The inability to get sufficient sleep is a much more common problem than most people realize. I initially became aware of this when I was a chiropractic intern. As I took new patients’ health history it became clear that poor sleep/lack of sleep was a problem that many experience. This knowledge was further confirmed when I began studying hypnotherapy. At that point, it was no surprise to me that people were coming in for hypnotherapy sessions to address their sleeping problems and were willing to spend hundreds of dollars to get themselves some relief after being let down by more conventional approaches.
According to the Centers for Disease Control, insufficient sleep not only results in lost productivity at work and increased risk of vehicle accidents but lack of sleep leads to chronic diseases such as hypertension, diabetes, depression, and obesity, as well as cancer, increased mortality, and reduced quality of life.
But you didn’t need me to tell you that not getting enough sleep feels just plain terrible and let’s not ignore the mounting costs of sleep pills along with relying on a coffee-IV drip to power through the day. So with no further delay, here are my top 3 tips:
1. Create Routines and Rituals
You are a rebel. You were born that way and everyone recognizes you for your unpredictability & spontaneity. Whether it’s your spontaneous weekend escapades, your eating patterns or the time you go to sleep, you call the shots… and some of that might be worth reconsidering if you want to relinquish yourself from the demon of sleeplessness.
For starters, you need to set a designated bed time even if some of your friends may crack a few senior jokes. You CAN stay up later during weekends but I leave that to your best judgement. No matter the case, don’t sleep in no matter how late you go to sleep. When you designate a sleep time, you should wake up no later than one hour after that set time, including weekends.
Be sure to dedicate no less than 7 hours a night, the right amount varies from person to person, and if you can’t sleep then keep some reading materials by your bed. If you have a snooze button, then be sure to get an alarm clock that doesn’t have one. Also consider a Wake-Up Light alarm clock. It costs a little more, but you won’t start your day in a state of stress.
2. Designate a light Cutoff Time
Remember those nights when you’ve been in bed for the past 3 hours trying to fall asleep as you flipped through your social media channels on your phone? It didn’t work out too well, did it? Here’s why:
Screens emanate high frequency of light through the visual receptors to the hypothalamus in your brain. This inhibits melatonin production which is the key player to stimulating your Parasympathetic Nervous System (PNS aka “rest and digest mode”). (Side note: taking melatonin capsules to promote sleep is futile if you keep your eyes constantly stimulated by a light from a screen.) When your parasympathetic nervous system isn’t stimulated, your heart rate and breathing won’t slow down and muscles don’t relax which are all important in order to fall asleep.
Suggestion: Turn off or avoid screen lights one hour before turning in, which includes TV, phone, monitors, tablets or anything else of that nature. Read a book or get things ready for the next day in a dimly lit environment.
One last very important part of light cutoff is being able to be in total blackness at night, so if you have a fear of the dark, then it’s time to face your fears!
The brain produces melatonin in the dark and the darker it is, the more melatonin production your pineal gland is going to stimulate. If it’s not dark enough, then you might want to consider black out curtains or a high quality sleep mask. Remember: the best sleep mask will black out everything and not be too tight so as not to occlude blood flow to the scalp.
An alternative to a black out curtain is to use duct tape and black trash bags as covers around the windows and adhesive foam padding around the doors to occlude light. This is less convenient if you’re opening the windows during the day time but, for the sake of looking presentable, you could double layer the bags to black things out completely and use a decorative set of curtains to cover things up.
3. Sleep Aids
If you feel that you still need to add an extra oomph to your new sleep routine, then I suggest you start off with Magnesium tablets/ powder before you invest in any other sleep aid supplement. According to Dr. Paul Mason, 68% of Americans are deficient in magnesium. So, unless you’re going to get an expensive blood test that reveals your nutrient deficiencies, you should give it a try.
Magnesium and Calcium work synergistically to serve as ionic pumps to the muscle. When the body is deficient in magnesium, the muscles are unable to relax and become tense. Trying to sleep with tense muscles makes the sleeping process much more complicated as the body is unable to relax.
Dr. Alejandro Junger, author of Clean Gut, advises that the average person can benefit from taking 200 mg of magnesium right before going to sleep.
If you apply the suggestions described in this article, then you can achieve significant improvement in your sleep patterns and may finally experience relief to a problem that might have been running your life up until this point.
What are some tips you may have about falling asleep easier? We’d love to hear about them in the comments below.
When a new patient comes into our office for care, we do the best we can to evaluate the individual on three levels: Neurological, Spinal and Lifestyle.
