Does Your Sleeping Position Reveal Your Personality?

Though you may not know (or fess up) to the fact that you are a worrywart or stubborn as a mule, the position in which you spend the night sleeping, reveals it all - At least that's the conclusion reached by England's leading body language expert, Robert Phipps.

For his analysis, Robert picked the four most popular sleeping positions - Fetal, Log, Yearner and Freefaller. Curious to hear what he thinks each one unveils about the sleeper's personality? Read on . . .

Curled Up Or Fetal Position

If you are one of those people that sleeps curled up with head down and knees pulled up, then you are stressed out. By curling up you are trying to de-stress and comfort yourself. The more curled up you are the more comfort you are seeking! In addition to that you are very conscientious and meticulous, but also, tend to over think everything and are therefore a worrywart! But the good news is that if you maintain this position for the majority of the night you get up quite refreshed and ready to take on . . . . . more stress!

Soldier or Log Position

For those of you that sleep with all your body parts fully extended and stretched in a straight line, the doctor has some bad news - You are stubborn. And, the more you continue doing this the more inflexible your personality will become - so much so, that people might perceive you as bossy! So try relaxing a little and maybe even curling up and see if your personality changes!

Yearner Position

Sleep with your arms outstretched? It could mean one of two things - Either you are chasing your dreams or you are being chased. Either way it reveals that you are a risk-taker that not only wants more from life, but is also, willing to go get it no matter how challenging the proposition. A word of caution though from the wise doctor - Be sure that what you are yearning for, is what you really want so that you don't spend your life striving for things that don't matter.

Freefaller Position

If you sleep flat on your stomach with arms at right angles holding on to your pillow for dear life, you are one of those unfortunate souls that believes that you have no control over what happens in your life. Not surprisingly, you wake up anxious because you are always worried about how many things you have to take care of from the previous day!

While some of the traits revealed by the doctor may sound worrisome, the good news is that a majority of people spend most of the night in a fetal position, at least, according to the 1,000 people that the doctor surveyed. This means that while most of us are stressed out, we all wake up happy and ready to face whatever the new day brings.

This is not the first time a study of this nature has been conducted. In 2003 Professor Chris Idzikowski, director of U.K.'s Sleep Assessment and Advisory Service, gave his opinion on the personality traits of people that slept in each of these positions, which not surprisingly was quite different from that of Robert Phipps.

He also, went one step further and revealed the health benefits of each one. Turns out the Freefall position is the best for efficient digestion, whilst the Log or Soldier position is likely to induce snoring and therefore, leave you a little tired! His research also indicated that we are creatures of habit, which means that once we find our favorite positions, we tend to sleep that way for the rest of our lives. This unfortunately means that we can do very little to change our personality!

Telegraph.co.uk, BBCnews.co.uk