Sleep problems are no joke. If you’re dealing with weeks of tossing and turning you could, like millions of Americans, be dealing with insomnia. So what is the best way to treat it? You could try and take sleep medications, but they aren’t designed to be taken every night and there is a high risk for dependency. Maybe you’ve tried fixing some of your sleep hygiene habits and are now powering down electronics and avoiding bright lights after sundown, but still, your sleep is just out of whack. Enter, osteopathy.
What is osteopathy?
Osteopathy provides whole-body treatment and care for those patients experiencing a wide range of musculoskeletal complaints. An osteopath is trained to provide therapeutic and hands-on care that pinpoints and treats the root cause of your pain rather than just treating or “masking” your pain through medication. Osteopathic manipulative medicine uses manual therapy and other non-invasive techniques to improve mobility and functionality throughout the entire body while also reducing pain, stiffness, and discomfort.
What does this have to do with sleep?
There are many reasons why someone may not be able to get quality sleep. Everything from stress and anxiety to poor posture and exposure to blue lights can cause chronically poor sleep.
Stress and anxiety are common causes of sleep disturbances, and both can cause dysfunction within the central nervous system, which can mix-up signals in the body that help you sleep.
Misalignments within the vertebrae of the spine also can affect sleep. If you are dealing with chronic insomnia, regular osteopathic manipulative medicine can help to readjust and realign the spine and other areas of the body to improve sleep quality.
An osteopath will perform a thorough examination, asking you various questions about your health, lifestyle, habits, profession, and more. All of these are factors that can greatly impact your sleep. Our goal is to pinpoint the causes of your sleep issues and to provide non-invasive, non-surgical, and drug-free methods to fix these issues. Craniosacral techniques as well as soft tissue massage and visceral manipulation are particularly useful for treating insomnia and sleep disorders.
Are you curious about osteopathy and how it can improve your quality of sleep? If so, schedule an appointment with your osteopath to find out the different techniques and treatments we can offer to help you finally catch those ZZZs.