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My grandma* used to say: After an evening meal, go to sleep on your left side; if you wake up from bad dreams, turn to right side and sleep till dawn/morning.

* she died 23yrs ago.

Particularly if you suffer from diverticulitis as I do, putting pressure on the left side seems to lessen or calm spasms.

Most diverticulitis occurs on the left side in the West and the right side in the East.

Really? I thought the lower sigmoid colon was in the same place on everyone. Does that mean some other part of the digestive tract is stressed to the point of forming diverticulae in an Eastern diet?

I've got a hiatal hernia which makes this even worse. What I've found is that I can sleep fine on my right side as long as my stomach has cleared, which usually takes about 3 or 4 hours.

sleeping on the left can directly put pressure on the heart.