News & Blog

How Reflexology Can Help With Sleep

Sep 24, 2019

As we hurtle into our last week of Sleeptember – our awareness month highlighting the healthy benefits of sleep – it coincides with World Reflexology Week (23-29 September) so I thought our last blog of the month would look at reflexology for sleep.

We need sleep to function – both physically and mentally. Sleep regulates your mood, improves your memory but also maintains health, weight and energy levels.  Getting just one bad night’s sleep can impact how we feel the following day. Immediate effects include poorer memory and reaction times and research shows that repeated changes to sleep patterns can also make you fatter and more likely to turn to cigarettes and caffeine.

To ensure you experience good sleep it’s essential to follow good lifestyle habits and to eliminate the factors that are causing you disturbed sleep. For example making sure that your bedroom is the right environment (cool, dark and quiet), that your bed is up to scratch, looking at the lighting in your home, and avoiding foods and drinks that can hinder sleep.

However if you’re still not sleeping you may want to look at alternative ways to improve your sleep including reflexology.

What is Reflexology?

Reflexology is an ancient holistic therapy that has been practised for more than 5000 years.

The art of reflexology, where every part of the body is “mapped” to a corresponding region of the feet, hands and ears, is essentially a form of massage. It can be used to support people with sleep issues by calming the nervous system, promoting relaxation, improving mood and other benefits such as reducing stress and pain.

Reflexology for sleep

There is apparently a specific point on the base of the foot called the insomnia point. Usually in a person who is having problems sleeping this point is sore when pressed, it is one of the best points to massage to help induce sleep. There are nearly 15,000 nerves in your feet alone which is why foot reflexology is calming and effective.

While it’s not a scientifically proven medical treatment for insomnia or other sleep issues, it can be a helpful complementary treatment.