Tossing and Turning

American’s spend upwards of 2 billion dollars on sleep medications each year. However, sleep is supposed to be a natural process! If you find yourself tossing and turning, here are some helpful hints to aid you in falling asleep faster and staying asleep longer.

First, avoid fatty foods and snacks just before bed. While you curl up in the covers to sleep, your digestive system is coming to life in order to digest the food you have just consumed. For many, this makes it difficult to fall asleep as the body is required to do extra work while it should be resting. Also, the consumption of foods at night when you are about to rest makes it more likely that the fat will be stored within the body, increasing weight gain.

Next…and you knew it was coming, is exercise. A body that has been involved in physical activity needs to rest. That rest comes in the form of sleep, so a daily round of physical activity can help drive the body towards proper sleep patterns. As you sleep, the body repairs and strengthens from your daily activities. Without daily physical activity, the body is less apt to need the same amount of recovery, making it more difficult to fall asleep and leaving you tossing and turning in the sheets.

Speaking of sheets, it is vitally important that your mattress is providing the support you need for a peaceful slumber. Whether a mattress is old and lumpy, or just overly firm, lack of proper support will leave you tired and aching in the morning. A proper mattress should be providing you support in all the right places and should never leave you sagging, sore, or uncomfortable.

Finally, chiropractic care may offer you valuable solutions to your sleep issues. A chiropractor can analyze your spine for subluxations and apply gentle adjustments to take the pressure off your spinal nerves. In between each of the 24 bones in your spine are small holes where nerves exit. If a bone has moved out of place due to physical or mental stress (a subluxation), it can put undue stress on your nerves and limit the electrical messages that are being communicated from the brain to the body, and vice versa. An integral part of sleep is the communication happening in your brain and body for certain systems to shut down at the right time for rest. If these systems can communicate at an optimal level, restful sleep can be achieved and maintained.

Through these ideas, a more peaceful and restful night’s sleep should be just around the corner without the need for medications!