Parsteiner Blog

Posts Tagged ‘Sleep’

Living with Sciatica during the day can be bad enough. The searing pain you will be experiencing down your leg is enough to drive the sanest person to distraction. However, that compares to nothing if you are one of the unfortunate ones who is suffering at night as well.

I have often had patients say to me it is as if as soon as they want to go to sleep, their sciatica chooses to wake up!

This can create a multitude of problems:

i) The lack of sleep makes you tired.

This is a problem, as it has been proven that our perception of pain is increased and our pain tolerance decreased, the more tired we are. Consequently, if you are experiencing pain which is preventing you from sleeping, it is going to make you more tired. This in turn will increase your perception of pain & decrease your pain tolerance. What is that going to do? It’s going to make sleeping more difficult, which will make you more tired… and so on. I am sure you can see how a vicious cycle results which can be difficult to get out of.

ii) Night Time is prime healing time.

It is during the night, while we are at rest, that the body’s fantastic healing process gets to work and aims to heal and replenish all that needs to throughout your body. Your sciatica will be at the top of the list for healing. However, if you are not sleeping at night, tossing & turning, this healing process is going to be interfered with. This creates yet another vicious cycle similar to that given above.

So what can you do?

If you are struggling to sleep of a night, let me firstly say do not replace your bed! Well, not yet anyway. More often than not, it is either the position you are sleeping in or what you were up to before going to bed which is the problem – not the bed itself. I shall discuss the latter here…

This may sound like I am stating the obvious, but it is important to avoid any particular activities you know aggravate your pain. Let’s use sitting as an example. Sitting tends to be a classic aggravating factor for sciatica (although I except it will not be for everyone). Therefore, if you are like most of us and tend to spend much of your evenings sitting down, there is a fair chance you will be aggravating your sciatica during that time.

This may express itself as forcing you to fidget regularly just to get comfortable, forcing you to stand up because of the increasing pain or your pain may feel OK while you are sitting down, but you experience increased pain and discomfort when you go to stand up from the chair.

If you are familiar with any of these, then sitting down is an aggravating factor for your sciatica.

Consequently, if you are stirring your pain up just before going to bed, it should come as no surprise that the pain is keeping you awake at night. This may not express itself immediately, sometimes it can be an hour or so after getting to sleep that you pain rears its ugly head.

In such circumstances, I would ask you to firstly think about the chair you are sitting in:

Is it the best for your sciatica?

Maybe it should be a little firmer?

Or possibly you need some support for your lower back?

Just have a think as to how you can make things a little more comfortable for your sciatica. It could well be that you need to try a completely different chair for a while.

In addition to this, I would also suggest you try to avoid sitting for any longer than 15-20 minutes without standing up. This doesn’t need to be an extensive break, a few steps up and down the room will be more than suffice, just give your body a chance to straighten up for a bit. If you are watching TV, when the adverts come on is a good reminder.

By doing this, it will help alleviate some stress from your sciatic nerve before going to bed, which in turn will decrease the pain perceived and therefore give you a better nights sleep and your body more chance to heal itself. This in turn will begin to set up a positive cycle, where more sleep will promote better healing, which will help you sleep more… and so on.

The example I have used here of sitting, is just one of many which may be aggravating your pain. It is important you gain a good understanding of your body and are able to tell what your sciatica does and does not like with regards to its healing process.

In addition to this, I have provided a link below which will discuss the best sleeping positions for you to sleep in order to gain a good night’s sleep.

I’m sure you are familiar with it. You wake up in the morning, go to get out of bed BUT are stopped in your tracks by the pain and stiffness in your lower back or sciatic nerve. It can then take a few minutes or much longer to straighten up and become more mobile again… Why is your back so stiff and painful in the morning?

Well, contrary to popular belief, it is more than likely NOT due to the bed / mattress you are sleeping on! That’s right, I believe this is a myth well worth busting, as it may save you a fortune by avoiding the unnecessary replacement of your current bed.

There are also those that may say you are stiff and painful first thing in the morning due to the fact you have moved relatively little for the previous few hours. Although I would agree that there is an element of truth in this last statement, once again I do not believe it is likely to be the main cause.

So why is your back so stiff and painful in the morning?

More often than not, it is not due to the bed itself, but rather the position you are sleeping in or what you have been doing the few hours before retiring to bed, it is the former which I am going to be discussing in this article.

So what is the best position for me to sleep in then?

The best position for you to adopt would primarily depend upon what is the cause of your low back / sciatic pain. However, as a rule of thumb, the most comfortable position to sleep in is usually side lying (either side) with your bottom leg fairly straight and your top leg supported by a couple of pillows, so that this top leg is more or less parallel with the bed.

By sleeping in this position, keeping the bottom leg straight is encouraging your lower back to be in a neutral position. Yet with the top leg being supported by pillows, it is preventing it from dropping ‘across & down’ and twisting your low back and stretching your sciatic nerve in the process.

Some people tend to lie on their side, but forget to support the top leg. This just has a twisting stress upon the lower back which is maintained for several hours while you are sleeping. Therefore it should come as no surprise that your low back or sciatic nerve may feel stiff and painful first thing when you wake up.

As I alluded to above, there are other positions which could be more beneficial, but this depends upon the cause of your pain, but side lying with pillows supporting your top leg is usually a good comfortable position to get in no matter what your diagnosis.

It is also important to realise that it may not necessarily be your sleeping position which is the problem, but rather the things you are doing to your low back before going to bed. If you try different sleeping positions, including the one given here and yet you are still having difficulty sleeping, it is likely what you are doing before going to bed which is your problem. This will need to be assessed before thinking of replacing your bed.

For some people, merely breathing in the air in their homes can cause an allergy attack. That’s because the air we breathe can be filled with all sorts of impurities and substances that, if the person is allergic to them, can cause an attack that’s so severe that it’s scary not only to the sufferer but to those who have to witness it. If you find yourself constantly having an allergy attack, even in the comfort of your own home, it’s best to think about buying an allergy air purifier. An allergy air purifier will eradicate those substances in the air that are causing those attacks, allowing you to breathe easier and allowing you to stay attack free.

See An Allergist To Determine What You’re Allergic To

The first thing you should do if you are having allergy attacks is to see an allergist. An allergist will give you an allergy test to see exactly what you are allergic to. Of course, in the mean time, you should get an allergy air purifier, just in case it is something in the air that’s causing your attacks. However, if you’re not sure what you’re allergic to, your allergist will let you know. It could be that you’re allergic to something you’re eating or touching. More than likely, however, it’s because of the air you breathe.

The air we breathe is filled with all sorts of impurities, such as pollen, grass, dirt, dust, pet dander, and more. All of these things can bring on a severe attack if someone is allergic to them. That’s where the allergy air purifier comes in. The allergy air purifier will take whatever it is that you’re allergic to out of the air so that you never have another attack.

This is especially useful as you sleep. If you have an attack when you are sleeping, you could stop breathing and not even realize it. This is very dangerous and shouldn’t be chanced. Buy an allergy air filter and stick it in the corner of your bedroom. You can even put one in every room of your house just to make sure that you are cleaning the air in your home efficiently.

If you’re having allergy attacks and you think it’s caused by the air you’re breathing, stop suffering even one minute longer. Go out to your local department store or search online for an allergy air purifier. Just because you’re allergic to certain things doesn’t mean you must be forced into breathing them in. Get those things out of the air you breathe and go allergy free for once in your life.