Sleep Soundly

I had someone come into the office without physical complaints, but rather to be checked to see if something was going on with his nervous system that would keep him from sleeping.  He reported to me that he had not slept normally in over a year!  This case alerted me to what a big problem insomnia and other sleep disorders are to people and how important it is to have some strategies to get the necessary rest for proper health.

Nearly two-thirds of Americans suffer from occasional sleeplessness.  Of those polled, 40% said they wake throughout the night and more 25% reported that they don’t fall asleep or wake too early.  Improper sleep causes numerous problems including poor memory, confusion, poor immune function and healing response, increased stress response, low mental and physical energy, difficulty losing weight, coordination problems, moodiness, depression, and hormonal imbalances amongst other things.  A recent study showed that just one night of low sleep reduced your ability to function the next day by 30%. 

Barring those who have breathing problems, sleeping problems are almost always related to hormonal imbalances as a result of chronic stress.  As I’ve said numerous times, stress is a learned response.  We experience stress, and then we practice it until we get really good at it.  By this time, adrenal, thyroid and pituitary hormones are out of whack and the brain begins to respond in a manner of stress physiology.  Within a stress response, lack of sleep is perfectly normal.  When this is the case, the only way to increase sleep is to decrease the stress.  Exercise is very important for this, but 10 minutes of meditation per day is what I have found to be the most effective.  Eliminating caffeine, nicotine, sugar and white flour from the diet can be very important for some people as well.  I also advocate the habit of writing in a gratitude journal right before bed.  You cannot be in a state of gratitude and stress at the same time.  If you’re waking at the same time every night about 4-5 hours after you go to bed, this is a sign of liver toxicity and a detoxification can be enormously helpful.  Eating foods high in tryptophan such as turkey or consuming something with fat in it like milk or cheese can be helpful before bed.  When all these suggestions fail, I recommend supplementing with melatonin. This is a chemical released in the brain to stimulate sleep, but it gets out of balance due to stress and irregular sleep habits.  Melatonin will not make you drowsy the next day and many times it only needs to be taken for a short while. Benesom, from Metagenics, is a sleep supplement we carry that has melatonin as an active ingredient. In addition to melatonin, CBD oil has been shown to improve sleep. For more information on CBD oil, please contact our office.

Either way, adequate and sound sleep is critical for health.  If you’re one of the two-thirds of Americans that suffer, try some of these strategies to break the cycle.  As for the young man who came to the office, fortunately for him, after just a couple easy adjustments to remove pressure off the nerves in his upper neck, he is sleeping soundly.