Missoula back pain specialist| Missoula neck pain Specialist presents: Your Health-The Road to Wellness. Article #1 Sleep

Welcome to the first installment of “Your Health.” Please reference our video series on Youtube and also on our website Transformation Chiropractic Missoula, Montana Dr. Shaun Stuto is a Missoula Chiropractor, author, speaker, and the owner/founder of Transformation Chiropractic. The goal of “Your Health” is to explore and dissect many of the different aspects that encompass wellness. “Wellness” is a buzzword that we hear alot on T.V. and in other media. The big question is who is defining what wellness is? The concept of “wellness” is the polar opposite of disease and death. Wellness is at the far end of the spectrum of health and is not necessarily a destination. The concept and goal of wellness is in the journey of achieving it. Think of “wellness” as the point between “excellence” and “perfection.” Excellent health includes many factors such as a balanced lifestyle, low blood pressure, good height:weight ratio low mental stress, healthy diet and an active lifestyle to name a few. The point where excellent health actually becomes perfect cannot be precisely distinguished.

The first aspect of wellness we will dive into is sleep. Next to a well adjusted spine and optimized nervous system, sleep and nutrition wrestle for second place when it comes to your wellness journey. How much sleep are you averaging per night? How much sleep do you actually need to feel your best? I frequently hear patients say that they need 7-9 hours of sleep to feel their best and find out that they average only 5-6 hours/night 5-7 days/week. It is common to find patients with an 80-120 hour/month sleep deficit! Sound like you perhaps?

The effects of this type of sleep deprivation are massive. This type of person has no energy. They are irritable and stressed. Often this type of patient is driven to be the perfect worker, the perfect spouse, the perfect parent, the perfect child etc… It is no surprise that this type of person cannot maintain this lifestyle forever. They often develop inexplicable symptoms such as aches and pains. The most common areas of pain show up in the neck and lower back. What is the quickest way to make a person slow down and rest? Low back pain! When the low back goes out, you go down and have to rest. The body has the innate intelligence to know when and how to put you down and force you to rest.

Unless you are an elite athlete training hours/day and burning thousands of calories, you should not need more than 7-9 hours of sleep per night. If you need less than 6 hours see a doctor and if you need more than 9 see a psychologist. It is quite possible that compounding emotional and psychological factors are contributing to your need to sleep so much.

The most important aspect of sleep is your comfort. You must be comfortable in order to maximize your recovery time. With the high stress, high paced lives most of us lead, it is crucial to maximize our time at rest. “Invest in your rest!” I coined the phrase and you should take it to heart. Invest in your rest means spend the money on the highest quality bed you can afford. Most people do best on a firmer mattress.

As your Chiropractor, I personally recommend the Sleep Number bed to ensure your comfort. Remember make price a non-issue. We spend 1/3rd of our lives in bed so we must ensure the highest quality rest possible. The sleep number bed virtually guarantees your comfort because the firmness of the bed is so variable. This is the solution for couples with different mattress preferences. No longer will one person be left to toss and turn. It is so common for households to spend $1000’s on a fancy couch and a flat screen T.V. but want to sneak by with a $300 bed. Does this make sense? No way! Where did you get your bed? Do you remember? How old is it? Do you even know? If you cannot even answer these questions then skip the rest of the article and go order a sleep number bed. Seriously, invest in your rest and do not spend another night on a bed that is hurting you.

You now have a much better understanding of the essentials of effective sleep. So long as you get 7-9 hours on a high quality bed, you should do great. On the contrary, a sleep deficiency can manifest as physical pain, poor health and even emotional stress. This emotional stress can even lead to sugar cravings and actually make you fat! Yes poor sleep can absolutely make you fat. The answer to more energy and less weight is the quality of your bed.

Start putting health and wellness atop your priority list and keep it simple. Dedicate yourself to regular chiropractic care to ensure optimal health and function of your nervous system. Find a healthy eating plan you can stick to and implement a consistent exercise program. The last step is to rest. Get your 7-9 hours of nightly uninterrupted rest on the highest quality bed you can afford.

I am Dr. Shaun Stuto. This is “Your Health.” I wish you a life of abundant health!