I hope this helps you and your clients in 2020! I’ve spent the last year researching this, and it is a GAME CHANGER for all health practitioners. I’ll also share useful tips that everyone can do on their own to improve their sleep quality…and capacity to heal! Lastly, I’ll mention some new stuff we’re doing at the end of this. Feel free to ignore it. ENJOY!
Overview:
Health research has now conclusively shown that sleep is a major force multiplier in all other key areas of health, including: Performance and Tissue Healing, Mental Health and Dementia, and Hormone Regulation and Detoxification. The waves of new studies every week on sleep are informing, and transforming, every area of health and wellness.
I’ve created a 3 Email Series to show how improving your clients’ sleep can greatly improve your client outcomes, and give you practical tips on how to help them accomplish this. I hope you’ll enjoy them! In the meantime, here’s a sleep overview.
Part One: Sleep…Tissue Healing and Physical Performance
Part Two: Sleep…Mental Health and Dementia
Part Three: Sleep…Hormone Regulation and Detoxification
Sleep Primer:
-Sleep is really important, and will either help or hinder your work with your clients. So here is a simple primer to refresh your memory on sleep.
-All mammals and birds sleep; and despite hundreds of thousands of years of evolution, it seems to be important enough despite the fact that it consumes a large amount of energy, interferes with our ability to travel or work, and leaves us vulnerable to predators.
-Sleep is primarily measured by electroencephalogram (EEG), and is categorized by the American Association for Sleep Medicine (AASM) into 5 stages :
Stage W: Wakefulness
Stage N1: Relaxed Wakefulness
Stage N2: Light Sleep
Stage N3: Deep Sleep, or Slow-Wave Sleep (SWS)
Stage R: REM Sleep, or Dreaming
-In NORMAL SLEEP, our brain and body transitions through each stage in predictable sleep cycles, which last around 90 minutes. During an 8-hour sleep, a healthy individual will go through 5 full sleep cycles.
-The ability to properly move through each sleep cycle, multiple times a night is now understood to be the foundation for growth, healing, learning, and overall adaptability.
-Age, Injury, and Toxins can impair the ability for the brain to properly achieve normal sleep cycles. This can create compounding damage to the brain and body over time.
This blog is reposted and all credit belongs to Dr Giancarlo Licata, Founder, Vital Head & Spine.
Image belongs to National Jewish Health.