Ginger Talks about Sleep Habits for Pregnant Women

Read Ginger's latest interview on sleeping habits for expectant moms...

"Ginger is a mother and physical therapist who specializes in prenatal and postpartum health"...read more about Better Sleep Tips for pregnant women, by Mary Fetzer.


*photo taken during my first pregnancy, on a respit to Ireland. There's great sleeping to be had at The Moy House. I highly recommend stopping in for a stay at this exquisite bed and breakfast if you are traveling the west coast of Ireland.

Choosing The Right Mattress For You

A good night's rest is of utmost importance for our short and long term health and well being. Without sleep, our body and mind suffers tremendously.

By request of students and patients, today's post is an exclusive article about choosing the right mattress for you.

Choosing the Right Mattress For You

A good night’s sleep is one of the most important factors when it comes to your mental and physical health. Getting a full 6 to 8 hours of sleep a night will help you feel more alert and energized.

Unfortunately for many, a good night’s sleep is hard to come by. Our lives are busy, so oftentimes we only catch shut eye when we can. A quality mattress goes a long way to ensure you get a good night’s sleep. Whether you need more adequate support for your joints or help with you or your partner’s snoring problem; a firm, high quality mattress could be the answer you dream about.

Mattresses come in different styles with varying levels of support. Choosing the right mattress can mean the difference between a tossing and turning all night and a solid night’s rest. Traditional mattresses tend to be the standard choice for most Americans which are priced in by the level of firmness that they provide. However a quality innerspring mattress will feature more coils, giving the mattress a firmer feel and more support for your spine, like Simmons Beauty Rest, for instance.

Still yet, a new type of mattress is making its way into bedrooms. Organic mattresses! An organic mattress is a great option that provides both adequate support and is better for the environment and your health.

While available in many sizes, most organic mattresses are found in the nursery and children’s bedrooms. An organic crib mattress provides your child with comfort, support, and maintains a natural, chemical free nursery. Everything a mother desires for their child’s best health.

The makeup of each organic mattress differs slightly, but most follow the same basic “ingredients”.

An organic mattress can be broken down into 3 different components.

1. The coir is made of natural materials such as coconut husks. These materials are woven tightly together to create the necessary support.

2. The next layer of most these items is a lamb’s wool wrap. This chemical free wrap has is designed to give the mattress breathability and is treated with solutions such as lemon, lavender and eucalyptus in order to render the mattress non-allergenic.

3. The last layer consists of a cotton lining designed to create a cool feel that prevents overheating. Organic cotton is naturally hypoallergenic and super soft to the touch. Additionally, a certain amount of moisture is absorbed by organic cotton so you get a dryer night’s sleep. Certified organic cotton comes from a grower/processor that has met certain organic standards and uses natural & non-chemical agricultural methods set out by various nationally recognized certifying organizations.

You no longer have to sacrifice comfort in favor of being more environmentally conscious. I hope this brief helps you find the right bedding fit for you and your family.

Download the entire article, which includes tips for sleep positioning.

*photo is my youngest at just a few hours old. Of course, he is sleeping like a baby.

Sleep Better Tonight: Part 4 of 5

Download the "sleepytime" pose for this evening's practice.

This pose is meant to follow the others in the series. Please try to do the other poses first before attempting this pose.

Enjoy!

Sleep Better Tonight: Part 3 of 5

Yesterday and today's practices focus on increasing your hip mobility. There is a high correlation, supported by research, that hip tightness or restriction can contribute to or increase low back pain.


If you are dealing with any type of pain on an ongoing basis, especially low back pain, this pose can help ease pain and promote sleep simultaneously. I don't know about you, but I don't like wasting time. This pose is a way to treat your hip tightness, help with diminishing or preventing low back pain, AND get to sleep at the same time. No time wasted!


Note: You do not have to spend more than about 5 minutes in each pose this week. You can do them all at one time though. So if you wanted to and have the time, you could have an entire 30-45 minute restorative, sleep inducing yoga practice at one time! Click Here to Download Day 3


Don't forget to download Day 1 & 2 below.


*If you have any discomfort, make sure you back out of the pose far enough to make it comfortable. In addition, always make sure to obtain permission from your physician or therapist before participating in any exercise.

Sleep Better Tonight: Part 2

This week I will offer you a complete yoga program to help you sleep better. Each day will be dedicated to 1 resotorative posture.


Performing each posture on a daily basis will improve hip mobility, which is well supported in research to decrease low back pain. In addition, each posture will help diminish low back pain through gradual stretch and gentle movement.


Restorative yoga is unlike typical yoga you see, where students are moving from pose to pose, actively strengthening their bodies. Restorative yoga is a passive approach to increasing flexibility, preventing injury, and improving well being.


Get started today. Download Pose 1 in a 5 part series on Sleeping Better Tonight!

An alternate view from my website.

Sleep Better Tonight!

Sleep is one of the biggest risk factors in loss of health. When you do not get enough sleep, every facet of your body suffers. Harvard University's Division of Sleep Medicine is leading the way in both researching and promoting awareness of the crucial importance of sleep.

Just because we get ready for bed, climb under the covers, switch off the lights and close our eyes does not mean we will actually go to sleep, or even relax. Our minds often continue to run 80 miles an hour and are unable to slow down. Our bodies, when given a chance to stop moving, often revolt in pain and discomfort. Quite often, low back and neck pain are worse at night when you stop moving.

This week's blog aims to help you get a good night's rest.

Each day I will be posting a restorative yoga pose in the method which I teach, called Professional Yoga Therapy. It is a combining of physical therapy and specialized yoga. This week's blog is dedicated to the students in my restorative classes. Here is your homework ladies! Stay in tune and on task with this week's practice. I will post a pose a day starting tomorrow.

To get started sleeping better tonight, try this:

1. "Re"establish your normal circadian rhythm. Some of us mistakenly think we are "night owls", able to stay up late and still get up early and have a productive day. However, as we age & as more research on sleep is completed, we realize the folly in this statement.

Sleep is the only time our body has to "grow and repair" itself. If we are not sleeping, we cannot heal. To maximize sleep quality, go to bed no later than 10 pm and rise no later than 7 am. Both western and eastern medicine recognize the importance of sleep and recommend similar practices.

So tonight, reset your clock. Go to bed before 10 pm and rise no later than 7 am.

2. Create a "sacred space." Your bedroom should be a sanctuary. However, most of us have turned them into hi tech busy body stations. With flat screen tv's, home offices tucked into corners, laptop computers, blackberry's, and the list goes on - it is hard to get a good night's sleep. Add to that the light and noise pollution of our world - street lights, 24 hour gas station/quick stops, super highways running through neighborhoods - and it's amazing that any of us function normally (ahem, if there is even a "normal" function that remains in our world).

So tonight, create a sacred space.

• Expel. Turn off the tv & expel all technology from your bedroom (except a good sleep inducing book). Invest in dimmer switches to create mood lighting.
• Paint. For future plans, go to your local paint store and pick out a low VOC paint color. Repaint your bedroom a darker, enveloping, sleep inducing shade (mine is a chocolaty eggplant color, for example).
• Black Out. Consider investing in blinds or shades. I put up darkening blinds and heavy drapes lined in black out fabric when my children were born. I quickly learned that although I did not mind rising with the sun in the morning, my children were cranky and sleep deprived if they had to sleep in a bright room. I was once averse to drapery, considering them an allergy inducing mess; however, I have found my family had no issues with allergies and we have had them in our home for over 5 years now.
• Conductivity. Place objects in your bedroom that are meaningful to you and your partner ONLY. This means no other family photos, no photos of your children (even!), no photos or art (or heaven forbid, loads of "knick knacks") of activity or bright, sunny colors. Everything in your bedroom should help induce sleep (or be conducive to that one and only "other" activity that should be taking place!) Add wedding photographs, candles, incense, and meaningful (but sparse!) objects which represent love and unity.
• Feng shui (Chinese design) and vastu (Indian design) have plenty to say about what should and should be in a bedroom. This is an entirely other blog, and I'll be blogging about this in week's to come. Stay tuned for Future Blogs on Bedroom Interior "Re"Design

Here's to your good sleep! Stay tuned for the "Sleep Inducing Pose of the Day" starting October 6!

*photo is my second son, growing fast in his first week of life. 2007