Can sleeping with your head elevated reduce your internal eye pressure?
Study Finds Sleeping With Head Elevated Reduces IOP.
June 2014 — Sleeping on a wedge-shaped pillow that elevates the head 20 degrees reduces nighttime intraocular pressure (IOP) and thereby might help control or reduce the risk of glaucoma.
Fifteen people with self-reported glaucoma and 15 without glaucoma were evaluated in a sleep laboratory on two occasions: in one session, they slept lying flat on their backs with no pillow; in the second session, they slept on a wedge-shaped pillow that elevated their head 20 degrees from the surface of the bed.
Sleeping with your head elevated may reduce your eye pressure at night and decrease your risk of glaucoma-related vision problems.
Baseline eye pressure was measured prior to sleep, then at two-hour intervals during a sleep period lasting six hours.
IOP did not differ significantly between the two positions during the initial (awake) measurement for either group. But during the sleep period, the mean IOP reading when subjects slept on the wedge pillow with their head raised was 1.56 mm Hg lower in the glaucoma group and 1.47 mm Hg lower in the normal group, compared with sleeping flat on the bed.
This corresponds to a 9.3 percent reduction of IOP in the glaucoma group and an 8.7 percent reduction of IOP in the non-glaucoma group, compared with measurements taken when subjects slept on their backs without the pillow.
A total of 25 of the 30 subjects (83.3 percent) had lower eye pressure when sleeping with their head elevated, and 11 subjects (36.7 percent) had reductions in mean IOP that exceeded 10 percent when sleeping on the wedge pillow.
The study authors concluded that sleeping with the head elevated 20 degrees reduces nighttime IOP measurements in glaucoma and non-glaucoma subjects alike, compared with sleeping in the supine position with a flat back.
Researchers at State University of New York Downstate Medical Center in Brooklyn, N.Y. conducted the study; a report of the study appeared in this month's issue of Journal of Glaucoma.
June 2014 — Sleeping on a wedge-shaped pillow that elevates the head 20 degrees reduces nighttime intraocular pressure (IOP) and thereby might help control or reduce the risk of glaucoma.
Fifteen people with self-reported glaucoma and 15 without glaucoma were evaluated in a sleep laboratory on two occasions: in one session, they slept lying flat on their backs with no pillow; in the second session, they slept on a wedge-shaped pillow that elevated their head 20 degrees from the surface of the bed.
Sleeping with your head elevated may reduce your eye pressure at night and decrease your risk of glaucoma-related vision problems.
Baseline eye pressure was measured prior to sleep, then at two-hour intervals during a sleep period lasting six hours.
IOP did not differ significantly between the two positions during the initial (awake) measurement for either group. But during the sleep period, the mean IOP reading when subjects slept on the wedge pillow with their head raised was 1.56 mm Hg lower in the glaucoma group and 1.47 mm Hg lower in the normal group, compared with sleeping flat on the bed.
This corresponds to a 9.3 percent reduction of IOP in the glaucoma group and an 8.7 percent reduction of IOP in the non-glaucoma group, compared with measurements taken when subjects slept on their backs without the pillow.
A total of 25 of the 30 subjects (83.3 percent) had lower eye pressure when sleeping with their head elevated, and 11 subjects (36.7 percent) had reductions in mean IOP that exceeded 10 percent when sleeping on the wedge pillow.
The study authors concluded that sleeping with the head elevated 20 degrees reduces nighttime IOP measurements in glaucoma and non-glaucoma subjects alike, compared with sleeping in the supine position with a flat back.
Researchers at State University of New York Downstate Medical Center in Brooklyn, N.Y. conducted the study; a report of the study appeared in this month's issue of Journal of Glaucoma.