Sleep Health



Dr. Llana Call Smith

Sleep…. Wonderful when it’s good and massively disruptive when it’s not!  Sleep is one of those necessities in life.  You must have it to have good health but many people have a problem with sleep.

Sleep issues can be grouped into four main categories.
1.      Problems with falling asleep and staying asleep, also called insomnia.  Common causes are physical illness, stress, anxiety, depression, drugs/medications, and poor sleep environment.
2.      Problems staying awake, also called hypersomnia.  Examples include narcolepsy, sleep apnea and restless leg syndrome.  All of these can result in daytime fatigue.
3.      Problems with sticking to a regular sleep schedule.  Traveling and shift work make this a big issue.
4.      Unusual behaviors during sleep such as sleep terrors and sleep walking.

Even though more than 100 different disorders of sleeping and waking have been identified, there are several things that can be done to help bring sweet, restful sleep back.

1.      Include keeping regular sleep habits.  I strongly discourage night time shift work as this can really affect your health and hormones.  If you simply have to right now, do the best you can and work to get out of that situation as fast as you can.
2.      Make sure your sleep environment is conducive to good sleep.  Generally the room should be quite, cool (not cold) and dark.  You can always put on a blanket if you get too cool.  Use a sleep mask to make it even darker for your sleep.  Women, lights pouring in from the street can affect your hormones and monthly cycle.  Our cycles should change with the moon.  You can encourage this by sleeping with a mask each night except right around ovulation where light will mimic the light from a full moon.
3.      Regular exercise is always recommended.  You don’t have to do marathon training, just get moving.  Walking is a great exercise.  Try to do your exercise earlier in the day so that you are working with your natural body rhythm.  Things should be winding down by evening and strenuous exercise in the evening isn’t a good part of winding down.
4.       Good foods!  Make sure you are feeding your body the foods it runs well on.  Plenty of veggies, nuts and seeds, protein, and moderate fruits.  Keep processed foods to a minimum.
5.      Don’t forget the power of natural healthcare!  Chiropractic care can be extremely helpful in restoring restful sleep.  Physical pain can interrupt sleep and so can nerve interference, both things that chiropractic care can help with. 
6.      Treat the unexpected!  While physical pains can interrupt sleep, so can the pains you thought were gone.  Let me explain…a head injury hurts and then can get better.  BUT the brain may have sustained some damage and will often manifest in sleep issues (most commonly insomnia or hypersomnia).  When that happens the body is unable to heal and recover and even if you get sleep, it may not be fully restorative and you’ll be tired.  Nutrition Response Testing really shines when it comes to issues like this.  Other organs can also have a similar effect on the body and its ability to heal.  Handling the issues that come up in a nutrition analysis has repeatedly shown to help restore sleep.

Healing takes place at night while you sleep.  If something is interfering with that sleep you will have health issues that persist and eventually worsen.  If you don’t sleep well, you wake unrefreshed and will be less than your best that day and likely days to come.  Use the tips above to help restore balance and if you have any concern about sleep that is not being addressed, please let me know!  (I know what it is like to deal with this issue firsthand!)


Did you like this article?  Do you have a question or topic that you would like to have Dr. Smith cover? Please let her know! Comment below.

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