I've read this thread twice and I'm a little bit confused ...
First: what does "10 o'clock" mean? If you mean "more than 90? to one side" then you are a very mobile person. About 90? to one side (9 o'clock) would be quite normal. BUT: we in the "older" catagory do not have such mobility anymore (at leat physical
). So the over 40 y-olds move only to about "half past 8". How to compensate? bear with me.
Second: when a person can't rotate enough he "tilts" his head by extending (moving backwards) his cervical spine and also compensates by rotating his thoracic spine, that's quite normal. What to do about that? Have your neck treated? Well, as long as nothing hurts I wouldn't. Let sleeping dogs lie. Over 40 it's normal to get a little stiffer. In your joints, that is.
Try to "stretch" your joints? Hm. That's an interesting concept and an item very much debated with us physios... If you want to stretch collagen (the stuff that makes up your ligaments and joint capsula) you have to "stretch your joints" about 10 times every hour. Stretch once and leave it for 24 hrs and you're back to where you began... frustrating ...
The thing about your prefered rotation direction is a bit of a tricky one. The official explanation is quite complicated: the rotation direction you prefer (be it neck, thoracic spine or lumbar) is dictated by the centre of gravity in your head, thorax or pelvis. You can't change that.
Try this: how do you hold a shovel? How do you clap your hands? How do you cross your arms? There is allways one way you prefer to do this, depending on the relevent positions of the centers of gravity and not with being right or left handed. Even the dominancy of your eyes depends on the center of gravity of your skull.. Nothing to do with how you sleep. You turn your head into a certain position BECAUSE it is you prefered rotation.
Right. Lesson to be learned?
KISS
If your neck rotation to one side isn't enough, simply adjust your position, i.e. the way you stand...
just my 2 cts ... well, make that 4
Greets,
Pieter
(physio, manipulative physio, teacher, archer, m.sc.phys.)