Got Sleep?
• by Dr. Adrian Cohen
Chiropractic Care Helps You Sleep
If you live until you’re 85 years old, you will probably have slept for over 250,000 hours. Your body needs this sleep to replenish your energy levels: lack of it for prolonged periods of time will cause cell and even brain damage, and created psychological problems. Yet, millions of people continue to suffer the ill effects of insomnia.
We all have different sleep rhythms based on our age and individual characteristics, and even though we all require varying amounts of sleep to regenerate our bodies, everyone is bound to his/her own requirements. When the sleep-to-wake ratio is out of balance, mental and physical degeneration will occur. Without essential sleep, the nervous system cannot function efficiently, and a nervous system that is not working properly will contribute to the problem of insomnia.
The “insomnia cycle” is self-perpetuating. The most common reasons for a person’s reduced sleep quality are hypertension and worry, but the resulting lack of sleep will do what? You guessed it – cause more tension and worry. The key is to BREAK THE CYCLE. But how?
Correcting a sleeping disorder may simply require the restoration of normal nerve function. Think about this: you’re sitting at your office desk doing your best to get through the day as the pressure in your shoulders and neck escalates. Repeat your usual routine over and over and what happens? Increased tension. Does your body heal itself or get worse over time? It gets worse. Why? Simply because the body needs an external kick-start towards a healthier state; it doesn’t do it on its own hence why hundreds of millions of people currently suffer from degenerative conditions like arthritis: but I digress…
Your nerves are constantly being suffocated by the joint and muscle tension creating your discomfort. Those same nerves that exit your spinal cord at the level of your neck and upper back regulate stress, anxiety, mood, tension and sleep. It’s no wonder why people walking around with those big tight pressure filled humps (aka Dowager’s Hump) at the base of their necks are typically miserable, stressed-out, short tempered, highly irritable and you guessed it: insomniacs! How can you sleep soundly when something’s irritating your nerves?
Chiropractors – for over 100 years – have been treating, controlling, and even curing nerve interference. This may be a safe and healthy solution to insomnia. Chiropractic (which when translated from Greek literally means to “practice with the hands”) is the #1 health care profession to treat the muscles, joints, and nervous system (on a conservative level) so that it can function optimally. Through corrective and gentle spinal adjustments, a doctor of chiropractic will release nerve energy and thus enable organs and muscles that have been irritated by improper nerve flow to normalize. This helps people overcome and break the “insomnia cycle” and regain restful sleep, since chiropractic adjustments encourage the body to cope with tension and stress.
Lack of sleep, when it is a symptom of an existing problem caused by spinal tension, can be helped by chiropractic. You can enjoy the benefits of healthy, natural sleep without the use of dangerous drugs. Call our office to see how we can help. You’ll learn a lot about your body and will be happy that you called. Remember, chiropractic makes sense: so Get Chiropractical!