Lifetime Wellness Strategy: How to Get Better Sleep

As someone who really struggles when I don't sleep enough or very well, I am always on the lookout for ways to improve the quality of my sleep.

In my experience as a Kanata Chiropractor, when people think about improving their health and creating Lifetime Wellness, they always consider diet and exercise first; quality and quantity of sleep is rarely considered. Six to eight hours of sleep per night seems to be optimum for most adults, and both too much and too little can have significant adverse effects on your health. Sleep deprivation is such a chronic condition these days that most people don't even realize that they suffer from it.

Inadequate sleep results in excess secretion of cortisol, the stress hormone, which leads to insulin resistance, fat accumulation, and systemic inflammation. Interrupted or impaired sleep can also dramatically weaken your immune system, accelerate tumor growth, cause a pre-diabetic state, and impair your memory and performance on physical or mental tasks decreasing your problem solving ability. Studies have also shown that people who sleep poorly receive fewer promotions, earn less, miss more days of work, and have decreased productivity.

Whether you have difficulty falling asleep, you wake up too often, or you don't feel rested when you wake up in the morning you are bound to find some of the following tips and tricks helpful.

Get adjusted regularly. Normal sleep requires your nervous system to deactivate certain centers in your brain to initiate deep sleep. Subluxations can prevent this shut down process from occurring. Sensory input from painful joints and muscles may also keep your nervous system from properly shutting down at night.
Sleep in complete darkness. I've always known that sleeping with even the tiniest bit of light in the room can disrupt your internal clock and your pineal gland's production of melatonin and serotonin and ultimately affect the quality of sleep. However, in a recent study researchers also found that the sleeping in anything other than complete darkness may lead to depression.
Keep the temperature in your bedroom no higher than 21 degrees Celsius. Studies show that the optimal room temperature for sleep is optimal room temperature for sleep is quite cool between 16 to 20 degrees.
Check your bedroom for electro-magnetic fields (EMF's). These can disrupt the pineal gland and the production of melatonin and serotonin, and may have other negative effects as well.
Move alarm clocks and other electrical devices away from your bed. If you have to use an alarm clock, keep it as far away from your bed as possible. Make sure that the clock is out of view.
Avoid using loud alarm clocks. It is very stressful on your body to be suddenly jolted awake.
Reserve your bed for sleeping. If you are used to watching TV or doing work in bed, you may find it harder to relax and drift off to sleep.
Consider separate bedrooms. Recent studies suggest, for many people, sharing a bed with a partner or pets can significantly impair sleep, especially if the partner is a restless sleeper or snores.
Get to bed as early as possible. Your body does a majority of its recharging between the hours of 11 p.m. and 1 a.m. Prior to the widespread use of electricity, people would go to bed shortly after sundown, as most animals do, and which nature intended for humans as well.
Don't change your bedtime. You should go to bed and wake up at the same times each day, even on the weekends. This will help your body to get into a sleep rhythm and make it easier to fall asleep and get up in the morning.
Establish a bedtime routine. The key is to find something that makes you feel relaxed (i.e. meditation, deep breathing, listen to relaxation CD's), then repeat it each night to help you release the tensions of the day.
Go to the bathroom right before bed. This will reduce the chances that you'll wake up to go in the middle of the night.
Stay away from grains and refined sugars before bed. They will raise your blood sugar and delay sleep. Later, when blood sugar drops too low (hypoglycemia), you may wake up and be unable to fall back asleep.
Put your work away at least one hour before bed. This will give your mind a chance to unwind so you can go to sleep feeling calm, not hyped up or anxious about what's to come tomorrow.
No TV right before bed. It's too stimulating to the brain, preventing you from falling asleep quickly.
Start journaling. If you often lay in bed with your mind racing, it might be helpful to keep a journal or a grateful log and write down your thoughts before bed.
Reduce or avoid as many drugs as possible. Many drugs including both prescription and over the counter can affect the quality of your sleep.
Avoid caffeine. At least one study has shown that, in some people, caffeine is not metabolized efficiently, leaving you feeling its effects long after consumption. Even an afternoon cup of coffee or tea may keep some people from falling asleep at night.
Avoid alcohol. Although alcohol will make you feel drowsy initially, the effect is short lived and you will often wake up several hours later, unable to fall back asleep. Alcohol will also keep you from entering the deeper stages of sleep, where your body does most of its healing.
Exercise regularly. Our bodies require 1 hour of exercise every day. However, don't exercise too close to bedtime or it may keep you awake. Studies show exercising in the morning is the best if you can manage it.
Lose excess weight. Being overweight can increase your risk of sleep apnea, which can seriously impair your sleep.
Avoid foods you may be sensitive to. This is particularly true for sugar, grains, and pasteurized dairy. Sensitivity reactions can cause excess congestion, gastrointestinal upset, bloating and gas, and other problems.

Sweet Dreams!

Dr. Michael Gibson is a Kanata chiropractor and the clinic director of The Wellness Group, a multidisciplinary health facility and the creator of Lifetime Wellness. He currently practices chiropractic in Kanata full time with a focus on educating and empowering his practice members to achieve abundant health and maximum quality of life. For more lifetime wellness strategies please visit:

http://www.lifetimewellness.org
http://www.mykanatachiropractor.com

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Causes and Complications of Chronic Pain - Adult Health and Wellness

Often called 'the fifth vital sign,' pain is as important as temperature, pulse, respiration, and blood pressure as a key indicator of a patient's medical status. The longer we live, the more likely it is that we will eventually experience some type of injury or disease that results in temporary or even chronic pain. Surgeries become more frequent, both elective and those deemed vital to our survival and well-being. Injury and surgery leads to scar tissue that may cause lingering pain, mar our outer appearance, and diminish certain movement capabilities. Many of us also take a variety of pharmaceuticals and/or recreational drugs to delay some disease process or to alleviate symptoms of chronic physical or emotional pain. These drugs, even properly prescribed prescription drugs, may sometimes exacerbate the problems and even create new unexpected painful side effects.

Sometimes, continuing to take pain medication actually perpetuates the pain when the medication is stopped or increased doses may be required to maintain the same effect. With body therapy, on the other hand, over a period of time, fewer and fewer treatments may be required because the body cells remember the sensations of neuromuscular letting go and previously over stimulated nerve receptor cells begin to quiet down.

Causes of Pain

A popular belief, even among medical professionals, is that the most common cause for pain is a pinched nerve. According to this belief, there are three types of pain:

*Nocioception - immediate, protective pain

*Inflammatory - local cellular damage

*Neuropathic - one or more nerves are affected, delayed in onset, becomes chronic pain, requires physical input to heal the injury...and is radiculopathic (nerve root impingement causing weakness, numbness, and difficulty controlling certain muscles)

Chronic pain is believed to be caused by shortened (contracted) muscles resulting from neuropathy and radiculopathy. This theory is based upon Cannon's 1949 Law of Dennervation Supersensitivity which states: "Any measure (such as a nerve impingement caused by radiculopathy) which blocks the flow of motor impulses and deprives an organ or tissue of excitatory input (motor impulses) for a period of time, will cause abnormal functioning (called 'disuse sensitivity') in the receptor organ or tissue.

Recent research, using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI's), has demonstrated that no matter how much a normal functioning spine is compressed or twisted, there is ample room in the space between the vertebrae for free movement of the nerve. Researchers are now suggesting that much of the pain may be caused by sensory receptor overload from postural imbalances. Through a process called "sensitization," a pattern may be set up in the body in which hyperexcited receptors feeding the central nervous system cause the brain to send signals to twist and torque the body to avoid pain.

The pain generating stimulus must be interrupted until the memory in the nerve cells has been forgotten. For many chronic pain cases, deep tissue therapy a few times every week can help these hyperexcited receptors feeding the central nervous system to quiet down and the sensation of pain to dissipate and even disappear.

Deconditioning Complications of Chronic Pain

Any part of the body that has severe and chronic pain will discontinue normal, symmetric, coordinated movement, and the person with pain will simply self-splint, immobilize, and decondition the area. Muscles, nerves and joints weaken and deteriorate leading to muscle atrophy, neuropathy, contracture, decreased movement, and gradual weight gain. To compensate for a weak, painful area, joints, nerves and muscles in other parts of the body will work overtime, leading to "overload and overuse syndrome.

Hormonal Complications of Chronic Pain

Chronic pain is a potent stressor that may affect every endocrine system in the body. Initially, the pain causes an excess of stress hormones (catecholamines and glucocorticoids) to help the body control pain and prevent damage. However, this excess may trigger hypertension and tachycardia, sometimes leading to cardiovascular death.

If severe pain continues and is not controlled, adrenal exhaustion and decreased stress hormone levels may result. The fluctuation between excess and deficient glucocorticoids, often called Cushing and Addison syndromes respectively, can lead to many severe symptoms, including: mental deficiencies, muscle weakness, edema, osteoporosis, diabetes, forming stones, tooth decay, and even testosterone deficiency. A further effect of pain and lowered levels of important hormones is a compromised immune system, lowered resistance to infections and slower healing of wounds when injured.

Neuropathic Complications of Chronic Pain

Persistent pain causes excess electrical activity in peripheral nerves, spinal cord and brain. This 'hot wire' effect appears to cause nerve tissue damage in the spine as well as the brain, which can lead to dementail and other organic brain problems.

Cardiovascular Effects of Chronic Pain

Pain increases blood pressure. This is not such a problem for a person with a normally low to average blood pressure. But for a person suffering from hypertension and high blood pressure, the increased blood pressure resulting from the body's pain response can lead to a more serious heart problem such as a stroke or aneurysm.

Pain, especially as we age, should not be taken lightly. There are all sorts of medications available to decrease the level of pain. And when needed, pain medication can literally save lives. But for chronic pain, there are so many diet, exercise and body therapy prescriptions that can not only be life saving but can transform the quality of a person's life.

Dr. Erica Goodstone has helped thousands of men, women, couples, and groups to develop greater awareness of the issues in their relationships and their lives, to overcome and alleviate stressors and discords, and revitalize their relationships and their own mind-body-spirit connection. Dr. Goodstone can be contacted through her web site at http://www.DrEricaWellness.com

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