One of my biggest problems with fibromyalgia is falling asleep. When ever I lay down it's like my mind completely focuses on my painful areas making it impossible to relax and drift off. In the past I'd try to do deep breathing exercises but my mind is such that counting breath inhales and exhales is enough to keep me awake.
I'm a corset wearer but I'm not a waist trainer nor even a very tight lacer. What I mean by this is it's not my goal to make my waist any smaller than it currently is in my corset. My test when I put my corset on is to take a deep breath, not just a high chest breath but a full diaphragm and chest breath combined. If you're not familiar with this type of breathing, YouTube a yoga breathing demonstration then add to it puffing your entire chest with air as well. My goal is to never wear my corset so tightly that it degrades my ability to take in maximum oxygen. If you've ever been at the hospital with someone after surgery you've probably seen the respiratory therapist assessing their lung capacity and giving them a device to exercise their lungs. Their motto is you can't go home till I see you consistently getting the ball to levitate to a certain level. Corsets are awesome but you really have to ask yourself if you want to lace so tightly that the shifting of your floating ribs degrades your lung capacity. I know I definitely don't.
Anyways, I have found this simple way to do meditation breathing in my corset at night when I'm trying to sleep.
Lacing:
Lace the way I lace, or looser. Many people say lace loosely at bedtime but I've found that when I lay down in my corset it automatically becomes looser than when I stand or sit. I've found the most comfortable way for me to lay down in my corset is either on my back or on my side with the small of my back/waist supported by a small neck roll pillow. Lucy, from Lucy's corsetry has a very good video on pillow positioning for sleep. For this meditation I lay on my back with my legs supported by a leg wedge foam pillow. It inclines the thighs then flattens out where the calves are and my feet are actually unsupported. I particularly suffer from agonizing foot pain so I find to have nothing under my heel and no blankets on my feet is important. I do have problems with icy cold feet and hands and wear long men's tube type knee socks (Hanes brand from Amazon to be exact) pretty much 24/7. Be careful of Champion brand, they are really small, short, tight and fibro flaring.)
Positioning: (note, Lucy says people with high blood pressure shouldn't lay without a pillow on their back, and if you have high blood pressure you shouldn't corset as this can elevate blood pressure. Remember you're doing this to feel better not to add to your troubles. Consult your doctor before corseting. )
So laying on your back, pillow wedge or stacked pillows under your legs, small pillow in the small of your back, very thin pillow beneath your head or no pillow at all and regular pillows or millet/buckwheat pillows on either side of your head you begin. I know that sounds complicated but I've found the more effort I put into making my bed as supportive as possible the more likely I am to sleep and then wake up with lessened pain. In this position I'll either rest my hands on my abdomen or raise my arms above my head resting on the pillows on either side of my head. I find when my arms are above my head it especially opens up my chest, my torso seems to elongate and I can really get nice deep breaths.
Breathing:
Then it's simply a matter of breathing in as large a full breath as you can and then breathing it out. There is no need to keep counts, you can pause a second between inhale and exhale if it doesn't keep your mind too awake to do so, or simply breath, long and slow, inhaling and exhaling completely. As you do this the corset "hugs" your body in a rhythmic manner. I was shocked the first night I did this as I found the "hug" had a comforting massage quality. Additionally by focusing on my body within the corset, the feeling of tight to loose again and again it can distract me from the stronger pain messages flooding my brain and I simply drift to sleep.
Repositioning:
I find that I naturally have the desire to shift to my side during my sleep and simply roll either way laying my head on the pillow that was beside my head, keeping the neck roll at waist level and putting a pillow between my knees.
Choosing how long or if at all to sleep in your corset:
Some people experience anxiety when trying to sleep in a corset. I know I did the first time I accidentally fell asleep in my corset when I was seasoning it the first few days. I hadn't slept well in days and thought I'll lay down here for a second and fell asleep. Anxiety is very common for me, a symptom of my fibro, so when I half woke up in an anxious state, I simply ignored it and fell back asleep. It happened again the first night I attempted to sleep in it in a planned way and I was prepared for the feeling and was able to ignore it but if you are uncomfortable take it off right away. I know my anxious feeling isn't going to progress to full blown panic.
Panic attacks are terribly frightening so I suggest anyone considering sleep corseting practice unlacing sitting on the side of the bed or even laying down a few times before actually trying to sleep in a corset. The goal is to feel better not worse. Never, ever tie a knot in your laces and don't tuck them up into your corset while you're sleeping. Keep it a quick and simple tug of the loop to undo. If your bow comes undone while sleeping it's much better than feeling trapped because you can't get out quickly.
I had planned to live in my corset 22/7 once I began because I liked the meditation falling asleep and I liked waking up without low back pain. But, my body began to waist train and I really don't want that to happen. My corset is a level 3 "extreme curve" model from Orchard Corset and I for me I feel that amount of curve is attractive and anything beyond that since I'm very busty would seem aesthetically unpleasing. Now, I only wear my corset to sleep when I need the meditation to fall asleep or if I wake up in the night with low back pain or high fibro pain. I've found I can mimic the corset sleep posture by simply keeping the pillows exactly as I have them while corseted and that has been enough to wake up feeling much better than in the past.
Sweet sleep :)