A Good to Good Sleep Hygiene

THE specific BLOG

Dr. Chris Collins

Sleep helps with memory retention, decision making, and mood regulation. It has also been linked to lower risk of heart disease and diabetes.

In practice, we have found that the inability to get a good night’s rest is commonly attributed to “sleep hygiene”. Sleep hygiene can be related to your room, lighting, nightly rituals or habits, bed and pillow.

If you do not set the stage for proper sleep, you can find yourself caught in a vicious cycle of feeling bad because you are not sleeping well and not sleeping well because you are feeling bad!

Take these necessary steps to ensure your sleep habits favor healing and recovery:

1. Give yourself time to unwind: It can be difficult for the body to switch off to deep sleep when you have had an active mind and body all day.

Give yourself 20-30 minutes in the evening to practice an activity that doesn’t require screens or active movement. This may be meditation, reading a book, folding laundry, drinking a cup of tea, or tidying up your bedroom.

2. Invest in comfort: I recommend finding the best mattress and pillow combination for your body. We love Sage Sleep products because they are high quality, made of sustainably sourced materials, and have a lot of options for a variety support.

3. Sleep on your back or side and not on your stomach. One way to guide your body into a healthy sleep position is by placing a pillow under your knees when on your back or between your knees when on your side. This will help prevent your body from rolling over in your sleep.

4. Turn off all lights: Screen light can affect the internal clock in our body and raise our cortisol levels which signals the brain cells to be active rather than rest. So turn off the TV and put away the phone. If you like to sleep with white noise, try an air purifier or noise maker, rather than a TV with a light.

5. Eat a Healthy Diet: We see that most people, in spite of their best efforts, are often missing key nutrients in their diet which puts them at a disadvantage when trying to get good rest. Deficiencies in nutrition can complicate recovery by causing more symptoms, slowing the body’s ability to heal, and interrupting sleep patterns! It is important to consider the role of your nutritional state in your recovery.

6. Strength Training: Lifting weights can increase growth hormone (GH) production which helps your brain produce more BDNF – a protein that promotes the formation of new neurons and releases endorphins that will help calm the body before bedtime.

7. Check in with your nervous system. The body and the health of the body is controlled by the nervous system. When the nervous system is under stress it has a hard time functioning properly – including the ability to get a good night’s rest.

Regular checks with your chiropractor can help reduce stress on the nervous system.

At The Specific, we utilize a functional nervous system test at each visit. This helps us measure how much stress your nervous system is experiencing, and it guides us on when it is necessary to adjust the spine.