How Is Your Sleep?

            With all the labor-saving devices of our modern society, somehow we never seem to have more time to sleep.  We just seem to have more activities to fill our time.  Studies have demonstrated that most people do not believe that they get enough sleep.  This, despite the fact that everyone knows that getting the proper rest is essential to health and well being.  It is also interesting that you never hear someone say, “Boy, I’ve been getting too much sleep lately, I need to cut back.”  They may say that about exercise or eating but never sleep.  In fact, if a person continually gets a great amount of sleep they usually still do not feel rested and the conclusion often is that there is something physically wrong with them!

            So how much sleep does the average person need?  Actually, no one cares what the average person needs.  Everyone really wants to know how much they need, and frankly, no one can tell you that.  The amount each individual needs is an individual thing.  It varies from person to person, and also from day to day depending upon physical and mental activity, as well as physiological changes taking place in your body on a given day and the general stress level in your life.  If no one can know how much we need, how can we know what is the necessary amount of sleep?

            The answer lies in listening to our bodies.  Our bodies tell us when we are tired, when we need to go to bed and get some sleep.  In a similar manner, we can know when we have gotten enough sleep, that is when we wake up refreshed and feel like we have more energy.  We do not get drowsy during the course of the day and when we finally go to sleep at night, we quickly fall into a deep restful sleep.  That is the way it should be, and for many people life is like that.  These are the people whose bodies are working as they should.  Their body is producing the right chemicals in the right amount for them to get a restful sleep and to wake up refreshed.  We know chemicals make us sleep and keep us awake.  After all, people take chemicals in the form of drugs to go to sleep or stay awake.  The problem is that it is not the natural way.  The body is not producing those chemicals and as a result, they have to have harmful side-effects.

            How well your body is producing “sleep chemicals” and “awake chemicals” is a function of your innate wisdom and the nerve system which directs the production of those chemicals.  How quickly and how deeply you fall asleep is also a direct function of your nerve system.  When there is an interference in the nerve system due to a vertebral subluxation, your body just cannot function as it should and the sleep-regulating system, as well as every other system in your body is negatively affected.  By checking your spine regularly, your chiropractor can correct these subluxations as soon after they occur as possible.  This results in a minimum of nerve interference to the sleep-regulating mechanism.  As a result, your body works better.  You may be able to get to sleep sooner, get to a deeper, more restful sleep and awaken refreshed.  Chiropractic adjustments cannot provide more hours of sleep time in your day but it can make the hours that you do sleep more productive, more refreshing and more restorative and that may be even better than having more time to sleep.

By checking your spine regularly, your chiropractor can correct these subluxations as soon after they occur as possible.