Sleep!

Think about your day. You are up and at ‘em, movin’ and groovin’ for at least 12 hours of the day.  That’s stimulation and activation of our sympathetic system.   With nerves firing constantly to make the brain function, the muscles contract, and for you to be productive. 

At night, when you rest, you turn on the opposite system, the parasympathetic - the rest and digest system - and that quiets all the rush of the day. What you may not know is this system is responsible for getting our bowels moving, and our bladders filling! You can thank this system for your morning BM (not bloody mary)!

Lastly, and without going into too much detail, probably the biggest take home message, is the effect of sleep on pain.  Research states that “Sleep impairments are a stronger, more reliable predictor of pain than pain is of sleep impairment.”*

So silence your phone, stop reading this blog and get some rest.

Written by: Dr Susana Cicchetti, PT, DPT

Whether you’re a new mom, in a new job, or in a stressful place in your life - I bet you aren’t getting much sleep. Maybe you feel tired and maybe you don’t. Either way you know you NEED more.

More and more research and literature is being published about sleep and not only its correlation with mental health but also pelvic health.  Currently, it is recommended that adults aged 26 - 64 years obtain 7 to 10 hours of sleep a night.  Sounds dreamy. 

Now why is that? 

Well there are a bunch of theories out there but one common theme is that our body needs to return to homeostasis. Homeostasis meaning balanced. 

*CSM Sleep Management & Persistent Pelvic Pain: Could this be your missing link? Presentation 2018