Why do I always end up sleeping on my stomach

Syel · 5 November 2026

You fall asleep on your back, or on your side, all neatly arranged. By morning you're on your stomach, cheek in the pillow, one arm folded under it.

At night you set everything. The light, the alarm, where your legs go. You settle in the right way, and you drift off.

Then somewhere in the dark, without you knowing, your body redoes the position its own way. It gets the last word every time. That stubbornness makes me smile.

Why the stomach, I don't know. What I see is that it's one of the few places in your day where you direct nothing: your body goes where it feels good before you have an opinion. It sometimes costs a stiff neck and a sore shoulder in the morning. The rest of the time, it knows where to land, and it goes back there.