Sleep plays a critical role in maintaining good health. It helps protect your mental health, physical health, quality of life, and even your personal safety. Have you ever tried driving when you’re exhausted? Then you know you’re only putting yourself and others at risk. What’s more, quality sleep helps your brain function properly and allows your body to heal and fend off major health complications.
Have you suffered from whiplash? Do you deal with anxiety or stress? Is clenching or grinding your teeth an everyday occurrence? Conditions like these can increase your risk of
temporomandibular disorder, also known as TMD. TMD arises when there is a problem with the fit between the top and bottom teeth, your jaw joint or the facial muscles associated with chewing and jaw movement.
While poor sleep can cause mild daytime fatigue or inability to concentrate, it can occasionally have disastrous consequences. A recent study conducted in Finland found that insufficient sleep was a major cause of fatal fatigue-related motor vehicle accidents. It also showed that driver health factors such as sleep apnea or acute and chronic disease were risk factors for these types of accidents.
Most people know by now that the use of media at night can disrupt sleep patterns and cause people to be tired or irritated the next day. A study by the Department of Pediatrics, University of Cincinnati College of Medicine found that media use is particularly harmful for adolescents ages 13-17 who also are being treated for ADHD. Not only does it decrease the amount of sleep needed for this age group, it was also shown to increase anxiety and depression for them, as well.
Do you suffer from unexplained ear pain? Does your jaw hurt after eating or when you wake up in the morning, and you’re not sure why? We encounter patients everyday who have pain issues like these but don’t know what’s causing it. They don’t know who to turn to for help, and therefore, suffer needlessly from pain that is easily treatable. The culprit could be temporomandibular disorder, also known as TMD.
Time and time again, we have patients that come to us after years of suffering with symptoms like headaches, jaw pain and constant fatigue attributed to TMJ disorder. It broke our hearts to hear how one of our patients had to miss work, special occasions and life in general due to the pain.
Nothing makes us happier than hearing from a patient who has suffered for decades with jaw pain, snoring and daily fatigue that they have finally found some relief. For years, she said “I had begun to think I was imagining the headaches…I was made to feel like it was ‘all in my head’ and that I couldn’t possibly be experiencing daily headaches.”
Although we may not fully understand the science of sleep as it pertains to unique individuals, we all know how terrible we feel when we don’t get enough. We do know the reason for that! Our bodies miss important parts of their housekeeping routine when we don’t sleep long enough. In the short-term we feel groggy and out of sorts, and we can’t think as clearly or make good decisions. Studies show that habitual lack of quality sleep can raise the odds of developing high blood pressure, heart disease, obesity, depression, and diabetes.
