Progressive Muscle Relaxation to Conquer Sleep Issues
Migraine is often associated with trouble sleeping. This means that a sleep disorder could be making your migraine worse, or your migraine may be contributing to your lack of sleep.
One of the comorbid conditions, a condition that tends to go along with migraine, is restless legs syndrome (RLS) (also called Willis-Ekbom Disease). In RLS, you have trouble sleeping because of sensations in your legs. Your legs feel restless, or throbbing, or aching.
In searching for the latest research for RLS, I was reminded of one that is being used currently that has also been used for a long time for insomnia itself – and that is, progressive muscle relaxation. It was first described in medical literature almost a hundred years ago, but it’s still being studied today.
The beauty of progressive muscle relaxation is that you can learn to do it at home in bed, with no devices or drugs, and no spending of money. 🙂 It’s a technique that has been used with migraine patients, restless legs syndrome patients, and insomnia patients alike. That means that it also may help improve symptoms in a number of related conditions.
Progressive muscle relaxation is a specific way to tense and then relax muscles throughout the body. Detailed descriptions can be found in the linked articles below, but it’s not complicated. And trials have had quite positive results.
If you have trouble sleeping, do yourself a favour and check out an article or two below. This is a simple technique that may make a significant difference.