Medical Mysteries YOUR SLEEPING HEART WILL TELL ON YOU

WRITER: FRED HILTON

As a kid, I was a Cub Scout dropout; I never got to be a Boy Scout. Consequently, I couldn’t say I was trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient and all that other good stuff.

Happily though, I can now report I am conscientious, like things in their proper place and worry unnecessarily. How did I come up with this insightful information? Simple, I can tell all of this because of the way I sleep.

The relationship between personality and sleep positions was examined in a study by Robert Phipps, a British body language expert. The four sleep positions identified by Phipps are:

• FETAL – This is the most popular sleep position, with about half of us choosing to lie on one side with our legs bent. I fall into this category and, accordingly, am conscientious but overthink things.

• LOG – The second most popular sleep position is the log position: lying on your side with legs straight and both arms resting at your sides. People who sleep in that position, Phipps said, are “set in their ways, can be stubborn and come across as bossy or aloof.”

• YEARNER – The yearner sleeps on his or her side with both arms stretched out in front. Phipps said this means they want more from life and are willing to “go out there and get it with both hands, ” according to the British newspaper, The Telegraph.

• FREE FALL – Free fallers like to sleep on their stomachs with heads turned to the side and arms curled near their pillow. “Freefallers tend to feel like life happens around them and they are just hanging on for the ride, which can make them feel like they’re not in control of what happens,” The Telegraph said.

You should, of course, take all of this with a grain of salt. Even Phipps admitted (to the “Huffington Post”) that he considers his analysis akin to a horoscope.

Philip Gehrman, a professor of psychiatry and a member of the Penn Sleep Center, expressed doubts over whether there’s deep meaning in how people sleep.

“The link between sleeping (position) and personality is unlikely to be anywhere near strong enough to make those kinds of statements,” Gehrman told HuffPost. Gehrman said people sleep in a particular position for the simplest of reasons — whatever is most comfortable. Make up your own mind about the connection between sleep position and personality. Sleep on it. Get back to me after I curl up in a fetal position and take a nap.

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SOURCES: “What Does Your Sleep Position Say About Your Personality?” by Lauren Gelman, Reader’s Digest http://www.rd.com/recomm ends/what-does-your-sleep-position-say-about-yourpersonality/; “What Your Sleeping Position Tells About Your Personality” by Pallavi Srivastava, Gizmodo India, April 3, 2014 ht tp://www.gizmodo.in/indiamodo/What-Your-Sleeping-Position-TellsAbout-Your-Personality/articleshow/33138321.cms; “What does your sleeping position say about you?” by Hannah Furness, The Teleg raph, October 18, 2012 http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ newstopics/howaboutthat/9617122/What-does-your-sleeping-position-say-about-you.html; “Sleep Positions and Personality: Is There a Tie? Experts Not So Sure” by Katherine Bindley, The Huffi ngton Post, October 24, 2012 http://www.huffi ngtonpost.com/2012/10/24/sleeping-sleep-position-personality-research_n_20024 52.html

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