Hair Loss, Sleep Positions, & Blood Circulation

If you are obsessed at looking into every little thing that may cause hair loss like I do, you will want to read about this suggestion which has not been studied as a fact, but it is a logical idea. We already know that one of the main reasons hair loss happens is due to a lack of blood flow to the hair follicles.

You might look at every way to increase blood flow to the scalp. So one thing that could be decreasing the maximum effectiveness of blood flow to your hair follicles is the way you sleep.

It is very possible that sleeping on your side will further decrease the amount of blood going through your blood vessels to your head outside of the skull. If you take a look at the physiology diagram of the blood vessels on the head, you will notice the ones on the sides near the front deliver blood to the regions where most people start losing hair as indicated in the Norwood Chart for Male Pattern Baldness.

Those blood vessels get constricted slightly when the weight of your head is on them which reduces the amount of nutrients delivered which is required for healthy hair follicles. If you think about it, a typical person sleeps 7, 8, or even 10 hours of sleep every night. That equates to over 2,555 hours of sleeping per year!

Thinking further, most people sleep on their sides with the pillow placing most pressure on these essential blood vessels for your frontal scalp follicles. The Better Sleep Council conducted a study of people’s sleep positions, and found that 69% of the participants slept on their side with a variety of side positions.

To put things in perspective, most people (estimated about 69%) are preventing maximum blood flow, depriving proper nutrients to their front hair follicles about 2,555 hours of the year.

What To Do?

I think the first thing to do is an obvious one, to start sleeping on your back. But that is sometimes hard to do because it has become a habit for most of your life which has been engraved in your subconscious mind.

So I created a chapter in my book which will help you sleep on your side and include information to prevent blood flow from being constricted when sleeping on your side.