Why Addressing Sleep is Essential in Physical Therapy Practice

Send us Fan MailIf there was one thing we want you to take away from the tools of Integrative and Lifestyle Medicine, it’s this: improving your patients’ sleep is essential in physical therapy.Too many people assume that poor sleep is simply a fact of life or of aging, rather than something that can be fixed or changed. And this misconception is negatively impacting the health of our society.In order to understand why sleep is essential in physical therapy, you must know that sleep problems can lead to many negative health outcomes ranging from cardiovascular disease to chronic pain. Sleep happens to be one of the six pillars of Lifestyle Medicine, which is why an entire chapter is dedicated to it in the book, Integrative and Lifestyle Medicine in Physical Therapy.We’ve dedicated this podcast episode to sleep because the research and our personal and professional experience supports the benefits of good quality sleep on our health and well-bering.In this podcast episode, Dr. Ginger Garner interviews Dr. Katie Siengsukon PT, PhD, a sleep expert. She wrote the chapter, “Sleep and Relaxation,” which is an essential resource if you want proven tools to screen for sleep disorders/issues and techniques to promote healthier sleep hygiene for your patients.Dr. Siengsukon found her way into sleep research after feeling ill-equipped to help her patients with their sleep challenges, when starting as an entry-level PT. Through her research she learned how imperative sleep was for nearly every functioning system in the human body. Thus leading to researching how sleep is essential for physical therapy.Thanks to her efforts, more and more people are waking up from a good nights sleep and sharing the benefits of quality sleep in their physical therapy practices and beyond.Check out the podcast to listen to the full interview!Support the show