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Why Sleeping Can Be a Real Pain
By Dr. Eric Groteke,  Chiropractic Physician
 
Head and neck support are essential to good posture which in turn reduces stress to the pressure points, nerves, and circulation that are causing your pain in the morning.

If you wake up in the morning or night with:
• Headaches
• Neck Pain
• Neck Stiffness
• Facial Pain
• Arm or Hand Numbness

You need to read this article to see why sleeping can be a real pain.

Your spinal curvatures are there for a reason…to hold you upright and to keep your head in line with your spine. As we age through life we tend to lose these curves and the age of your spine advances past your birth age. Compounding this arthritis advancement, we are susceptible to gravity as we go about our daily routines; this includes the stresses you place on your body when you sleep, sit, stand, bend, walk, lift, push, pull, etc.

When you sleep at night, sleeping involves posture, if you sleep with poor posture or use a regular pillow your spine and head may be pulled and stressed by gravity. If this is the case your neck and head are usually supported in a sustained tensed position for hours and hours while you sleep and you don’t even realize it. Lying on a regular bed pillow, or like the ones at my grandparent’s house that are as old as me that I can mold into any shape desired dramatically stress the muscles in the back (especially in the back of the neck) as you sleep, whether you sleep on your side or on your back. Adding further insult to injury your sleeping posture is made worse if you have a reduced, flattened, or reversed neck curve.  This usually causes tightening of the muscles and ligaments which reduces blood flow and nerve signals while you sleep in a properly supported position throughout the night. Pinched nerves in the spine tend to happen in the neck and low back as these are the areas that do the most moving, and often refer pain down the leg or arm. Pinched nerves can be brought on by hard physical work and injury, or sustained unsupported sleep posture.

If you have had previous injuries to your neck chances are they have healed with scar tissue and you have lost movement the older you have gotten.  You see when you injure muscles and ligaments, you actually tear the soft tissue (micro or macroscopically), your body heals itself as it creates new tissue over the injury site, similar to a scar on your skin.  As scar tissue heals it shrinks and you lose movement, if left untreated or unsupported you may get popping and grinding sounds as you move, this is called “crepitus,” and is a precursor to arthritis. This sound is created by tightened ligaments and tendons nicking over bone and other tissues through increased friction.

Supporting your neck and head while you sleep is essential to proper spinal hygiene and for a more restful and healing sleep.

The Solution to Painful Sleep.
There are many solutions on the market. I recommend the Atlas-T Pillow because there is no other pillow like it on the market today. Throughout the day your muscles get tight. If your sleeping posture is poor they remain tight and you wake up sore and still. The Atlas-T Pillow relieves pressure on your tight muscles by helping you “locate” your ideal sleeping posture. Everyone’s posture is unique and special, so you may require “a break-in period” for your body to retrain itself from previous bad sleeping habits. During this period your spine is unloading and changing your sleep posture, so be patient and make sure you see your doctor for spinal checks to ensure a proper fit and spinal hygiene.

Research has shown that finding your ideal sleep posture has other additional benefits as well. It can alleviate neck pain while opening your airways so you don’t snore. The reason I recommend the Atlas-T Pillow is that it supports the most nerve and blood rich area of your spine…The Atlas and Axis! These are the first two vertebrae underneath your brain. The Atlas is the most important vertebrae in your spine and new research shows that manipulating the Atlas may lower your blood pressure. “A Chicago-area study of 50 individuals with a misaligned Atlas vertebra (located high in the neck) and high blood pressure showed that after a one-time specialized chiropractic adjustment, blood pressure decreased significantly. The decrease was equal to taking two blood-pressure drugs at once. The results are published in the online March 2 issue of the Journal of Human Hypertension. According to lead author George Bakris, MD, director of the hypertension center at the University of Chicago Medical Center, unlike other vertebrae, which interlock one to the next, the Atlas (also known as C-1) relies solely upon soft tissue (muscles and ligaments) to maintain alignment; therefore is uniquely vulnerable to displacement. Displacement of C-1 can occur without pain and thus, often goes undetected and untreated.”

Other more practical results are improving blood flow to your muscles and nerves, changing the way you sleep forever, and no more snoring. The Atlas-T Pillow has been registered by the FDA as a Class I Medical Device and is based on legitimate science principals that correlate a person’s posture type to their airways, and it is recommended by doctors. Ask your doctor, your insurance company may re-imburse you with a prescription from your doctor.

So if sleeping for you is a real pain the solution to your problem may be as simple as your pillow.
 
The following article by Dr. Eric Groteke is reprinted here by permission. No other use of this article is permitted without prior written consent.
 
About the Author-
Dr. Eric Groteke is a doctor of chiropractic medicine and is Adjunct Faculty in the Research Department at New York Chiropractic College, he is one of the few chiropractors in the country that has hospital privileges at Gnaden Huetten Memorial Hospital in Lehighton, Pa. His particular area of focus right now is in research that has functional and cost-effective uses for integrating doctors, insurance companies, corporations and patients. His passion is treating the more chronic pain patients in an aggressive yet non-surgical pain management care program in a multi-disciplinary approach. He is a partner in chiropractic/medical practices in Florida and Pennsylvania.
 
About the Atlas-t Pillow™
The Atlas-T Pillow™ was designed to be 2 pillows in one, there is a firm underlying support to change your posture while you sleep, and the second is ultra-sensitive proprietary memory foam that has the properties of a liquid.  You feel the superior spinal alignment immediately as it changes your posture and unloads the weight of your head off your spine. This ultra-sensitive memory foam was specifically designed to compete with the most comfortable pillows in the world, giving you the feeling like you are sleeping on a cloud.

For more information on the Atlas-T Pillow™ click here.