(254) 776-1030
People need to get enough sleep regularly. We have all heard that six to eight hours is ideal, which means it must be a continuous six to eight hours each night. If you constantly wake up and fall asleep again throughout the night, you will never reach deep REM sleep and, therefore, will not get the refreshing, healing sleep that stressful lives need.
Many people are shocked to know that chiropractors can help with sleep problems. So, can a chiropractor help you sleep better? Studies have reported that regular chiropractic appointments can help patients fall asleep more easily, stay asleep, and achieve quality and quantity.
Benefits of Quality Sleep
Healthier Heart
While sleeping, your blood pressure falls, allowing your heart to rest and regulate. When you reduce that time, your blood pressure remains elevated for longer within each 24-hour cycle. Eventually, elevated blood pressure may cause heart disease or stroke.
Weight Control
When you don’t get enough sleep, it impacts the hormones in your brain that control hunger. Not sleeping well disrupts these hunger hormones, leading to increased eating and reducing your drive to be active. This combination can contribute to gaining weight. People without enough sleep choose unhealthy, higher-calorie “comfort” foods.
Improved Athletic Ability
A good night’s rest leads to the best performance. Insufficient sleep robs your body of energy and enough time for muscle repair. Not to mention, it taps your motivation to keep on going, whether you are crossing the finish line or adding the incline on a treadmill. Without proper rest, you’ll face harder mental and physical challenges.
Sharper Brain Function
When you don’t have a good night’s rest, it interferes with brain function, including productivity and concentration. It’s more difficult to focus when you are tired and commit new information to memory.
Moreover, without adequate sleep, your brain doesn’t have sufficient time to store memories so you can recall them later on. In essence, your brain requires time to catch up so you’re ready for the next day.
Better Mood
While you sleep, the brain processes your emotions. Adequate sleep lets you hit the reset button, be more positive, and be better prepped to meet the day’s challenges. Once that time is cut short, you often have more negative emotional reactions.
In fact, some studies report an increased risk for mood disorders with chronic lack of sleep.
Balanced Blood Sugar
During your deepest sleep, the blood glucose levels drop. When the body doesn’t have time to rest and reset, it’ll have a harder time responding to the cells’ needs and blood sugar levels. In fact, studies have reported sleep deprivation can lead to prediabetes in healthy adults.
Immune Boost
Chronic lack of sleep can actually shift the way your immune system works and influence your body’s fighting power. Hence, your cells may not react to harmful bacteria and viruses as quickly, causing you to get sick more often.
How Can a Chiropractor Help You Sleep Better?
Chiropractic care is often the solution for back pain and alleviating discomfort from injuries affecting muscles and bones. However, chiropractic adjustments can also assist in treating various health problems, like sleep disorders. Aligning the spine has improved overall body performance, including aiding in relaxation and promoting better sleep.
Assessing Your Body Position
Your posture and sleep are important for your body’s health and your ability to sleep well. If your spine is not aligned correctly, you might adjust your posture in a way that makes it hard for your body to relax. This can lead to more problems with your back and make it difficult to get enough sleep. Also, your chiropractor can check how you sleep to see if your current sleeping position is not helping you sleep well. They suggest trying a different mattress that supports your sleeping position better.
Promote Relaxation And Relieve Stress
Many of us naturally hold tension in our bodies; sometimes, this tension prevents us from falling or staying asleep. Chiropractic treatments help reduce tension inside the body, promote better blood circulation, facilitate muscle relaxation, and aid in achieving more restful sleep. Additionally, they enhance your body’s energy efficiency, making it simpler for your body to unwind by day’s end.
Alleviate Discomfort
Many individuals experience discomfort or pain that stops them from sleeping well at night. Chiropractors use spinal adjustments as a part of their care to naturally relieve pain in multiple ways. First, they encourage blood flow around the body, which delivers nutrients and oxygen to areas that require healing. Second, they encourage our body to produce natural pain-relieving chemicals, controlling the discomfort.
Can Chiropractic Care Treat Sleep Disorders?
Patients with some typical yet serious sleep disorders are also getting relief with the help of ongoing chiropractic care.
Insomnia
This sleep disorder involves trouble falling asleep, staying asleep, and getting adequate rest to feel refreshed. Insomnia may result from psychiatric and medical conditions, unhealthy sleep habits, using certain substances, and certain biological factors. But it’s also important to mention that discomfort can play a role in this situation. As per the National Sleep Foundation, chronic neck and back pain are among the numerous medical conditions that lead to insomnia.
Patients needing assistance dealing with insomnia symptoms must initially undergo a thorough evaluation to pinpoint the cause of their sleep problems. Alongside other treatment methods, chiropractic therapy offers a potential solution for insomnia. Recent studies indicate a connection between insomnia and subluxations. Chiropractors can conduct precise adjustments to fix subluxations or misalignments in the spine. They utilize high-velocity, low-amplitude manipulation (HVLA) to treat areas of joint dysfunction.
This drug-free therapy effectively relieves pain and improves sleep quality. Patients quickly experience reduced pain and feel their muscles relaxing. Doctors also suggest that adjusting subluxations may aid in insomnia treatment by balancing dopamine and serotonin levels in the brain.
Sleep Apnea
The National Sleep Foundation reports that over 22 million Americans have sleep apnea. Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is the most typical form, where soft tissues in the mouth and throat relax during sleep, causing a blockage in the upper airway.
This risky situation leads to brief pauses in breathing, known as apneas, many times per hour while sleeping. These pauses can range from 10 to 20 seconds, resulting in a decrease in blood oxygen levels. When the brain detects decreased blood-oxygen levels, it signals the entire body to resume breathing. Apneas can happen more than 30 times per hour during sleep, preventing a person from getting continuous sleep throughout the night. If not treated, OSA can lead to brain damage due to oxygen deprivation and increase the risk of many other severe health problems.
Chiropractic therapy targets subluxations and misalignments caused by injury, bad posture, or a sedentary lifestyle. It aims to fix misalignments in the neck and upper body that could limit breathing or lead to blockage of the airways. Chiropractors gently massage soft tissues and adjust the spine to ease muscle tension, encourage relaxation, and improve breathing. They may suggest specific breathing techniques to enhance healthy breathing patterns and strengthen the soft tissues responsible for snoring and sleep apnea.
We Are Here For You
Sleep issues are rarely an independent occurrence. Though chiropractors are not sleep experts, chiropractors can correct misalignments that may keep you awake at night while restoring proper nerve function throughout the body to reduce tension or restlessness. They can diagnose and treat misalignments, and chiropractors can offer lifestyle recommendations to help you improve your sleep quality.
Regular chiropractic care can resolve several problems that may prevent you from getting the sleep you need. Contact our office today for more information on how chiropractic care can improve sleep quality.