How Chiropractic Care Can Help Your Sleepless Nights
How Chiropractic Care Can Help Your Sleepless Nights
If you’re suffering from a bout of sleeplessness, you’re not alone; the vast majority of adults will experience in-somnia at some point in their lives, although only about 10% of Americans struggle with chronic insomnia.
What you probably did NOT know, is that spinal misa-lignments (subluxations) seem to act as a form of chronic nervous system irritation, often initially painless, which chi-ropractors often find disturbs sleep for weeks or months.
What is insomnia?
Quite simply, insomnia involves a difficulty in falling asleep, staying asleep, or both. So if you regularly find yourself tossing and turning in the wee hours of the night, insomnia is likely to blame. A sleepless night here or there is normal, but if you find yourself going a week or more without a full night’s sleep, and if it’s affecting your health and concentration, it’s time to seek professional help.
What are the symptoms of insomnia?
Not getting enough sleep at night can cause more day-time problems than you might be aware of. Insomnia of any length of time, but particularly episodes lasting several days or weeks, can lead to:
- Trouble remembering details, from mundane to important
- An inability to concentrate on the task at hand
- Decreased coordination
- Irritability and moodiness
- Increased likelihood of a car accident, often due to falling asleep at the wheel
What causes insomnia?
Certain factors can actually help trigger bouts of insom-nia, such as high levels of stress that can bring on short-term insomnia (which, if left untreated, can lead to chronic insomnia, so it’s best to act quickly before it becomes a lasting problem). While people of all ages can experience insomnia, instances tend to get worse with age. People with alcohol addictions and mental health problems com-monly suffer insomnia, as do members of low-income families.
Other common causes include:
- A change in your sleep routine, usually brought on by an unusual working schedule
- An unpleasant sleep environment, with un-comfortable temperatures, extreme noisiness, and/or excessive light
- Serious illness, particularly those that require hospitalization
- The use of certain medications, including those containing stimulants, some over-the-counter asthma medications, and certain prescription drugs used to treat high blood pressure, de-pression, anxiety, and schizophrenia
Determine When to Seek Treatment
The key to knowing when to seek treatment lies in the extent or duration of the insomnia.
If you occasionally find it hard to fall asleep or wake up often during the night but then wake up feeling rested and fully able to function in our daily activities, then you likely don’t have a major sleep problem.
If on the other hand, you find yourself spacing off at work, snapping at your loved ones, or showing any of the other symptoms mentioned above, you’re better off seeking professional help, and the sooner the better.
How Chiropractic Care Can Alleviate Your Sleep Problems Healing
While too many patients don’t tell us about sleep disorders before their sessions, many report improved sleep even after being treated for conditions unrelated to insomnia, so imagine the relief you can feel if you report your sleeplessness to us.
Chiropractic may help you improve sleep by:
- Opening up the airways so you breathe better at night.
- By decreases the pain and restlessness for those suf-fering an illness that keeps you up at night.
- Improved body mechanics, which leads to improve overall functioning of the brain pathways that control sleep.
We can help identify the severity of your insomnia and determine the treatment plan that is just right for you. If you need a sleep study, need to see an ENT or an RT, we’ll help with that too!
Please call us to schedule an evaluation today!