You were on time for bed, and got your 7-8 hours of sleep, but you still wake up tired with that heavy feeling and not refreshed.
If this sounds like you, then you would think you were just stressed out (or your sleep routine is less than desirable), or maybe it is just ‘one of those days, right? Well, unfortunately for many, they don’t realize that their jaw may be affecting their sleep all night long without them ever knowing about it.
The connection between TMJ disorder and your ability to get a good night’s sleep is more closely related than most people understand.
Your temporomandibular joint (TMJ) functions continuously. While you sleep, jaw muscles are active as well. For some, though, the activity can become excessive in one or more ways: teeth grinding (bruxism), jaw clenching, and minor tension in the muscles of the jaw that never fully relax.
This continuous activity is putting pressure on the joint of the jaw and the muscles surrounding it. This pressure inhibits your body from being able to access the deeper and more restorative stages of sleep.
Nighttime clenching or grinding usually ranks first on the list of reasons for insomnia in TMJ patients. The tough part is that most people are completely unaware they’re even doing it.
While sleeping:
The slick thing is that while resting, the jaw is essentially working overtime.
Even if during the night you are not awakened completely, the continuous tension that is present while you sleep will disrupt your sleep cycles by causing you to:
This is why you may feel tired, even after having an adequate number of hours of sleep.
If you have a TMJ disorder that is creating a disruption to your sleep, you may have discovered you have the following:
All of these signs are typically an indication of how your jaw is straining at night, not that you have poor sleeping habits.
When it comes to sleep, things become quite a bit more complicated.
The more lack of sleep, the more stress in your body and muscle tension. The more tension you build in your body means more clenching and grinding of your teeth. The more grinding (and clenching) that occurs, the more severe your TMJ symptoms become.
So, now you have a cycle like so:
TMJ disrupts sleep → Lack of sleep worsens TMJ.
To break this cycle, the root of the problem needs to be addressed, not just the symptoms.
It’s easy to just want to fix your sleep with better sleeping habits, supplements, relaxation techniques, etc. While they DO help with helping you sleep better, they do not fix mechanically what is causing the stress in your jaw or teeth.
So, if your jaw continues to clench or be misaligned while sleeping, then you are still going to have the same wake-up issue no matter how many hours you actually get.
TMJ issues lead to better sleeping & will reduce strain on your jaw system. This means understanding:
Once you have addressed these issues, then your body will be able to relax like it should during the sleeping process.
If you are waking up in the morning with fatigue, soreness in your jaw, or tightness in your face, you may have a problem with your temporomandibular joint (TMJ). Dr. Luis specializes in identifying mechanical dysfunctions of the TMJ, such as clenching and grinding of teeth, as well as problems with the alignment of your jaw that may prevent you from being well rested.
Through a thorough evaluation, we can find out what happens to your body while you sleep and help you achieve more restful and rejuvenating sleep.
Because true restful sleep is not just about how long you sleep but also about the function of your body during sleep.