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Can massage help you sleep better?

Can massage help you sleep better?

We all know how difficult sleep can feel when our bodies refuse to switch off.

Whether it’s tension, restlessness or simply the stresses of the day, feeling physically relaxed can be an important part of preparing for a good night’s sleep.

It’s one reason massage has long been associated with relaxation. But can it actually help us sleep better?

Research suggests there could be a connection.


Putting massage and sleep to the test

A 2023 systematic review and meta-analysis brought together research investigating whether massage therapy could improve sleep quality.

Rather than relying on the results of a single experiment, researchers identified 10 randomised controlled trials involving 569 participants, with eight studies included in the final meta-analysis.

The studies looked at massage interventions including back massage and foot reflexology, and assessed their effect on sleep.

The participants were critically ill adults being cared for in hospital, a group for whom getting good quality sleep can be particularly difficult.


What did they find?

Overall, the results suggested that massage could have a positive effect on sleep.

When researchers combined the results of the individual studies, massage therapy was associated with improved subjective sleep quality compared with usual care.

In other words, people receiving massage generally reported sleeping better. The researchers found particularly encouraging results for foot reflexology massage.

While the individual studies varied in their methods and the certainty of the overall evidence was considered low, the findings suggest there may be a relationship between massage, relaxation and how we experience sleep.


Why might massage help us unwind?

There are several possible explanations.

Massage provides physical and sensory stimulation that can help us feel relaxed, while previous research has explored its potential effects on heart rate, stress and the autonomic nervous system.

There’s also the simple ritual of it.

Taking a few minutes to slow down, focus on physical sensations and release some of the tension accumulated during the day can create a natural transition between being busy and preparing for sleep.

And anyone who has ever found themselves drifting off during a massage will probably recognise the feeling.


So, can massage help you sleep better?

Potentially.

This systematic review provides some encouraging evidence that massage therapy may support better subjective sleep quality.

But there is an important limitation - we can't conclude from this research that massage will improve everyone's sleep. What it does add to is a growing body of research exploring the relationship between touch, massage, relaxation and sleep.

And if a little massage helps your body feel calmer at the end of the day, it might just be a lovely way to tell it that it's time to switch off.


The research

Fang CS, Chang SL, Fang CJ, Chou FH. Effect of massage therapy on sleep quality in critically ill patients: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Journal of Clinical Nursing. 2023. DOI: 10.1111/jocn.16660.

A note on the research: This article discusses scientific research for general information only. The research described above investigated massage therapy in critically ill adults and did not investigate AYA products. The evidence should not be interpreted as showing that massage products treat insomnia, sleep disorders or any other medical condition.

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