• Posted January 28, 2026

One Simple Step At Bedtime Might Help Fight Glaucoma, Experts Say

One simple step at bedtime can help people with glaucoma slow the progression of their eye disease, a new study says.

Sleeping without pillows might help lower patients’ internal eye pressure, which when elevated in glaucoma can cause optic nerve damage and irreversible vision loss, researchers reported Jan. 27 in the British Journal of Ophthalmology.

Two-thirds of glaucoma patients had a demonstrable increase in their eye pressure when they slept with a couple of pillows under their head, researchers found.

Forgoing pillows might be an easy alternative treatment for glaucoma patients before they move on to medications or laser therapy, researchers said.

“Traditional strategies of nocturnal intraocular pressure management are primarily limited to increasing the types and frequency of IOP-lowering medications or supplementary laser therapy,” wrote the research team led by Kaijun Wang of the Eye Center of Second Affiliated Hospital at Zhejiang University in China.

“An interesting question arises: can non-pharmacological adjunctive approaches offer a practical solution for managing nocturnal IOP?” the researchers wrote.

Stacked pillows alter neck position, which might compress a person’s jugular vein, researchers said. This could prevent the natural drainage of aqueous humor, the fluid found inside a person’s eye.

Glaucoma is a leading cause of blindness among people 60 and older, according to the American Academy of Ophthalmology. It occurs when pressure inside a person’s eye increases, causing the optic nerve’s fibers to gradually die off.

For the new study, researchers had 144 people with glaucoma sleep with two regular-sized pillows, which elevated their heads by 20 to 35 degrees, and without any pillows at all.

The team measured patients’ eye pressure at regular intervals while sleeping in either position, and found that internal eye pressure was significantly higher in the elevated position.

That position also significantly reduced people’s ocular perfusion pressure (OPP), which is the pressure available to push blood through the eye’s tiny vessels, researchers found.

“Compared with the supine position, the high-pillow posture is associated with elevated IOP and reduced OPP, with potential adverse implications for long-term IOP control in glaucoma patients,” researchers wrote.

“Patients with glaucoma may therefore benefit from avoiding sleeping postures that induce jugular venous compression to mitigate postural IOP elevation,” they added. “Such behavioral adjustments represent a simple yet potentially effective adjunctive strategy for optimizing long-term IOP management in clinical practice.”

More information

The American Academy of Ophthalmology has more on glaucoma.

SOURCES: BMJ, news release, Jan. 27, 2026; British Journal of Opthalmology, Jan. 27, 2026