How Can Massage Improve Sleep?

Often, when people struggle with sleep disorders, they reach directly for a bottle of pills. However, sleeping pills are notoriously dangerous and bring with them multiple side effects that can impair your ability to think properly when in a woken state. In fact, sleeping pills are medically classified as “sedative hypnotics.”

If you struggle with sleep problems, instead of reaching for a bottle of sleeping pills, try massage. There are multiple reasons why massage can be beneficial to your sleep.
Muscle RelaxationMany people have trouble sleeping at night because they have tense muscles and pain from this phenomenon. The tenseness is often linked to a physical job, mental stress that tenses the muscles throughout the day, or various other medical reasons.

Regardless of the main reason, muscle tenseness can keep you from sleeping. To counter this, regular massage unwinds and destresses the muscles, allowing them to relax and allowing you to feel less pain and tenseness so that you can get to sleep.
Increased Cortisol LevelsStudies have shown that the hormone cortisol is approximately 50 percent higher in those individuals who get only 4 to 6 hours of sleep every night. Cortisol is the main stress hormone in the body. With this added stress coursing through their bodies, it’s no wonder that these individuals can’t get to sleep.
Massage, on the other hand, has been known to reduce stress and overall cortisol levels in the body. This means that sleep will be easier without that stress hormone exposure.
Improves PainAnother common reason for being unable to fall asleep is general pain in the body. One area that suffers the most pain in individuals who can’t fall asleep is the lower back. Studies have shown, however, that massage can improve lower back pain by a large degree, thus allowing these individuals to fall asleep easier and stay asleep for the duration of the night.
If you are having trouble sleeping, don’t immediately turn to sleeping pills or other medications. Give massage to try and see what it can do for you.