The body uses sleep time to heal itself. Detoxification and repair happens during sleep. But sleeping on a flat bed is not the best position for this healing to occur. Raising the head of the bed by 6 inches, also known as Inclined Bed Therapy, can benefit many health problems including back pain, digestive problems and sleep apnea.

Health Conditions that May Benefit from Inclined Bed Therapy

• Acid reflux
• Heartburn
• Sleep apnea
• Snoring
• Poor circulation
• Swollen Lymph nodes
• Varicose veins
• Back pain
• High blood pressure
• Edema
• Frequent urination at night
• Insomnia

Why Does Inclined Bed Therapy Improve Health?

When the body is flat the blood and lymph fluids will not move around as easily throughout the body due to the effective of gravity. When the body is inclined, blood and lymph will continue to circulate more, allowing more blood and oxygen to move around the body and keeping the lymph flowing more freely. Keeping blood and lymph flowing is a help to the body's night time tasks of repair and toxin removal.

Consider that a pond without water flowing in and out of it will stagnate. A river, with the benefit of gravity and an incline, will continually flow and have a more clear and pure appearance than a pond.

It stands to reason that improving circulation at night would improve health.

How do You Elevate the Bed?

Bricks or blocks can be used to elevate the bed. "Bed risers" can also be purchased online.

It may be wise to begin with a 3 inch rise and evaluate the results and then progress to a 6 inch rise in a week or two.

Posted by Cindy (Illinois, Usa) on 06/22/2016 212 posts

I've been sleeping on an incline for over 10 years and love it. I doubt I could sleep flat, even if I wanted to. But I just discovered something AWESOME about my inclined bed. It helped but I actually cured my indigestion, acid reflux and hiatal hernia with water- I haven't had any of the acid symptoms since I drank two glasses of water, the very first day I heard about it. That said...

I used to go to the chiropractor 2 or 3 times per year for neck problems and such but I saw an inversion table on tv and they talked about neck problems but ONE woman said that it cured her carpal tunnel - which I also had - so I got an inversion table and, sure enough, no more carpal tunnel AND no more visits to the chiropractor. They immediately bleeped out the woman's comments about carpal tunnel but I had already heard it so...but that's not the AWESOME part!

The AWESOME part is that with an inversion table, you don't have to go completely upside down to get the benefits. And because it is so big and awkward to set up and take down, I'd been procrastinating with regard to actually doing it but one day I was particularly sore and trying to figure out something I could do to relieve the soreness enough to actually wrestle the inversion table up and usable and I looked at my "inclined bed" and thought that since I don't actually have to go all the way upside down, I wondered...if I laid on it the wrong way around...would that provide some traction? And it DID!! And it was AWESOME!!

I laid with my head at the foot of the bed, rolled up in a sit up to sort of stretch out my spine. Then I put my arms straight over my head for a few seconds and stretched, then twisted my torso one way and stretched, then the other way and stretch and then I pull my knees up to my chest for just a few seconds, got up and felt like a new woman! It wa shocking!! I couldn't believe it!

So, now, after a day hunched over the keyboard, I lay the wrong way on my inclined bed and stretch. It's like a whole new life - a whole extra half a day of feeling good and sleeping good and just overall awesomeness!

Posted by Martin (Dublin.) on 01/02/2013

Good Morning from Ireland. Last february(2012) I found that my left Calf muscle was starting to look roaring red and purple and I won't mention the pain and itchiness. I had heard years ago about elevating your feet in order to aid the return of blood to the torso. I googled this to make sure that it was what I needed and I came across your site and read and re-read the IBT to make sure I had it right so I said i'd give it a try and said i'd log my progress and gave it a trial of a calender month.

The first couple of nights I didn't sleep all that well as my body wasn't used to the position BUT during those couple of days I wasn't tired and had noticed that my calf condition was improved. But by week three I abandoned the trial and decided that the IBT was the way forward for me. It has given me Comfort for my calves and a brilliant nights sleep. So i'd just like to say thank you for your information and wish everyone would give this a try. Martin