Sleeping For Your Health

I got a call last night about 11pm from a dear friend of mine who was in such bad shoulder pain that he just couldn't sleep. He asked me if I could come over to massage his arm and shoulder a little to help him relax and I told him that I would be right over. Now I am not a professional masseuse, but I do have strong hands and a touch for giving a good massage. My friend lives right around the corner from me, and when I got there he was sitting on the living room couch, looking worn out from pain and unable to sleep. I had him sit on the edge of the sofa and worked some lotion into his shoulders, arms, neck and back as I massaged him, slowly at first and then more vigorously as his muscles started warming up. I helped him rotate his neck slowly while I helped to support his head, and then I did the same thing with his shoulder as I held his arm up in the air and also in front of him. As I continued guiding him through the movements with my left hand, I used my right hand and fingers to simultaneously work out the kinks in his shoulders, neck and back. After about 25 minutes of massage and limb rotation exercises, he was feeling much more relaxed and looked like some of the relief was starting to make him a little sleepy. As I was heading home, I kept pondering his problem and wondered what was REALLY causing his condition. He is almost 70 years old, but is in good healthy condition. He walks alot but is often carrying hand held shopping bags that put a strain on his arms and shoulders. These types of activities can be physically tiring but I didn't think that they should be causing the type of pain that he was suffering from. If you are asking yourselves readers if he is seeing a Doctor, the answer is yes- a physical therapist and a MD. He's been through X-rays and tests, been offered pain shots and other pain pills, but recently his therapist showed him some effective exercises which my friend is trying to stick to.

In my opinion, one of his biggest problems is that he can't sleep on his back or in other healthy sleeping positions. He constantly sleeps on his shoulder. I have tried to tell him that it may be causing him alot of his problems because after a full day of activity, he isn't able to rejuvenate his body through proper rest and sleep because he isn't doing it correctly. ***Here come the questions - "What do you mean NOT DOING it properly? Is there a RIGHT WAY to sleep?"

Actually, from a health perspective , there is! There are definitely certain techniques that can help a person get more benefits from their sleep. Look, if you have pain in your back, neck, arms. or shoulders and you sleep scrunched up all night on the bed in some crazy position, night after night, it will take its toll. Better to learn some techniques to help you refresh your body during your hours of sleep in order to get the most out of a good night of healthy sleeping.

Be Healthy,

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