How Poor Sleep Can Affect Your Spine Health

QI Spine Clinic, 2 years ago

We spend one-third of our lives sleeping and for many good reasons. Our body dozes itself after a specific interval so that it can carry our growth, repair, and replenishment activities needed. However, poor sleeping habits and lack of sleep puts you in an adverse situation where you might end up dealing with back pain.

Do you find it difficult to get good restorative sleep at times due to back pain? Are you among the ones that feel dull or excruciating back pain when they wake up? Does lack of sleep increase the pain you are already suffering from? It is because sleep and spine health are strongly related and that’s why you feel the blues whenever you take a nap. You might ask, how does a lack of sleep contribute to spine health? What can you do in such cases? Read along to know the answers right here.

How Lack of Sleep Contributes to Spine Problems

Body Enters Repair Mode During Sleep

When you sleep, a lot goes on your body. For instance, the body regenerates tissues, produces crucial hormones, and establishes neural connections in the brain. There’s refilling of energy reserves in the body. The body undergoes repair mode fixing cell damages. Spine health takes a topmost position as the body gets time to recover from the activities you did the previous day including walking, running, sitting, lifting, etc.

Oversleeping & Spine Health

Approx 7 to 9 hours of sleep is recommended by doctors worldwide. It is crucial to maintain spine health in general. However, oversleeping often leads to back pain as it can worsen if you sleep in an uncomfortable position putting excessive stress on the spine. Poor sleeping position is already a major reason why you would feel excruciating back pain. Similarly, a bad mattress might cause your spine to slouch and not maintain its natural curves. It can worsen the pain which is why people often spend a hefty amount on comfy mattresses.

Undersleeping & Spine Health

You might ask, how lack of sleep affects spine health, right? Turns out the body deprived of sleep becomes more sensitive to pain. One of the major reasons why your spine health is affected is because the muscles don’t get enough time to recover. As aforementioned, your body is constantly repairing itself during your sleep, and depriving or undersleeping tends to work adversely.

When your body is battling any virus or illness, inflammation accumulates. When you are asleep, your body works to produce anti-inflammatory compounds required to combat the inflammation. With lack of sleep, it may lead to inflammation. Additionally, depriving the body of sleep makes the immune system overactive theory generating inflammation that eventually worsens the pain.

Reasons Why Lack of Sleep Contributes To Back Pain

Studies suggest both undersleeping and oversleeping affect the pain sensation in the body as it gets worse. Those who have interrupted sleep – it means those who often wake up during that time, are less likely to fend off pain signals which is why the body and brain convey any pain sensation.

There have been studies linking sleep deprivation to pain. It suggests that those who suffer from such conditions are more likely to become sensitive to pain. Sleep deprivation tends to block the body’s sensitivity towards the natural painkillers and worsen the pain when you end up skipping your sleep or cutting it short.

Tips for Better Sleep Habits, Sleep, and Chronic Pain?

Altering minor things can help reduce chronic sleep from poor sleep. Here are some tips that can help you with better sleeping habits.

• It is crucial to reduce caffeine and alcohol intake as it interferes with your sleep schedule.

• Keep all sorts of screens and gadgets away from your bed before you sleep.

• Avoid napping during the day so that you can sleep comfortably during the night.

• Avoid sleeping too full or too hungry.

• It is imperative to establish and stick to a bedtime schedule strictly to train your body and develop a good habit of both sleeping at night and waking up early in the morning.

• Invest in good-quality and specialised mattresses that provide optimum support to your back, unlike regular mattresses where you get sunk in.

• Meditation, deep breathing, and muscle relaxation are some techniques that can help alleviate stress on the lower back.

• Take control of your stress as it can affect chronic pain. You can indulge in soothing music as the first step.

• Make sure your bedroom is cool at approx 18° C, dark and quiet from any background noises to attain better and faster sleep.

Wrapping Up!

You need good sleep to maintain good health. Depriving the body of sleep tends to have potential dangers including increased sensitivity to chronic pain such as back problems. Sometimes, smaller things like a bad posture, bad sleeping position, and a few things here and there are the reason why you might suffer from back pain often.

If you are done with the pain associated with spine and poor sleep, consult us at QI Spine Clinic, India’s first spine clinic that works with expert doctors and state-of-the-art technologies to give non-invasive treatments for better spine health. Reach out to us at 086558 85566 to learn more.