Frome Valley Osteopaths

So sleep, we all do it, for some it’s a pleasure, getting cosy and drifting off into dream land, and for some it’s a struggle, to turn our brains off enough to fall asleep and stay asleep. I was wide awake from 4-5.30 am this morning!

Firstly, what is sleep health and how much sleep do we need? Sleep health is a multidimensional pattern of sleep-wakefulness, adapted to individual, social, and environmental demands, that promotes physical and mental well-being. The guidelines for the UK suggest that children need 9-13 hours of sleep per night and adults need 7-9 hours.

Sleep is extremely important, particularly for brain function, including how nerve cells (neurons) communicate with each other. Our bodies and brains remain remarkably active while we sleep. Research has found that sleep plays a house keeping role in removing toxins from our brains that accumulate while we are awake through the Glymphatic system.

Sleep is also important for memory and learning, energy conservation, immune function, metabolism and emotional regulation. For these reasons sleep can have a big impact on our long term health.

For athletes increased sleep duration and quality is associated with improved athletic performance and may also reduce the risk of illness and injury.

Evidence suggests that for people with chronic pain, sleep impairments can predict an exacerbation of symptoms.

Common reasons for not sleeping include stress, loss, lifestyle factors, poor sleep environment, physical and mental health problems, pain, medication and sleep disorders.

We all know there will be times in life e.g. if you have young children, when our sleep will be less than perfect, and we can’t do anything about it. This is OK and possibly the worst thing you could do for your sleep generally, is start to worry about how much sleep you’re getting. Go gently, accept what is possible now and improve sleep quality in the ways that feel possible for you.

So how do we optimise our sleep health?

Our bedroom environment is important, it should be a place of rest, ideally no television, it should be a cosy space to wind down and sleep, a sanctuary. White noise or ear plugs can be helpful for more than just babies. It should be dark enough, I love my weighted eye mask! The bedroom should be cool, a fan is definitely not just for the summer.

Our sleep routine, and things we do through the day can have a big impact on our sleep health, trying to work with our circadian rhythm can be very helpful.

Avoiding caffeine 8 hours before bed, avoiding smoking before bed and having screen free time to wind down before bed can all be very helpful. Drinking alcohol can feel helpful but our sleep quality is negatively impacted. Exposure to natural light during the day, particularly in the morning can be brilliant for us for lots of reasons, including sleep. Eating meals about the same time each time and exercising (not too late in the evening), having wind down time with low lighting before bed and having consistent sleep and wake times, can all have a positive impact on our sleep health. If this all feels a bit overwhelming just start with one or two small changes… 

There may be times when more support is required, medication to help you sleep can be great to break a developing negative pattern and your GP will likely be happy to help.

Osteopathy can also help with sleep for more than just our little ones. Reduced pain in general is good for our sleep and Osteopaths are brilliant at reducing pain. Cranial Osteopathy in particular can be helpful as it can help down regulate our nervous systems, especially during times of stress, from a sympathetically driven state, into a parasympathetic, dorsal vagal, rest and digest state. In my patients I have seen treatment help improve their ability to drift off and their sleep quality many times.

Mindfulness and meditation practice can also be hugely helpful. I often use my insight timer app to listen to sleep meditations to help me off to sleep and if I wake in the night. If all else fails an audiobook can be a good distraction from worrying about how much sleep you are or are not getting.

My last note on sleep… try not to worry about it… if you’ve been awake in bed for a while, get up and get a cup of something comforting, keep the lights low and try not to do anything too stimulating then go back to bed and see what happens. It is pretty normal to have patches where sleep is tricky, especially when life is busy. Manage your stress the best you can. Know your sleep will impacted by the seasons and we will often want to sleep more in the winter, and less in the summer. If lack of sleep feels like it’s impacting your life, please get some support.

Lauren Manning BSc Hons Ost

Some great information for this article came from sleep specialist christabel majendie. http://www.christalbelmajendie.co.uk

There is a great book by Mathew Walker for anyone wanting to do a deep dive called why we sleep.

other references include.

Buysse DJ. Sleep health: can we define it? Does it matter? Sleep. 2014 Jan 1;37(1):9-17. doi: 10.5665/sleep.3298. PMID: 24470692; PMCID: PMC3902880.

National institute of neurological disorders and stroke: Brain basics, understanding sleep.

National library of medicine: The Glymphatic system, a beginners guide.