How To Improve Your Posture in San Antonio While You Sleep

Experienced San Antonio chiropractors know that your spinal health is affected by more than your activities during the day time. A great deal of our lives are spent in bed, sleeping. How much a person sleeps, and how they do it, has a large impact on overall health.

If you don't sleep enough, you may be groggy for a morning meeting. If you sleep at a wrong angle, you may wake up with a sore neck.

While most people will acknowledge that sleeping strangely can mean waking up with a new ache, few of us think about how we sleep every night has a long term effect on spinal health and how we generally feel. In fact, proper sleeping habits can have a positive impact on our spinal health and our posture.

Relax Your Body Before Sleep

Going to sleep with tense muscles can mean for a rough night of sleep and bad conditions for your spine and joints. If you've been sitting in a chair all day, it can be useful to go for a short walk, do some yoga, or stretch out your body as the first step toward winding down for bed. Next, consider taking a bath. Soaking in Epsom salts or essential oils can help you relax.

Don't Underestimate The Value of A Great Pillow

Ideally, you want to have one pillow under your head at night. This pillow should support your neck and head. When you get comfortable for sleep, you should feel like your muscles are able to relax and be supported. You don't want to be shifting your head or turning at a different angle to get comfortable. It's not good for your neck to stay in that position all night long.

The right pillow will be different for everyone, so you might need to experiment to find what's right for you.

Sleep In A Cool Room

You may wonder what this has to do with your chiropractic health. When you sleep in a room that's too warm, you're likely to toss and turn all night. This makes it more difficult to keep the right posture while you sleep. Sleep in a cool and comfortable room to help you stay relaxed and in a healthy position.

Practice Sleeping On Your Back

Sleeping on your back is the healthiest position for your spinal alignment. This isn't the easiest habit for everyone. You can start by practicing going to sleep this way every night. If you feel uncomfortable, try placent pillow under your knees or a rolled up towel under your lower back to see if this helps.

Do Not Sleep On Your Stomach

Stomach sleepers hate hearing this. It's understandable. If it feels like your most comfortable sleeping position, changing things up seems like a path to getting less sleep for a while, and no one wants that. However, there is no way to sleep on your stomach that is healthy for your spinal alignment. Over the long term, this causes alignment problems that can be difficult to overcome. For your long term back health, practice sleeping on your back as much as possible. This may take time, but it's worth working on.

Be Careful Sleeping On Your Side

For your longterm chiropractic health, it's still best to sleep on your back and is a great idea to practice doing that. However, if you're going to sleep on your side, work on doing this in as healthy a way as possible. That means keeping your spine straight. Try to sleep with your hands in front of you instead of tucked under your pillow. Put a pillow between your knees to keep your body straight.

How Are You Sleeping At Night?

Are you waking up feeling rested? Do you have aches and pains? Are you going through the day hunched over and feeling like it's too much work to sit up straighter?

The above sleeping practices can help you get a better night's rest and improve your posture so you hold yourself better during the day. They're not the only things you can do to see improvement, though.

Getting a healthy amount of exercise can help you get to sleep at night. Doing some targeted exercises to strengthen your core muscles can improve your posture as it will be easier for you to sit up straight.

Visiting your San Antonio chiropractor at Axis Chiropractic & Rehab regularly can also help you discover what your individual problem areas are. Your chiropractor can work to find the source of your health issues and develop a long term plan for better sleep and health. With gentle spinal adjustments, many find that they sleep better and develop better posture.