Sleeping In This Position Makes You Get Wrinkles Faster, And Most People Do It

I can't fall asleep at all unless I'm lying on my side.

And when I say "lying on my side," I really mean curling up into a sad, little ball until my body is almost perfectly circular and fully unrecognizable in its shape.

But I probably need to reevaluate my choice to curl myself into another dimension for eight hours every night, since apparently, it's making me look old AF.

According to Skin Repair Expert Lorena Öberg, lying on your side while you sleep can cause your skin to create small folds on your body, which can lead to premature wrinkles.

Is it safe to assume filling the small folds with midnight snacks will not help fight against wrinkles?

Well, at least I won't be piling on the anti-aging cream by myself: It turns out, plenty of people also enjoy my contorted sleeping position. A survey of 1,000 people conducted by the UK Sleep Assessment and Advisory Service found about 41 percent of people sleep on their sides, in fetal positions.

It's really hard to believe something as seemingly innocuous as sleeping on your side can cause wrinkles, but apparently, there are several things we all do every day that are aging us more quickly than we realize.

Drinking through a straw

According to MailOnline, the mere action of drinking through a straw can cause fine lines and wrinkles to form around your mouth.

Using your phone

Constant cell phone usage can be awful for your skin, says Eva Alexandrides, the managing director and co-founder of 111SKIN.

To wrap your head around this, just think about all the places your phone has been and how little you've probably cleaned the screen/case.

Yuck.

Plus, scrolling through Instagram or Twitter for long periods of time can strain your eyes if you're squinting a lot, and it can lead to something called "tech neck" (anyone else cringe at that phrase or is it just me?).

Skincare expert Elizabeth Rimmer explained the phenomenon to Cosmopolitan:

The pull of gravity from downwards faces also means sagging in the lower face and neck may start to occur earlier in life.

Water temperature

The only thing I might possibly love more than sleeping on my side in the fetal position is showering in scalding hot water. Seriously, it's like I'm practicing for the day I am inevitably welcomed into the gates of hell.

Like most of my life decisions, this one is also terrible for your skin. Any kind of hot temperature, whether through your central air or in the shower, dries out the skin and causes it to crack, showing off fine wrinkles.

So, with this newfound knowledge on hand, I suppose you could go ahead and change some of your life habits in an attempt to ward off your wrinkles.

But, if you ask me, most wrinkles are a sign you enjoyed your life, and you lived it the way you really wanted to.

So for now, y'all can cash me in my bed, locked and loaded in the fetal position, cooling off after a steaming hot shower -- aka I'll be here living my best life.

Citations: The ten subtle ways you're adding 20 years to your face (including the pillow you sleep on, having long hair and taking a SHOWER) (MailOnline), FOMO face: do you have it? (Cosmopolitan)