleeping inclined is beneficial to your health left another question: how can you incline your bed?
Claus Pummer is a professional carpenter by training. With his skills and experience, he designed a bed frame that can be easily assembled without tools or any metal screws or nails. It is also manually adjustable to sleep flat or inclined. Learn more about our natural inclined bed frames.
Professional Opinions on Inclined Sleep
SAMINA is well-known for innovations inspired by nature and science. That is the case with its patented SAMINA Gravity Inclined Bed. The idea became a realization after extensive research. Read the white paper by SAMINA’s founder, Dr. Günther W. Amann-Jennson based on his research and experience entitled, “Gravity Inclined Bed – Innovation for Enhanced Detoxification and Regeneration During Sleep” (original title, “Gesundheit, Schwerkraft and horizontale Schlafposition”).
Dr. Amann-Jennson questions the possible downside of flat horizontal sleeping position after his observations of the natural world and examples ranging from baboons to cattle and even penguins that don’t sleep flat. He questioned how gravity affects us when we sleep in a horizontal position night after night. Questions science cannot clearly answer now.
Dr. Joseph Mercola, an osteopathic physician with his own line of natural supplements and famous natural health website Mercola.com, not only sleeps inclined himself in a SAMINA gravity inclined bed but he believes that
“Raising the head of your bed 6 inches so that you’re sleeping on a 5-degree incline may improve your blood circulation, metabolism, respiratory, neurological and immune function.”
Dr. Tom Moorcroft, an osteopathic physician, founder of Origins of Health and former head of ILADS (the International Lyme and Associated Diseases Society) has had a great interest in inclined sleeping and how gravity assists the body while sleeping especially brain detoxification. According to Dr. Moorcroft,
“NASA scientists have long studied ‘gravity deficiency syndrome’, a host of metabolic, hormonal and structural issues that occur when the body is in a weightless state. Their research has shown that blood can ‘feel’ gravity and this is a crucial stimulus for the body’s regulatory functions. Other researchers have had participants spend days up to weeks in a horizontal position in bed. This led to changes in their health similar to that caused by gravity deficiency. Lack of gravity equals lack of health. The solution: Follow nature’s example.”
Dr. Dietrich Klinghardt, MD, PhD is a scientific advisor and physician who develops diagnostic protocols and therapies for healthcare practitioners and the benefit of his patients worldwide. He sleeps inclined and says,
“The main benefit behind inclined bed therapy is improved circulation of blood and lymph, simply by gravity. When you sleep, your brain detoxifies itself through the glymphatic system. During deep sleep, the brain shrinks and gets washed with cerebrospinal fluid, and this waste then gets moved into the peripheral lymph. Adding a five degree incline to your sleeping surface can help the glymphatic system drain “downhill” to the gut to be excreted. This can help detoxify heavy metals, pathogens, and other harmful substances from the brain.”
Dave Asprey, the Father of Biohacking and CEO of Bulletproof, enjoys inclined sleep on the SAMINA bed he shares with his wife, Dr. Lana. He says,
“Sleeping on an incline is a revolutionary sleep hack that I wrote about in my new book ‘Game Changers’… In addition to causing the brain to swell, sleeping horizontally also puts sustained pressure on the eyes, ears, face, sinuses, and even the gums. The entire head becomes overburdened due to the increased pressure in our skull.”
Read what other doctors and health experts have to say in Professional Opinions.
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