This is part of our series to help you feel less stressed through the holidays. If you start to nod off while reading this, that’s good! Our post today will teach you how to sleep a little better. We plan on making another series about sleep in the future, so this will be a quick overview since there is so much to say.

Sleeping poorly causes the body to produce more adrenaline and other stress hormones to keep you awake. This puts the body into a fight or flight response just to keep you functioning. Sleeping better will reduce production of these hormones, allowing the body to remain balanced between “fight or flight” sympathetic nervous system and “rest and digest” parasympathetic nervous system. This also improves mood and mental function, which could make picking out the perfect gift for Nana easier. 

Here are a few quick tips on how to sleep better: 

• Get 8 hours of sleep a night
• Have a regular sleep time and wake time
• Avoid eating a big meal right before bed

One of the best ways to improve your sleep is to stop using your screens at least an hour before going to bed. Most screens produce blue light frequencies that stop your body’s production of sleep hormones. This stops your body from shutting down as it normally would at night. Screen time also keeps your brain entertained, and therefore pushes sleep further into the night. 

Blue light glasses have been shown to reduce the negative effects of screen time on your eyes. To get a better night’s sleep we recommend either wearing the glasses or turning on the blue light filter setting on your portable devices. However, the most effective thing to do is to stop using your screen devices completely at least an hour before bed. 

If you find this difficult, you could spend that time

• Reading
• Writing in a diary
• Having a conversation with a loved
• Organizing part of your house
• Practicing breathing techniques (yes, this is a shameless plug for our previous blog post, check it out here!)

If you are reading this on your phone while laying in bed, that’s hilarious, and it is also okay. Like any habit, it can be difficult to change at first, but it is very doable.

Start by putting your phone down tonight.

Then again tomorrow night.

And again the next night.

Before you know it, you’ll be phone free by the new year!

As always, if you have any questions, please contact us at (530) 809-2695 to make an appointment by phone with Sarah our office manager, or make an appointment online at spinechico.com.

-Ian Chase

Sources: Image 1 from CNet.com, Image 2 from Intrinsic Health, Image 3
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5839336/pdf/nihms921772.pdf
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28045969 h

YUGANOV KONSTANTIN/SHUTTERSTOCK 

With the holidays coming up, joy, wonder, and a little too much pie will be spread all throughout Chico. Because of all this bustling positivity in the air, it can be hard to keep up with your health.  Life and the holidays can get very stressful. We want to help. We want you to take back the holidays, reduce stress, and improve your health through a series of simple tips.

Today’s topic is as easy as breathing. Literally, because it is about breathing. Done properly, slowing your breathing can shift your nervous system from fight or flight (stress) to rest and digest (calm).

 It can also 

• improve various lung functions
•  increase the amount of oxygen the blood absorbs
•  increase cardiovascular health  
• decrease overall blood pressure and heart rate 
• reduce neck and shoulder pain and stiffness.

It’s easy to achieve these benefits. In between carving the turkey, slicing the pie, take a moment to sit or lie down and breath slowly. You can do it. You’ll feel better. Studies have shown that the optimal breathing rate to gain all the benefits of slower breathing is 6 breaths per minute, or one full inhale/exhale every 10 seconds. That being said, as long as you relax and focus on slow breathing, you will still get benefits. Finding a rhythm and depth that is comfortable is more important than exact 10 second timing. 

Since we care so much about the spine and muscles, we also recommend that you sit with good posture. To do this, keep your core engaged with your ribs more or less flat with your abdomen. Keep your shoulders back and down to avoid hunching. Lastly, breathe into your belly without letting your shoulders shrug towards your ears. Keeping track of all of these things has the added benefit of making you forget about the 34 apple pies you need to bake for Nana’s party tomorrow. 

We’ve created a video for you on how to do this here.  In this video, our rehab specialist Megan teaches you how to breath properly. It shows the technique laying down, but it can absolutely be done while sitting, standing, or walking as well. We also cover breathing in our foam rolling/posture workshops.

If you have any questions, please contact us at (530) 809-2695 to make an appointment by phone with Sarah our office manager, or make an appointment online at spinechico.com.

Every Saturday this month the Chico Running Club has invited me to do a brief Good Form Running Clinic. It’s 8am at One Mile in Chico, CA. These little workshops only last about 10 minutes, and then they go on their weekly group run. Hit their website for more information, and consider joining the club. Spine Chiropractic is a premier sponsor and we waive exam fees for their members. Plus, they have pizza parties!

Click here for the Good Form Running Handout.

Week 1: Posture

Pelvic Position – Engage the Core Luke!

Squeeze your glutes, this will place your pelvis in the proper position. Engage your core enough to hold that pelvic position. Maintain this position!

I love couch to 5k programs for this; they provide the perfect opportunity to build the skill, endurance, and strength needed to run properly. If I could choose one thing for you to not give up on it’d be this!

Thoracic Position – The Two Hand Rule

Your hips and pelvis are set! The next idea we covered was to keep that thoracic spine and shoulders in a good position. A failure here is often what causes that shoulder tightness and exertional headaches during and after runs.

We introduced the Two Hand Rule, in a braced position with our ribs down, place a hand at your sternum and another at your belt line, keep that rib cage down during your runs and posture resets.

Here is Kelly Starrett showing the two hand rule while seated, his book Ready To Run goes more in depth with these topics and I can’t recommend it highly enough for anyone interested in running, or being a functional human.

That is a short breakdown. It was hard to write this post and not make it much, much longer.

We teach this stuff at Spine Chiropractic and I love to take it out into our community. It is powerful stuff and I want every opportunity to share it. You can book me for these types of talks. We don’t charge for small groups, non-profits, schools, etc. Seminars and the like, contact Sarah at the office, we’ll work something out!

Enjoy your run!