How can sleep aid recovery?

Getting a good night’s rest is essential for your well-being. It can improve your mood, increase your productivity and concentration, and stop you from feeling run down. Beyond that, sleep is even more beneficial than you might think. Sleep is a key factor in the process of injury recovery. Falling into a deep sleep will see your muscles enjoy increased blood flow which provides more oxygen and nutrients to your inury. This works to regenerate cells and help damaged muscles, bones or tendons to repair naturally.

The quality of our sleep has an impact also. In deep sleep, also known as rapid eye movement sleep (REM), is where most of our healing and physical growth occurs, as the body produces complex proteins and releases growth hormones. The catch 22 is that if we are suffering from a physical injury, how do we ensure we get enough REM sleep to recover? That’s where our physiotherapists come in.

Our team of physios in Auckland are incredibly knowledgeable about the ways to improve rest organically, starting with some tips we’ll provide further down. The best way to improve your sleep if suffering from an injury or chronic pain, however, is to book an appointment with us today. Using a hands-on approach, we treat not only the pain but also the cause of the pain. Some techniques we use are:

• Soft tissue release
• Joint mobilisations and manipulations
• Strengthening and stretching exercises

For pain relief, a holistic approach may be best by incorporating various forms of treatment such as acupuncture and massage therapy as they assess your injury, put together a treatment plan and manage you back to pre-injury activity levels. Treating your pain can improve your sleep and improving your sleep can treat your pain but without expert physios, neglecting both can be detrimental to your long-term health. Until you book a physio appointment try to sleep in a position that doesn’t further aggravate your injury, on a mattress that promotes comfortable rest and recovery. Here are some ways to get 8 hours of sleep per day:

• Exercise for 20 minutes per day
• Stay hydrated
• Avoid caffeine, sugar and alcohol before bed. Alcohol may help you fall asleep but it prevents you from having a good quality sleep.
• Create a routine. Get up at the same time each day and go to bed at the same time each day. Your body will slowly fall more and more into this constant routine.
• Avoid napping during the day.
• Stay off your phone, laptop and television for 2 hours before sleep. Try reading instead.

Book an appointment today to help your recovery.