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Does Massage Therapy Improve Sleep?

Since time immemorial, massage therapy has been used to treat various health and medical conditions. One of the many conditions that massage therapy helps treat is insomnia, a condition associated with sleep inconsistencies. If not rectified on time, lack of better sleep can affect your productivity at work, increase stress levels as well as overall wellbeing. But how exactly does massage therapy help improve sleep patterns? This article explains how sleep is improved after a series of massage therapies.

  • Influence on Hormones

Massage therapy has been known to trigger the brain to produce increased levels of dopamine, a hormone responsible for the finer motor skills like playing musical instruments and painting.

Pretty young blonde woman having a massage in the wellness center
It also leads to feelings of joy and enthusiasm that you need to become more productive at work. In the same process, massage therapy helps elevate the levels of the feel-good hormone serotonin, while suppressing the stress hormone, cortisol. With more serotonin, you will be able to gain better control of your emotions hence quelling the feelings of anger, irritability, anxiety, and stress. What follows is that you will experience enough quality sleep and reduce the chances of depression related to insomnia.

  • Helps the Body Relax

When the body is tense and rigid, it produces some levels of the known stress hormone, cortisol. This hormone is responsible for the feelings of anxiety, digestive problems, body aches, headaches, and restlessness, which lead to sleep disorders and with time insomnia. However, with some few sessions of massage therapy, the body replaces the stress hormone with the feel-good hormone, dopamine. As a result, the body relaxes, and feelings of restlessness and anxiety fade away. This translates to feelings of happiness and contentment, leading to improved sleep patterns

  • Reduction of Stress

Let us face it; stress is part of life, which means that we cannot entirely avoid it. Stress manifests in many forms including restlessness, fatigue, and low productivity at work. If you work in a demanding career like healthcare, you are likely to get stress spasms due to the demanding nature of the job, especially during the COVID 19 pandemic. Massage enhances the replacement of the stress hormone, cortisol with the feel-good hormone, dopamine. As a result, you will experience the quality and enough sleep. You will realize a lot of difference in discharging your duties at work because you will be less tired and energized. Most people will say they have no time for that but it is not necessary that you see a therapist. Spouses can give each other some backstrokes and trust me; you will fall asleep in no time.

  • Reduction of Pain

Due to overuse, misuse, or disuse of the muscles, while at work or working out, we tend to injure our muscles. Some of these small injuries go unnoticed until we get to sleep when the pain levels go from mild to extreme. At that moment, getting enough quality sleep is almost next to impossible. Massage therapies help in improving sleep by enhancing the production of more testosterone, a hormone responsible for the healing of injuries. It also helps ease tension, improves circulation of blood, and the reduction of inflammation in the muscles. This helps accelerate the healing of the injuries and pain goes away after a few sessions of massage therapy. The result is that you experience quality and uninterrupted sleep.

  • Helps in Digestive Disorders

People with low levels of serotonin, a hormone produced by massage therapy, tend to experience more craving for food. The more they eat the more digestive disorders they get, including bloating and indigestion. With such things happening in your body, you cannot be at peace and they will manifest in lack of better sleep. But with a massage, the production of the feel-good hormone, serotonin is enhanced and your satiety drops. This leads to improved digestion and you tend to sleep peacefully like a baby.

Massage is a solid, and medication-free alternative that has helped many individuals conquer sleep deprivation. Since melatonin affects the other phase of a person’s circadian cadence, a characteristic method of boosting serotonin is a constructive rest prompting choice. This association calls for additional exploration demonstrating the immediate impact massage has on serotonin. Massage therapy alone cannot contribute to better sleep, as it must be coupled with other practices that help boost sleep. Such things include healthy eating, physical exercise, and emotional balance. You can also complement the effect of massage on sleep by buying orthopedic seats and mattresses. Combining these strategies with massage therapy will help you sleep better.