If you’re somebody that sometimes tosses and turns at night, you certainly are not alone. Many people have that type of anxiety and once they are awake, they may not be able to get back to sleep for hours.
Frankie Simmons is someone who had that problem and every night at 4 AM, she would wake up and not be able to get back to sleep. She admitted this in a TikTok video that has now gone viral.
The thing is, the video went viral, not because she was awake every night but because she learned how to go back to sleep again.
She said: “A couple of years ago it was a very regular occurrence for me to wake up at 4 am with anxiety all the time. And I’d have to pull myself up out of bed and do all this breathwork and energy work and tea drinking and spend forever trying to calm myself down to go back to sleep. All that changed the day that I found out about icing your vagus nerve.”
It seems as if she may have been onto something because the vagus nerve is the largest nerve in the body. It originates in the brain passes down through the abdomen and is even on both sides of the body.
Most people have heard of the vagus nerve but you might not realize that it is associated with so many different bodily functions. It doesn’t matter if you are talking about your heart rate, your ability to be cold, or even your blood pressure, it is all regulated by that giant nerve.
According to Frankie, stimulating the vagus nerve allows it to do a better job and to reduce inflammation. She learned that after putting an ice pack on the center of her chest for just a few minutes, she would be able to fall asleep within 15 minutes. This was what she called a “game-changer.”
Frankie is not alone in appreciating what stimulating the vagus nerve can do. Many doctors are also behind this with their own recommendations. Some may say that the evidence is not strong yet, but the suggestion is there and it may just help.
If you are somebody that wakes often and can’t fall back to sleep, you might want to consider trying this personally. It only takes a few minutes to try it and before you know it, you could be sleeping like a baby.
@heyfrankiesimmons happy icing! #internetbigsister #polyvagaltheory #vagusnerve #anxietyrelief #healingjourney #nervoussystemhealth #selfcareroutine