Better Sleep with Chiropractic Care
Better sleep after starting chiropractic care? We’re not surprised!
Most often, people first visit a chiropractor because they have physical pain like low back pain, neck pain, or headaches. As patients begin treatment, there is one piece of feedback that we tend to hear quite often: their quality of sleep significantly improves. Many are pleasantly surprised, but didn’t realize that there was any correlation between chiropractic care and sleep. So how is it that chiropractic care can affect your sleep quality?
Better sleep, the nervous system & chiropractic
Most people realize that when they come to the chiropractor, the chiropractor is going to be working with their spine. Many people don’t know or consider that the spine houses the spinal cord, a critical part of your nervous system. It controls every tissue, organ and cell in your body. When chiropractors move and stimulate the spine, we directly influence the nervous system.
Areas of dysfunction in the spine, or subluxations, cause irritation on the nervous system. When this happens, a specific part of the nervous system, the sympathetic nervous system, goes into overdrive. This is kind of like having the gas pedal stuck on in your car. Therefore, when you want to relax, wind down and rest, your body has a difficult time doing so. It’s stuck in overdrive and doesn’t have the ability to come down.
When you receive a chiropractic adjustment to restore proper motion and function in the joints around the spine, a different part of your nervous system is stimulated, the parasympathetic nervous system. This part of your nervous system acts as the brake pedal and allows your body to slow down and rest. So, while the reason you come to the chiropractor may have nothing to do with your sleep patterns, a bonus outcome may be increased quality of sleep!
Sleep well!
Dr. Breanna Tivy
Chiropractor – Minnetonka, MN
Learn more on our Importance of Sleep vlog on YouTube.