Failing to find the perfect sleeping position for a restful night can be a real pain in the neck—both literally and figuratively. Dr. Alyssa Hickey’s (@dr.alyssanhickey) viral video breaks down the correct techniques for side-sleeping and highlights the common mistakes that often lead to restless nights and stiff necks in the morning.
Since uploading the video to TikTok last month, it has garnered over 777,000 views.
“I have a quick little tip before you go to bed,” Dr. Hickley began.
How to sleep on your side
Lying in bed on her side with her head propped up by two pillows, she says, “When you’re sleeping, you don’t want your head to be like this.”
The video cuts to Dr. Hickley in a different sleeping position, with her head resting flat on the bed and without any pillow support. She adds: “You also don’t wanna lay like this.”
“If you’re sleeping on your side, you want to make sure you have good support through here, so your shoulders aren’t rolling in forward like this,” she continued, pointing to her neck. She then scrunched up her shoulders to demonstrate.
“Because this is when you wake up in the morning and everything hurts through here and you can’t really turn your head and oftentimes you start to get some numbness [and] tingling into your hands,” she warned.
In the next clip, she returns to the bed for another demonstration.
“Another suggestion is hugging a pillow and that’s gonna keep your chest more open so that this top shoulder isn’t rolling in forward,” she recommended.
Dr. Hickley wraps up her video with one final tip that might be less known to side-sleepers. Place a pillow between the knees.
“Also putting a pillow between your knees is gonna help decrease tension that you might have in your hip and [lower] back. So give this a try and I hope it helps.”
The pillow tips were a hit in the comment section
The top comments were grateful for the doctor’s suggestions, with many viewers also sharing their own experiences and recommendations for fellow side-sleepers.
“Girl I got a side sleeper pillow and [it’s] changed my life,” one comment read.
“I knew there was a reason I still slept hugging my stuffed animal,” another person wrote.
“If my body is going to fall apart in 75% of sleeping positions I’m just going to let it happen man… I can’t be stressed about sleeping wrong too,” one lamented.
@dr.alyssanhickey #sidesleeper #sleepy #sleepingposition #pillows #neckpillow #chiropractortiktok #carpaltunnel ♬ original sound – Dr. Alyssa Hickey
“I bought a pregnancy pillow and my life has changed! [No] more neck/upper back or back pain anymore. I tried all variations of different pillows and nothing else used to help,” someone else said.
Dr. Hickey did not respond to the Daily Dot’s request for comment via email and TikTok Direct Message.
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