I am a restless sleeper. I think I've written before that I rarely sleep through the night. I'm usually up several times, though usually I don't physically get up and out of bed.
Usually, I wake up and roll over. And go back to sleep.
It starts at the beginning of my sleep cycle. I usually start to fall asleep on one side (I only sleep on my side(s)) and then, just as I'm drifting off, I turn to the other side. I have no idea why this happens, but it happens just about every night.
Sometimes I consciously switch sides. Or perhaps semiconsciously would be the better term. Maybe I'm in a strange position on the one side, and a body part is uncomfortable. I usually sleep in a pretty classic fetal position, legs bent to almost 90 degrees and at 110 degrees from the rest of my body (that is, more than 90 degrees from my torso but less than straight). But sometimes, I turn further toward the mattress, so that I'm almost on my stomach except my torso and head. That's a pretty big twist in waist and hips. Depending on how much yoga or other exercise I've been getting, that position sometimes becomes less comfortable. When it does, I rarely just pull my legs up into the more fetal position. Instead, I roll over.
The other time I semiconsciously roll over is for bad dreams. If I'm having a bad dream - and I dream a lot - then I will "wake" myself up and turn over. Most of the time, that changes my dream focus enough that I will not continue the dream on the other side. Not always, but most of the time. If the dream involves something that's really bothering me - a work problem I'm trying to fix - I will sometimes have to roll over several times to "shake it".
Some people have called this kind of sleeping tossing and turning. Somehow that image implies a more frantic state than I am usually in. I prefer the term switching sides.
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