Sleep and the COVID-19 Pandemic

Doctors Guide Their Patients to Safety Sleep Through the Pandemic

Fighting this virus by increasing the immune system’s effectiveness is the ideal solution.

Doctors who communicate this to their patients in their office, social media, email, and the media are making a difference. Your patients need you now, more than ever.

Chiropractic care fights disease and we all know that Sleep is important for everything.

No overstatement there. Quality sleep coupled with chiropractic care can be powerful weapons against disease. Our own experiences and studies have shown it.

Two simple rules can greatly improve the power of your and your patient’s sleep.

When we sleep our immune systems are recharged. Empowered to destroy biological invaders and control inflammation at the same time.  During sleep, your body makes cytokines, a protein that targets infection and can reduce inflammation. Without quality sleep, we get the wrong cytokines and instead of fighting disease, we get inflammation.

Studies have shown that sleep is the #1 factor in avoiding a cold after exposure to the cold virus. Studies have also shown that poor sleep can reduce the production of antibodies produced after a flu vaccine by  50 percent.

The maximum strength of our immune systems depends on quality sleep.

What are the two most important habits connected with quality sleep?

It turns out that timing is everything. We only produce the “good stuff” in certain stages of sleep and at certain times of our biological day. Sleep the correct stage at the wrong time and it won’t happen, sleep the correct time and the wrong stage and it won’t happen either. Nothing, very little benefit. So, how do we get the magic combination of best sleep stage and correct timing? (It may be counterintuitive.)

  • Wake up at the same time EVERY day and
  • Sleep eight hours every night.

If you do not have that kind of schedule now, then start. It will take days or even weeks for your biological clock to reset. You might not feel the best during this transition. But it must be done. Once your body clock and sleep cycles are aligned you will be better able to stay healthy. You will now experience deep slow wave sleep during the first third of the night and your core body temperature and physiology will match for peak immune production.

Stay with it. For every day you alter the schedule, your internal clock will slide and you will go out of sync. Even worse, your clock only tends to go later. It won’t back up well, if at all. So that alignment process you just completed will nearly start over.

What is quality sleep and how do we achieve it? Here are our Five Principles of Healthy Sleep.

Finally – research has shown that having a thankful attitude before bed improves sleep and health. Having the mind at peace reduces the stress hormone cortisol and lowers blood pressure and prepares the body for deep sleep.

Every night we thank you for your devotion and efforts in helping everyone to live healthier and happier lives. We wish you a future of quality sleep.