How Progressive Muscle Relaxation (PMR) can Help You Ease into Sleep at Night

Oct 7, 2020

You need your sleep. You also need the right tools to make this happen. This translates to turning your bedroom into a sleep oasis. You can do so by buying a high-quality, premium mattress and supportive and comfortable pillows. If it helps, you can also add on an organic mattress pad and an adjustable bed base. Occasionally, creating the perfect bed isn’t quite enough. Your body is perfectly comfortable, yet your mind is racing. The stress makes it nearly impossible to fall asleep. What’s your next step?

Have you ever had an aching back or pain in your neck when you were anxious or stressed? When you have anxiety or stress in your life, one of the ways your body responds is with muscle tension. When you feel stressed, it causes tension throughout your body. Progressive Muscle Relaxation (PMR) is a relaxation technique that allows you to relieve that dreaded tension. It works when you engage and then release one muscle group at a time. Essentially, you tense a group of muscles as you breathe in, and you relax them as you breathe out. You work on your muscle groups in a certain order.

The Benefits of Progressive Muscle Relaxation

Research shows us that people who practice progressive muscle relaxation regularly, like every night, tend to have:

A better sense of overall well-being

Lower blood pressure

Less muscle tension

Less anxiety

Lower level of fatigue

Why do they have lower levels of fatigue? Researchers are finding that this relaxation therapy helps people battle Insomnia. It’s easy to see why. After all, lower blood pressure, less anxiety, and less tension means you’re more relaxed and able to fall asleep easier. Many people who have trouble falling asleep get physically tense and restless. Progressive muscle relaxation can help with physically relaxing the body as well as calming the mind. If racing thoughts about what you need to do tomorrow or the overall weight of what’s gone on this year is keeping you from sleeping, PMR helps to relax your mind.

Some tips for getting started:

Work your way down through your entire body.

Start with your forehead, then jaw, then shoulders, and continue down.

Breathe in, and then gently but deliberately tense one muscle group.

Tense the selected muscles for a few seconds and then slowly relax them over the course of 20 to 30 seconds.

As you exhale, quickly and fully relax the tensed muscle group.

A session of progressive muscle relaxation takes about 10 to 15 minutes. Follow this pattern for each muscle group, working your way down the body and maintaining mindfulness of your breathing. When your body is physically relaxed, you cannot feel anxious. Practicing progressive muscle relaxation for a few weeks will help you get better at this skill, and in time you will be able to use this method to relieve stress. You’ll climb into bed and fall asleep easily and peacefully. 

Remember, your night of sleep will only be as good as the mattress you are sleeping on. PranaSleep offers premium mattresses that are the highest-quality Talalay Latexhandcrafted innersprings, eco-friendly, and more. Find your perfect PranaSleep mattress, then create a slumber zone around you. If you still need a bit more help, it’s time to look into PMR in order to relax your muscles for sleep.

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