Your body needs between seven and nine hours of sleep each night, as noted by the National Sleep Foundation. Sleep is the human equivalent of putting yourself on the charger. Basically, it’s a time to give your mind a rest and reset it. Additionally, when you sleep, it provides your muscles with time to repair themselves. At Premier Chiropractic Center, serving Bessemer, AL, and the nearby region, we stress the importance of sleep to our patients and have a few tips to help you get the sleep you need.
Get Enough Physical Activity Each Day
You need enough physical activity each day to use enough energy so you’re tired at night. If not, you might not be tired at night, leading to difficulty falling and staying asleep.
As a general rule, you should strive to get an hours’ worth of aerobic exercise daily. It’s necessary for optimal health and can ensure you’re burning enough energy. Not to mention, it has a number of benefits for your overall health, including reducing the symptoms of anxiety and depression — both of which could be interfering with your sleep.
Do Something Calming Before Bed
Avoid high-energy activities before bed, such as aerobic exercise. You’ll get your blood pumping and will amp up your brain during this time. When you exercise too close to bedtime, you’ll ramp yourself up and make it more difficult to bring yourself back down again to fall asleep. Therefore, you should schedule your exercise time at least a few hours before you plan to go to sleep.
Instead of something energizing, choose a calming activity right before bed, like reading, yoga, or meditation.
Limit Caffeine
Caffeine is mentally stimulating. When you consume it, your body begins converting fatty acids in your blood to energy. This is a process known as lipolysis. This is how the substance gives you energy. As a result, no matter how tired you are at the end of the night, if you consume caffeine too close to bedtime, your body won’t realize it’s time to sleep. Instead, you’ll have energy.
Ideally, you should abstain from caffeine at least four to six hours before you plan to go to sleep.
Practice Deep Breathing When You Can’t Sleep
If you’re having difficulty getting to sleep at night because your mind is racing, try deep breathing exercises. By focusing on your breathing, you can force those thoughts to stop. It may help to count those breaths if you’re struggling to center on your breathing. Not to mention, you stimulate your autonomic nervous system when you’re breathing deeply, and all those deep breaths increase your oxygen intake. Ultimately, this can combat stress.
Have the Right Sleep Setup
Ideally, you should change your mattress every eight to 10 years and make sure you regularly flip it. By switching the side you sleep on, you can extend its life. Your mattress becomes less supportive as it wears out, which could cause you to have back pain that’s interfering with your sleep. When you purchase a new mattress, make sure it’s supportive.
You also need to change your pillow on a regular basis, usually, every one to three years, depending on its composition. For one, this ensures your pillow supports your neck as it should, decreasing the possibility of neck pain that disrupts your sleep.
Get Routine Chiropractic Care
Chiropractic care can help your sleep in a few ways. For instance, during spinal alignments, we improve your circulation and nervous system function. Additionally, pain can hinder your ability to fall asleep and stay asleep. Chiropractic care from Premier Chiropractic Center can alleviate some of this pain as well. Plus, our treatments, even if used as preventative care, can ease muscle tension.
A good night’s sleep is key to optimal health. It can help you to have better mental clarity and help with muscle repair, for starters, in addition to a number of other benefits. Chiropractic care and some lifestyle adjustments assist in you getting the sleep your body needs.
Contact Premier Chiropractic Center, serving Bessemer, AL, and the general vicinity, if you’d like to improve your sleep naturally. Call us at 205-519-4024, or use our contact form to book an appointment.
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