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Sleep Disorder Relief with Upper Cervical
According to the American Sleep Association, AMA, sleep disorders affect 1 in people at some stage of their lives – an estimated 50 to 70 million adults in the United States.
The nature of sleep disorders can easily affect one’s quality of life and with unnatural sleep disorder treatments coming attached with undesirable side effects that can still affect your daily life, an all-natural sleep disorder treatment may be the way to go.
But how effective is an all-natural sleep disorder treatment and how is our upper cervical spine connected to the way we sleep?
Types of Sleep Disorders and Their Symptoms
There are multiple types of sleep disorders and each can affect a person differently. Below is a list of a few sleep disorders:
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Hypersomnia - Hypersomnia is a sleep disorder referring to sleep that becomes so deep, the person finds it difficult to wake or be woken up. This disorder makes it to where the person may sleep longer than they normally would.
- Sleep Apnea - Obstructive sleep apnea, or OSA, wake up repeatedly throughout the night from interruptions in their breathing. Although the person does not realize they are waking up, sleep does not become restorative as it becomes difficult for the person to stay asleep long enough to reach deeper phases of sleep. Those who suffer from obstructive sleep apnea may wake up in the morning feeling tired, but their partner may realize the problem beforehand by hearing the breathing interruptions through the night.
- Narcolepsy - Narcolepsy is a condition in which a person becomes sleepy quite often in the daytime. This may result in the person taking naps frequently for a few minutes or up to hours at a time.
- Insomnia - Insomnia is used to describe a range of sleeping problems: including difficulty falling asleep, waking up too early, or waking up frequently throughout the night.
While these are all different sleeping disorders, they can each be caused by the same issue.
What Causes Sleep Disorders?
Sleep disorders can be caused by a variety of things from stress from work to an underlying condition. Physical disturbances that make you uncomfortable throughout the night can disrupt your sleeping habits; these physical disturbances include chronic pain, fibromyalgia, migraines, or headaches.
Psychiatric disorders such as anxiety and depression can cause you to not sleep properly as well.
No matter the cause of your sleep disorder, whether it is a physical disturbance or a psychiatric one, there has been a noticeable connection between your sleep and your upper cervical spine.
Your upper cervical spine has a very unique, very important role for the rest of your body: to protect the brain stem and allow the proper flow of brain to body communication.
The significance of the role of your upper cervical spine should not be overlooked as any change to its proper position can cause a disturbance that affects your natural body functions from the way you breathe to the way your body heals and repairs from injuries.
The performance of your brain stem relies on the alignment of your upper cervical spine. Your top vertebra, called the atlas, is located at the base of your skull and surrounds and protects the brainstem with the second vertebra, called the axis, sitting right beneath it.
When a misalignment occurs, the way your brain thinks or takes in information can be affected along with sending false pain signals throughout your body and change the way you breathe.
This also means your process of falling asleep and waking up could be affected as your brain to body signals become distorted and confused.
How Does Upper Cervical Help?
A case involving a 23-year-old man who had symptoms of sleep dysfunction and bipolar disorder revealed his symptoms were resolved after 7 months of upper cervical care. This case helps prove the link our brain stem has with our natural brain and body functions. (Erin L Elster)
Depending on the severity of your case, using upper cervical as a sleep disorder treatment involves adjustments made to your upper cervical spine to correct any misalignment that may be present to help restore proper body and brain stem function.
The goal of an upper cervical chiropractor is a simple one: to remove any interference with proper brain stem function by adjusting the patient as little as possible on an as-needed basis until the patient’s body grows strong enough to hold the proper alignment on its own.
Many patients have noticed an improvement in their condition in as little as one adjustment. The reason for this is when the correction is made to take interference off of your brain stem, the brain to body communication opens up and begins to make adjustments to your body right away by healing and repairing parts that need fixing.
Since upper cervical sleep disorder treatments help by fixing your body’s natural performance, patients who have sought out medication or surgical sleep disorder treatment options can still see a difference.
Medication and surgical sleep disorder treatments often look over the underlying cause of your sleep disorder and only focus on correcting your symptoms. When you look to a sleep disorder treatment that only targets on altering the way your body naturally responds and senses things, the issue causing it all is left to grow worse over time.
This is why upper cervical adjustments provide great results: the adjustments help your body’s natural response and functions.
If you are looking for a sleep disorder treatment and have tried other options already that provided no relief or provided only a temporary fix, upper cervical for sleep disorder treatments may be what your body needs to finally achieve a good night’s rest.
References
Erin L Elster, DC. Treatment of Bipolar, Seizure, and Sleep Disorders and Migraine Headaches Utilizing a Chiropractic Technique. n.d.
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