Gyrosleep
GYROSLEEP is the ultimate bed, and so much more.
It literally lifts up its users as if they were sleeping on a cloud.
In one product, it helps solve the top challenges of recovery in
modern life: ineffective sleep, chronic pain,
and potentially cognitive decline.
If we asked you to visualize the ideal position for relaxation—the position that would provide the most comfort and support, allowing ease of breath and encouraging good posture—there’s a fair chance you’d imagine yourself sleeping on your back, your torso gently elevated and your legs slightly bent at the knees.
Modern adjustable bed-, recliner-, and massage chair-marketers call this position "zero gravity" and it’s been sold as the silver-bullet solution to most of your sleep-induced aches and pains.
In the real world, though, most of us prefer to sleep on our sides, a position that puts our body out of alignment. Side-sleeping might be better for our digestion and general blood flow, but it’s terrible for our spine and shoulders.
Yet, we still do it.
The research shows that, on average, we spend 54% of our time asleep on our sides, which means that half of our sleep cycles are spent passively pushing our bodies out of alignment. There must be a reason we’re so drawn to side-sleeping.
The Sleeping Lady.
5000 year old clay figurine discovered in the Hal Saflieni Hypogeum, Malta.
A woman in a natural sleeping position using a bed and a pillow – evidence that even the earliest civilizations understood the importance of side sleeping and consequently built sleep gadgets.
Until a few years ago, sleep researchers couldn’t explain why we so frequently find ourselves on our sides.
But after some remarkable discoveries published in 2012-2015, researchers studying the brain can explain not only why we want to but why we should sleep on our sides.
Drs. Maiken Nedergaard and Helene Benveniste and their teams studied sleep and brain physiology in rats. Through their research, they discovered a new organ—a waste removal system shared by humans. The glymphatic system effectively functions as the brain’s garbage truck, removing the waste produced by our brains during normal daily activity, which is critical for brain function and, therefore, our survival.
The glymphatic system is active only when we sleep, and, even more stunning, it’s most active when we sleep on our sides. In effect, side- sleeping improves brain health.
Sleeping rat netsuke.
Masanao of Kyoto, Japan, late 1700s
Long before we knew why side-sleeping was good for us, we associated the position with good health. For centuries, and across all cultures, the young and healthy are nearly universally depicted sleeping on their sides. The sick and elderly, on the other hand, are always represented on their backs.
V.G. Perov, 1833-1882
Children Sleeping, 1870
Oil on Canvas
Tretyakov Gallery
Since ancient times, various religious teachings and traditional medical practices recognized that side-sleeping had its benefits. Side-sleeping was associated with healthy digestion, improved blood flow, and restorative power. Many of the benefits observed by ancient scholars have been confirmed by modern research.
Discovery of the glymphatic system helps to explain why side-sleeping is so important for brain recovery, validating ancient wisdom and providing the ultimate prescription for drug-free sleep and health improvement.
The Sleeping Buddha.
5th century
Ajanta Caves, Maharashtra, India
The story might end there if weren’t for our musculoskeletal systems. Remember that the ideal sleep position for your posture is the “zero gravity” position.
In order to stay in healthy alignment, we should sleep on our backs. But if brain function is our first priority, then we should sleep on our sides.
***Let that sink in for a second***
We can generally trust that our bodies know what’s best for us. Our brains are equipped with built-in software to change positions and even completely roll over without disturbing our sleep.
If we put all of this together—what our musculoskeletal systems need, what our brains need, what our brains do for us on autopilot while we sleep—the natural conclusion is revelatory: Tossing and turning is actually good for us.
There are no side-sleepers or back-sleepers. We all have to find a balance between different positions as we sleep. Tossing and turning also helps maintain even blood flow throughout our entire bodies, and keeps our lungs free of fluid build-up.
It turns out the key to perfect sleep might be the very same activity so many marketers have tried to convince us to “cure.”
Every year as we age, our back, neck, shoulders, and hips become a little stiffer, and the bed becomes a little less friendly. Our sleep becomes shallower and more fragmented, and our brain becomes less efficient at regulating position changes, causing us to wake more often when we roll over. Restorative sleep becomes increasingly difficult to attain.
These changes, along with our growing lifespans, mean we have to find a way to improve our sleep if we want to keep our bodies and brains in the best shape possible, for as long as possible.
J.F. van der Vlis, 1838-1906
The Patient
Utrecht, The Netherlands
● Heartburn or chronic acid reflux (Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease, GERD)
● Predisposition to neurodegenerative diseases, e.g. Familial Dementia
● Neurodegenerative diseases affecting frequency of postural shifts
● Headaches or migraines caused by neck issues
● Adhesive Capsulitis (Frozen Shoulder)
● Chronic back, neck pain, or stiffness
● Snoring (obstructive sleep apnea)
● Third trimester of pregnancy
● Difficulty rolling over in bed
● Cardiovascular conditions
● Immobile and comatose
● Ankylosing Spondylitis
● Chronic shoulder pain
● Mobility restrictions
● Central sleep apnea
● Rotator cuff injury
● Osteoarthritis
● Postoperative
● Poor posture
● Fibromyalgia
● Bariatric
● Geriatric
● Sedated
● Trauma
● Burns
