People aren’t sleeping as much as they should. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says “1 in 3 adults don’t get enough sleep.” Losing sleep is associated with several conditions, including obesity, type 2 diabetes, and heart disease.
Massages improve sleep quality by boosting a chemical in the brain called serotonin. Getting a 3-minute back massage does more for your health than a 35-minute nap. By managing stress-hormone levels, massage can also reduce the number of sleep disturbances. “It’s essentially affecting the hormone levels,” Joe Bob Smith, a staff member at the National Holistic Institute and a massage therapist, told Massage Envy. “Studies have shown that massage increases serotonin, which increases the melatonin and helps circadian rhythms to reset.”
A 2007 study in the Journal of Bodywork and Movement Therapies found adults reported less pain and fewer sleep disruptions after half-hour massage sessions for five weeks. Meanwhile, a 2014 study found getting a massage helped deal with insomnia in postmenopausal women.
