A poor nights sleep can have you feeling drained before even getting out of bed in the morning. Unfortunately, this feeling is something that many people, who suffer from sleep deprivation, have each morning. In fact, according to Consumer Reports, 68 percent of Americans claim to have trouble sleeping at least one night a week.
The desire to sleep well stretches beyond waking up in a good mood too.
The quality of your sleep can harm your health long-term; sleep deprivation is linked to obesity and high blood pressure, poor concentration, and lack of energy for exercising, healthy eating, and leisure activities.
While the amount of people that are having trouble sleeping is on the incline, so is the amount of money that people are willing to spend annually to aid in their quest for a good nights rest. In this article, we seek to outline one method that most probably aren’t considering and that is likely a more cost effective approach than some alternatives. (Hint: it’s massage)
Why Can’t I Sleep At Night?
Before we dive into what people can do to assist in achieving regular sleep, we first seek what is causing many to remain awake. Some of the top culprits of keeping you awake at night are stress, depression, hormones, caffeine, alcohol, and eating habits.
Focusing on the external factors, caffeine, alcohol, and eating can be a great start and may be enough to lull you to sleep when consumed appropriately.
Keep in mind that caffeine stays in the blood stream much longer than most people think. It can take up to 14 hours for your body to eliminate just half of the caffeine that has been consumed. If you are someone that enjoys a coffee or tea with dessert or after a meal, you may want to consider switching to a decaffeinated variety.
Alcohol, on the other hand, is common in many people’s minds as helping them fall asleep. While this may be the case, it reduces the amount of REM sleep a person receives and oftentimes as the effects of alcohol wear off, your body wakes up – leaving you more tired than you were initially.
Eating and late night snacking have have surprising effects on your sleep patterns. Eating too close to bedtime can cause disruptions to your sleep throughout the night. Alternatively, not eating enough can prevent sleep too.
Alternative Sleep-Aid
One possible remedy that many do not consider, as they often go straight to an over the counter or perscription sleeping pill, is massage. Massages can assist immensely with insomnia, as well as muscle injuries, anxiety, and much, much more. A personal percussion massager is an effective tool that can be used in between visits to a chiropractor or massage therapist. This unique type of massager offers a deep tissue massage that leaves you feeling improved, relaxed and care-free – a process referred to as percussive therapy. Deep tissue massages not only reduce stress and hormone levels, but they also increase blood flow by triggering the release of serotonin and therefore helping to improve your mood.
How Can A Percussion Massager Help With Sleep?
Muscle injuries do not only occur with professional athletes, they also occur with the everyday person and can happen in many different ways. Whether you are lifting heavy weights in the gym or performing your daily tasks at work, it can be very easy to pull a muscle. Most of the time these injuries are minor, but sometimes they can be extremely difficult to cope with and can keep you awake at night. In cases like these, a percussion massager can be a tool to help you to relieve tension in your muscles and therefore allowing for a good night’s sleep.
Anxiety in itself is hard to deal with but there are many methods to help reduce the causes of anxiety. Our bodies are designed to respond to danger and stressful situations. This requires us to either fight or flight, in which extra levels of cortisol, commonly known as “the stress hormone” are released into our brain. The fight-or-flight response was first described in the 1920’s. Anxiety can be carried in different areas of your body in which a percussion massager or massage gun can help to penetrate deep into your muscles increasing blood flow and circulation. After using massage gun for about 15-20 minutes in the desired area, you will feel more rested and able to have an uninterrupted sleep.
Percussion massagers are an essential tool to add to your everyday life. This unique type of massager will help you to recover from torn muscles and also to help relieve anxiety. Massages are a great way to help with stress and to relax your muscles before bed for a long lasting sleep. It is a great alternative to using sleep aids and you can give yourself a massage all within the comfort of your own home.
What Are The Top Percussion Massagers?
In terms of percussion massagers, there are a few brands that rise above the rest in terms of popularity and quality. Those brands are TheraGun, PureWave, TimTam, and HyperIce.
The type of percussion massager that you elect to utilize will depend on many factors including budget, power, noise and other factors. Our full review on each of the brands and their devices can be found on our website.