Sleeping peacefully when you are already suffering from chronic pain can be daunting. Whether you are suffering from back pain or a toothache, anything can cause bouts of insomnia.
Both chronic pain and insomnia are interrelated. Immense pain can cause insomnia, and sleeplessness can lead to chronic pain. Also, in addition to pain, preventing you from falling asleep can cause difficulties in remaining asleep for a long time.
However, consulting your doctor can help you get good sleep while easing discomfort. A doctor is the best person who can help you in this regard; for example, a doctor can tell you in detail about how to drain the Eustachian tube while you are still sleeping!
Tips To Follow To Ease Discomfort While Sleeping
Let us walk through some of the practical tips to follow to reduce any discomfort while you are sleeping.
Yoga Helps
Practicing yoga will help you get a good night’s sleep and lend a helping hand in easing your pain. Yoga is a therapy related to the mind and introduces you to rhythmic breathing patterns and physical poses. Following these poses and meditation patterns have been known to ease pain and bring good sleep for you.
However, ensure to consult a certified yoga instructor who can help you learn poses as per your physical tolerance level. Doing yoga poses on your own can cause more discomfort and thus is not advisable at all.
Seek the Right Sleeping Position
As per experts, following the proper sleeping position can actually help you ease many health issues, such as back pain. Thus, make efforts to seek the correct sleeping position to relax and get comfortable.
One such sleeping position is keeping a pillow underneath or between your legs to gain that additional support. Avoid sleeping on your stomach as it puts additional pressure on your lower back and can cause pain.
Walk in the Evening Can Also Help
If you do not get enough exercise and thus suffer from health issues such as lower back pain and difficulty falling asleep, you need to take action immediately. A walk in the evening or after dinner can help ease your pain and get you to sleep.
Your body temperature gets high when you are walking, and then this temperature reduces due to the mechanism of heat dissipation. This lowered body temperature helps ease anxiety and also triggers your sleep cycle.
When you go for regular evening walks, it can also reduce those back pains and other health issues as well.
Consume Food That Helps Promoting Sleep
This is well-known that some food items increase the tryptophan quotient in human bodies. Tryptophan is a protein that leads to the production of serotonin, which is a sleep-inducing hormone.
Increased levels of tryptophan reduce the time needed to fall asleep, promotes morning alertness, and aid in nerve relaxation. Some examples of such food items are rice, kiwis, milk pulses, shellfish, fatty fish, and cherries.
However, before making any dietary changes, you should consult your doctor so that these food items do not affect any underlying medical conditions. Also, abstaining from food containing caffeine and theobromine can help you get good sleep.
Practise Rhythmic Breathing
Experts say rhythmic breathing is known to have a calming effect on your mind or body and may also reduce pain while stimulating sleep. As per research, deep and slow breaths before bedtime can assist you in falling asleep faster and getting back to sleep with ease if you wake up in the middle of the night.
This breathing technique, if practiced effectively, lends a helping hand in synchronizing the heart rate and the breathing patterns that again promote deep sleep.
Final Words
Good sleep is imperative when you want to recover from a health issue or surgery or are facing chronic pains. However, discomfort anywhere in the body can primarily hurt your sleeping pattern and cause insomnia. Now, the question is what to do to get proper sleep when facing some health problem or discomfort.
It is advisable to consult a health advisor and follow the tips mentioned above. These tips can not only help you gain your sleep back but also get relief from pain. The need remains to follow them ardently! Happy sleeping!
