A brand new research means that one thing so simple as the way you place your head throughout sleep may affect eye well being in surprising methods.
Sleeping with no pillow might assist cut back elevated stress inside the attention, in line with early findings revealed within the British Journal of Ophthalmology. Excessive intraocular stress can injury the optic nerve and result in glaucoma, the main reason behind irreversible blindness worldwide.
Researchers recommend that stacking pillows adjustments the angle of the neck, which can compress the jugular vein and intrude with the conventional drainage of aqueous humor. This fluid helps eye buildings such because the cornea and lens and helps regulate eye stress and form.
Intraocular stress, or IOP, naturally shifts with physique place. Transferring from sitting upright to mendacity flat is understood to extend IOP at night time, making sleep posture an vital issue to contemplate.
Examine Design and Contributors
To analyze this impact, researchers studied 144 adults with glaucoma. Contributors included 84 folks aged 44 or youthful, 41 between ages 45 and 59, and 19 aged 60 or older.
Amongst them, 70 had regular rigidity glaucoma, 9 had elevated eye stress, and 65 had major open-angle glaucoma, the most typical type of the illness, which is commonly linked to impaired fluid drainage within the eye.
From October 2023 to April 2024, contributors supplied detailed medical histories, together with remedies, smoking habits, and alcohol use. Every individual additionally obtained a full eye examination.
Researchers measured IOP in the precise eye each 2 hours over a 24 hour interval, each whereas sitting and mendacity down. When mendacity flat, contributors’ heads had been then raised to an angle of 20° to 35° (about 8 to 14 inches of elevation, relying on physique measurement) utilizing two commonplace pillows. IOP was measured once more after 10 minutes.
Contributors then returned to a flat place till the subsequent studying. Every individual accomplished 4 full units of measurements with and with out pillows.
Key Findings on Eye Strain
A complete of 96 contributors, or 67 %, confirmed a transparent rise in IOP when their head was elevated in comparison with mendacity flat. On common, stress elevated by about 1.61 mm Hg.
Total, IOP was increased within the elevated place than within the flat place (17.42 mm Hg vs 16.62 mm Hg), and it fluctuated extra over the 24 hour interval.
On the similar time, ocular perfusion stress (OPP), which displays blood movement to the attention, decreased when two pillows had been used (54.57 mm Hg vs 58.71 mm Hg when mendacity flat). Decrease OPP suggests lowered supply of oxygen and vitamins to eye tissues.
Variations Throughout Teams
Youthful adults had been extra doubtless than older contributors to expertise bigger will increase in IOP. Increased stress was additionally extra frequent in these with major open-angle glaucoma.
To discover the underlying trigger, researchers additionally studied 20 wholesome volunteers. They discovered that utilizing pillows narrowed the internal house of the jugular veins (lumen) and elevated blood movement pace, supporting the concept neck place impacts circulation.
Interpretation and Limitations
“Conventional methods of nocturnal IOP administration are primarily restricted to rising the categories and frequency of IOP-lowering medicines or supplementary laser remedy,” clarify the researchers. “Given the well-documented affect of postural adjustments on IOP, positional modification emerges as a believable technique warranting additional investigation.”
As a result of this was an observational research, it can not show trigger and impact. The researchers additionally notice that the variety of contributors in every glaucoma subgroup was comparatively small.
Nonetheless, they recommend the findings “could also be linked to jugular venous compression induced by neck flexion, which may probably compromise venous return and aqueous humor outflow.”
“Sufferers with glaucoma might due to this fact profit from avoiding sleeping postures that induce jugular venous compression to mitigate postural IOP elevation. Such behavioral changes signify a easy but probably efficient adjunctive technique for optimizing long-term IOP administration in medical follow.”
Reference: “Affiliation of high-pillow sleeping posture with intraocular stress in sufferers with glaucoma” by Tong Liu, Mengyuan Hu, Xin Liu, Zongrong Wang, Ke Yao, Min Chen and Kaijun Wang, 27 January 2026, British Journal of Ophthalmology.
DOI: 10.1136/bjo-2025-328037
Funding: Key Analysis and Improvement Program of Zhejiang Province
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