Chiropractor For Better Sleep in West Omaha, NE

Consultation and Specific Chiropractic Care

Most new patients don’t acknowledge their poor sleep quality on their first visit. When patients mention their sleep issues on a first visit, they consider it a side effect of other health concerns. For example, the patient may have trouble falling asleep because their back pain makes it difficult to find a comfortable sleeping position. Even when sleep isn’t a primary reason for seeking chiropractic care, many patients who start care in our office report experiencing improved quality of sleep.

Regardless of a patient’s primary reason for visiting our office, it is vital to assess the position of the bones in the spine. If there is a spinal misalignment, one or more vertebrae could be putting endangering pressure on the nerves exiting the spinal cord in those areas, interfering with the body’s ability to function optimally.

Posture and sleep positions are essential pieces of the puzzle when performing spinal assessments. When a misalignment is present in the spine, it compromises the body’s ability to relax. This can trigger poor sleep posture, increased tension, and an inability to get comfortable. If the results of an initial exam show that misalignments are present in your spine, chiropractic adjustments correct your spinal position and relieve the stress on the nerves. These adjustments can help ease tension and encourage blood flow, allowing muscles to relax and making it easier to fall asleep.

Therapeutic Exercises

Before you go to sleep, it is good to get your body into a more relaxed state. Simple exercises or stretches can help relieve tension from the day’s stressors. Here are three easy ways to begin the relaxation process when going to bed:

1. Shoulder Reset—relieve tension in the shoulder area to relax and prepare for sleep. While sitting on the edge of your bed, lift your shoulders toward your ears and hold for ten counts. Then, while keeping your shoulders raised, pull them back (activating your upper back muscles) for ten counts. Then lower to reset.
2. Side by Sides—relieve tension in the lower back and focus on your breathing to prepare yourself for sleep. Lay on your back with your knees bent and feet flat. Breathe in as you lower both legs to one side. Breathe out as you raise them. Lower your legs ten times in both directions while focusing on breathing deeply.
3. Spreaders—this exercise focuses on your hip girdle and lower back. While laying on your back, bend your knees and keep your feet flat. As the title states, you will spread your knees & legs out and then back in like butterfly wings. Breathe in as your legs spread apart, and breathe out as your legs come together, repeating ten times.

Optimal Sleep Positions

Sleeping positions can play a significant role in getting quality sleep and simultaneously protecting your spine and nervous system. It is best to consult with your chiropractor about what is best for your spine, but here are some basics:

1. Stomach Sleeping—This is generally not recommended as it does not support your spine.
2. Side Sleeping—It is best to keep your spine as neutral as possible. This means you don’t want your head and neck angled down or propped up too much. Try finding a pillow that fits your body size to create as neutral an alignment as possible. You can also add a small pillow or blanket between your legs and knees to create a neutral lower spine. By choosing a sleeping position that promotes a neutral spine, you are reducing the tension and stress in the body, which could provide better quality sleep.
3. Back Sleeping—This position typically provides the most support for your spine. When sleeping on your back, you need to consider your pillow size. Using a large pillow will prop your head, causing endangering stress at the base of your neck and potentially interfering with your sleep. Using a smaller pillow (or no pillow!) allows your spine to fall into its natural position, reducing tension in the body and promoting better quality sleep.

Sleep Apnea

Sleep apnea is when sleep is interrupted due to breathing rhythms starting and stopping, resulting in low oxygen levels. Other conditions commonly experienced by people with sleep apnea include morning headaches, difficulty concentrating, excessive daytime sleepiness, and trouble staying asleep. Addressing your sleeping and spinal positions can help relieve sleep apnea. In addition, better sleep allows the body to build and repair better, helping you become healthier. An initial assessment with a chiropractor can include sleep and spinal position assessments.

Insomnia

Insomnia occurs when you have trouble falling asleep, staying asleep, or getting quality sleep. Often, people with insomnia suffer from other sleep-interfering symptoms like headaches, migraines, or sleep apnea. Healing and repair happen in the body during deep sleep, so if you continue to suffer from insomnia, you are not getting as much time for your body to perform these vital functions. As with the other causes of poor sleep, interference in the spine and nervous system can be the root cause of insomnia. Getting checked by a chiropractor and receiving adjustments can help alleviate insomnia and allow the body to heal and repair.

Stress

We deal with stressors every day. Stress lurks around each corner. While there are emotional and environmental stressors in life, chiropractors primarily focus on the physical or mechanical stressors that might be happening in your body. These stressors, also known as misalignments or subluxations of the spine, increase tension in your body and make it difficult to relax or sleep.

You may have noticed that all of these causes are interrelated. A person often suffers from many of these symptoms when experiencing poor sleep. And as you look at each symptom, you notice a common thread as a potential cause: misalignments of the spine. Because of this, anyone suffering from poor sleep would be wise to have their spine and nervous system checked by a chiropractor.

Back Pain

It is hard to sleep when you are uncomfortable or in pain. While over-the-counter medications can help resolve the immediate discomfort, pain usually returns as soon as the medication wears off. If there are misalignments in the spine, they put pressure on the nerves, causing that pain. By correcting those misalignments, you are not only going to reduce your back pain but increase your quality of sleep.

Headaches

Headache sufferers often report having interrupted sleep. In fact, individuals who report migraines as a health struggle are also very likely to experience insomnia and obstructive sleep apnea. Environmental stress can cause headaches, but physical and mechanical stress is more often the root cause. Dysfunction in your spine, nerve irritation, and tight muscles that may be causing headaches can also be the cause of poor sleep.

Spinal misalignments are often found to be the root cause of these issues. When a patient receives a series of adjustments to correct their misalignments (subluxations), the correction reduces the stress on the nervous system and allows the body to heal. As a result, patients will report better sleep, in addition to reduction of other symptoms.