Back Pain And Sleeping
I know I’m not alone when I say that trying to sleep with back pain is another frustratingly hard thing we have to deal with.
Heck, I can’t even remember the last time I laid down and got a full night’s sleep. The most I can manage at one time is 2-3 hours and no matter how hard I try there seems to be a ‘witching hour’ anywhere from 1am to 4 am where getting any amount of sleep is impossible. Usually by the time everyone else in the household is waking up I’m having the deepest sleep of the night.. er morning. Doesn’t that go down well when there is three children to get off to school!
Anyway, enough of my whining, the point of this post is to put together some of the sleeping tips that I have found over the last couple of years in the hope that they might help our sleepless readers. You know it’s probably a good thing that I enjoy writing these articles, I’d hate to have nothing to do in the wee hours of the morning!
- Avoid using the bedroom for anything other than sleep, and of course the occasional romantic encounter! If your mind is tuned into the fact that when you go to bed you are going there to sleep you will be more likely to get off to sleep easier. The practice of watching t.v., doing paperwork etc should be kept outside of the bedroom.
- Try different pillows and mattresses. This is one that helped me in the beginning. I kept persisting with the mattress that we have had for many years and it wasn’t until I slept in one of the kids beds one night that I realized how much the mattress and pillow choice can help. For the last twelve months or more I have found sleeping on a thin mattress on the lounge room floor (wooden floorboards) has been the best. I guess your body (and your pain) changes over time and it doesn’t hurt (pun intended) to experiment with different bedding combinations.
- Meditation and/or Relaxing – There are some really good relaxation and meditation programs available on the net for not a lot of money and I have read that many people find them helpful.
- Acupuncture – I love acupuncture! I challenge anyone to go and have a session of acupuncture and not fall asleep after the needles are put in! Schedule your visit for late in the day and I’m confident that you will find getting to sleep that night a piece of cake. If I had the money I would hire a acupuncturist to come in each night and do their thing, heaven!
- The dreaded Coffee – It has been reported that even a small amount of caffeine taken 10-12 hours before sleep can cause problems. Try eliminating coffee, tea, soda and even chocolate from your diet and see if your sleep improves.
- Try mind-body techniques. After an action-packed day, your brain and body need to unwind and slow down before sleep can occur. Create a “ritual” for bedtime – take a bath, meditate, do some easy stretches or yoga. Try to do your “ritual” in the same way, in the same place, at the same time each night. The repetition will trigger your mind and body that it is time to relax and sleep. This reminds me of when I did a pain management course last year. They taught us a technique called Mindfulness where you basically had to rid your mind of all thoughts and simply become aware of your surroundings. They would turn the lights off and once again if you didn’t nod off for a minute or two it was a dead-set miracle! Very powerful stuff and I have since tried this technique at home without too much success, I think at home you are always listening for things, like a child crying or the phone ringing and this makes it hard to do. But if you have a place where you can be in almost isolation it can work very well. A Google search of ‘Mindfulness’ would help explain it further.
If all else fails you could always do what I did and start a website and be up all night and a zombie all day! Not fun, not fun at all.
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