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Did you know that sleep quality and pain are more related than you might have thought? Disruption and reduced levels of sleep have been proven to cause changes in the body’s stress responses, inflammation levels, and pain sensitivity. Recent studies done in America have suggested the average person with chronic pain accrues over 40-50 minutes of sleep debt each night. That may not seem like much, but it adds up to more than 5 hours of lost sleep every week. If adequate sleep is important for helping manage our pain levels, but sometimes it’s our pain that causes our lack of rest and sleep, you might be wondering how to break this nasty cycle. Here are some tips below that can help you get a better night’s rest moving forward.
Establishing a Regular Sleep Schedule
Our body has an internal clock based on our 24-hour days, called a circadian rhythm. If we wake up at different hours each day, it affects our rhythm and leaves us feeling tired even when we may have got 7-8 hours of sleep. It’s essential to establish a consistent sleep and waking time every day, with fluctuations of no more than an hour. Pick your desired sleep times and gradually adjust your schedule by 15-30 minutes each day until you reach your desired sleeping hours. Consistency is the key here to helping achieve better sleep quality.
Evaluate Your Bed Set Up
Having the right pillow and mattress can make all the difference in sleep comfort. There is no exact right mattress for everyone. It depends on your size, weight, age, sleeping position and physical/medical history. It can be tempting to buy the cheap online mattresses but it’s always worth your time to trial mattresses before you buy and talk to the experts. Similarly, selecting the right pillow can help with pains in our neck and spine. While everyone has different preferences, the best overall recommendation is a pillow that keeps your spine and neck in proper alignment, preventing any increased load on certain structures.
Improving Your Bedroom Environment
Create an environment in the bedroom that promotes relaxation and sleep. Research suggests a cooler environment between 15-20 degrees Celsius promotes better rest. In addition, optimise your lighting to create adequate darkness. Certain sleep hormones are much better secreted in the dark. Consider installing blackout curtains and dim lighting only before bed. Avoid bright lighting and screen time on devices such as television/phones. Blue light from the screens on our gadgets suppresses our sleep hormones and disrupts our body’s natural sleep pattern.
Reduce Caffeine and Alcohol Intake
Chemical stimulants found in coffee, caffeinated beverages and sugary foods will heighten our alertness and make it harder to fall asleep. Limiting our intake of such food products, especially in the later hours of the da,y helps our body settle into relaxation mode. Alcohol, while initially serving as a sedative, often interrupts our sleep in the later hours of the night. Switch to alternatives such as water or herbal tea before bedtime.
Relaxation Techniques
Sometimes we struggle to sleep as our mind wanders before bed. Practices such as meditation, mindfulness, deep breathing exercises, yoga, and progressive muscle relaxation have all been proven helpful to de-clutter that brain before bedtime, making it easier to drift off. When built into a routine, our body starts to realise that when we perform these actions, it’s time to rest and associates these relaxation techniques with the desire to sleep.
Exercise Regularly
If you’ve ever had a busy day out hiking, playing sports, or going for a long walk, you’ll know how good it feels to hit the bed at the end of the day. Exercise helps tire our body out and make falling to sleep all that much easier. As well as this, it’s proven to help reduce stress, anxiety, and depression. Do be careful not to exercise right before bed as this can disrupt sleep. Aim to exercise at least several hours before bed and choose something enjoyable that helps your mind unwind.
So now that you know what to do, go out there and put the rest to the test.
Harrison
Registered Senior Physiotherapist