Stretching and the Science of Sleep
Sleep. The blissful and restorative relaxation that brings with it renewed vigor and a zest for life. That is, as long as you can actually get it.
For those dealing with lower back pain, minor disc compression, tight hamstrings, or tight hip flexors, sleep can be quite elusive. Let’s take a moment to look at how all of these muscle groups work together and create the perfect storm for just enough low-level chronic pain that your sleep suffers, and as a result, everything else too.
The midsection of your body, starting just below the ribs and ending just short of your knees, is responsible for bearing most of your weight. It’s where you lift from, where you push or pull from, and contains the most important muscles required for mobility and posture.
Your body communicates using your nervous system. This finely tuned and intricate web spans throughout the body telling things what to do, where to go, what to make more or less of. The casing for the literal back bone of this system is housed inside your vertebrae and cushioned by the discs between them. This casing is of upmost importance because the way your brain talks to everything below it, is through your nervous system. If that network is cut off, or if the hose has a kink, in any way, your nerve endings let you know, by introducing pain.
The pain and aching that you feel is often way more than just sore and tired muscles. It’s a tightness that results in compression which places pressure on your discs and can eventually affect your spinal nerve. Your body is screaming for help way before any permanent damage has even occurred.
So, let me tell you how important it is to fix it NOW rather than later.
Your brain is the operator of an amazing biological machine that, just like your car, has warning lights that go off way before real and irreversible trauma happens. Pain is your nervous system telling you that something is wrong. Taking a pill and telling your nerves to shut up does not mean you are no longer in pain. It means that instead of addressing the engine problem you just smashed the bulb behind the indicator light. The issue is still there you just can’t feel it because you’ve effectively numbed those nerve endings.
Please keep in mind we are talking about a specific area of pain, the lower back, not all pain.
Listening to these warnings can save you years of damage and sometimes even help you avoid major surgery. Having pain to a point where it’s inhibiting your sleep is a major issue. This incredible biological meat suit you walk around in uses sleep for recovery. You do some of your best healing while you rest. Lack of sleep disrupts this process as well as many others. It can cause memory and focus issues, mood swings, a weakened immune system, your risk for high blood pressure and diabetes increases, low libido, poor balance, and many other things. It’s bad for the meat suit.
So what’s the magic sauce to fixing the indicator light instead of breaking the bulb? I’m glad you asked!!! A good starting point is stretching. Specifically, properly sequenced and targeted stretching. Stretching with proper posture and alignment can strengthen the spine and help you decompress all of the pressure built up from tight muscles. When something hurts the natural inclination is to not move that thing. But your needs mobility, lubrication, hydration, and stretching to remedy tightness. Your muscles can get so tight that they start to pull your bones out of alignment! This means that your trip to the chiropractor, even an extremely good one, can often be negated by your bodies own tight muscles.
Opening up the psoas, stretching the hamstrings, hip flexors, quads, lower abdominals, calves, lower back, and groin will allow your body the openness needed to fix things rather than shutting them down. It helps with the health of your gut, heart, endocrine system, lymphatic system, and so much more.
The Bend Class is a workout program (and there’s even a 6 week at home course!) designed around exactly that. Alleviation of pain, tightness, and immobility to help you get your life back! This class was designed around my own personal lower lumbar injury and has helped so many people be able to move, play with their kids, discover their passions, and of course, to sleep.
To sum up, you are designed to move.
You are not designed to sit at a desk, in a chair, or stand in the same position for 8 hours a day. Give your muscles the help that they so desperately need. Give your family, your pets, your significant other, and even yourself the gift of a happier and healthier you. Check out The Bend Class and their offerings at A Better Me Yoga right here in Cookeville! ABetterMeYoga.com
See what suits you and find your bliss by drifting off to beautiful, restorative, and peaceful sleep.