Are these 5 mistakes costing you a good nights sleep?

All right, we are going to get right to it! Mistake number one is using screens before bedtime. So that could be your phone, it could be a tablet, it could be a laptop or a TV screen. Any of those can disrupt your melatonin levels, and by doing that, that can disrupt your ability to fall asleep at night. Mistake number two is having an inconsistent sleep schedule. So we know we want to make sure that we are having a consistent bedtime, so if that's 10 o'clock at night, we want to make sure we're trying to get to sleep at 10 o'clock every night. But also a consistent time to wake up in the morning because if that time varies, that will disrupt your ability to fall asleep at your normal bedtime as well.

Mistake number three is consuming stimulants too close to bedtime. So that could be caffeine and things like coffee, tea, or chocolate or even energy drinks or that could be consuming tobacco products. Mistake number four is a poor sleep environment. So a poor sleep environment could be that it is too hot or too cold when you are trying to go to sleep, or it could be the wrong mattress or wrong comforter or the easiest one to change is a bad pillow. If you happen to have a bad pillow and you happen to crunch up into your pillow overnight, that is going to cause you neck pain and cause you to wake up in the middle of the night. So we want to make sure that your pillow is just the right height and just the right comfort level for you.

Mistake number five is neglecting your spinal health. So two of the most common pain points that we see are neck pain and lower back pain. And even if you are able to ignore those throughout the day, sometimes at night, those pain signals ramp up and then you end up with more neck and back pain when you are trying to fall asleep. We want to make sure you are not neglecting those areas and getting things like good chiropractic care and massage therapy to help your back and neck pain throughout the day so that you are more comfortable at night. One more thing we did not get to address yet is stress. Stress can definitely affect your sleep habits and sleep cycles. In previous blogs we have talked about tips to help with your stress levels, so make sure that you go back to also check those out here: https://www.kauffmanchiropractic.com/blog/4-holiday-stress-busting-tips