era, today I'm 6 weeks post-op anterior c-7. I was not in bad shape going in, so might not be a good exaple. I had a really hard time finding a comfortable sleep position. I did fall asleep once on my back (with) the brace on, and both hands went dead! that was about one week post op. it was scary, but now I can lay on my back to read with no problems. good luck.