When you think of massage therapy, you might imagine a relaxing session that relieves your muscle tension and helps you release stress. You might also associate massage therapy treatments with alleviating discomfort, healing muscle injuries, and providing other wellness benefits. Did you know that massage therapy can also help you learn and increase your ability to focus? Let’s examine how massage therapy can help students focus on their studies and learn more.
Teaching Our Kids Lifelong Healthy Practices
Before we dive into the positive effects of massage therapy on learning, let’s take a moment to mention the importance of teaching our children how to lead healthy lifestyles and follow healthy practices into adulthood. Far too many adults fail to listen to their bodies when they’re giving signs that something is wrong. We often see clients who have ignored their discomfort until the pain is unbearable, distracting, or becomes a more serious injury, strain or condition.
Because students of all ages are often sitting at their desks for long periods without movement, the most common discomfort they experience is from poor posture and the effects of being sedentary. Stress, anxiety, and tension can also lead to muscle pain and tension, which can be distracting when trying to focus and learn. Teaching the young people in our lives to listen to their bodies and ask for help when something feels wrong is a health lesson that will benefit them for life. Experiencing massage therapy in a professional setting also teaches students about safe touch and the importance of taking care of your body.
4 Benefits of Massage Therapy That Increase Focus
There are many types of massage therapy treatments you can choose from to provide a range of benefits, depending on your condition. A Registered Massage Therapist (RMT) can help you determine which type of treatment or combination of treatments will be best for you. Even with different styles of treatment, there are some common effects that anyone, particularly students, can benefit from.
1. Better Sleep
As adults, it’s easy to sacrifice our sleep in the pursuit of productivity. Pushing our minds and bodies to the limit over time leads to stress and injury. As adults, we don’t want to pass on these bad habits to our kids, who need good sleep and rest to grow, learn and develop.
The number of hours of restful sleep children, teenagers, and young adults get in a night is crucial to brain development and the ability to focus and learn during the day. Children and youth who are still growing need sleep to support their growing bodies. The amount of recommended sleep changes by age bracket.
The CDC recommends the following hours of sleep:
- 9-12 hours for children aged 6-12
- 8-10 hours for children 13-18
- 7-9 hours for adults 19+
One of the effects of massage therapy that everyone can benefit from, especially students, is improved sleep. Massage therapy reduces anxiety and physical discomfort, making it easier to fall asleep at night. A massage appointment also decreases cortisol levels after a session, with an increase in serotonin and dopamine hormones that make it easier to feel relaxed and sleep at night.
2. Better Focus
Consistent sleep helps children show up for school well-rested, which puts them in a better position for learning because they can focus with fewer fatigue-related distractions. Other factors affect children and the duration for which they can focus. Still, as parents, you can set your child or teenager up for success by helping them relieve their tensions and reduce their anxiety with massage treatments, getting better sleep at night, and eating balanced, nutritious meals.
3. Better Mental Health
The topic of mental health and students is an increasingly discussed topic in our society and one that deserves lots of attention. Students today face all types of stressors and anxiety. From their studies to work to personal lives and finances, there is a lot of pressure on young people. Regular massage appointments can help relieve stress and improve sleep, which also leads to overall better mental health, even if it can’t solve all the problems. Better mental health leads to easier learning with fewer distractions and a greater ability to focus.
4. Reduced Stress
We already mentioned that massage therapy reduces stress, but it deserves its own point. Chronic stress can lead to many other health problems, including reduced immunity, chronic pain, muscle tension, headaches, and loss of sleep. When students are in exam mode or facing pressure to balance their grades with work and other competing priorities, their stress levels can be difficult to manage. Massage therapy is one tactic to help relieve their stress and reduce the chances of other problems developing due to that stress.
How Red Light Therapy Can Benefit Students
Red light therapy helps to reduce stress anxiety, and improve sleep quality. The red light penetrates deep into the skin to stimulate healing, relaxation, and reduced anxiety. Red light therapy for kids and adults involves short sessions that are non-invasive, non-touch, and don’t require any clothing to be removed. When the benefits of red light therapy paired with massage therapy, students in middle school, high school, or post-secondary can benefit and improve their learning both inside the classroom and out.
Treat the Students in Your Life to Massage Therapy
Do you have a student in your life? Why not show them support as they head back to school by giving them a gift certificate for a massage treatment or red light therapy appointment? They’ll benefit from relaxation, better sleep, and increased focus while also learning the importance of taking the time to take care of the body and mind.
Student Massage and Red Light Therapy in St. Albert
Book a massage therapy appointment and red light therapy session for yourself or your student at Urban Wellness and Massage in St. Albert. Our team of RMTs and Red Light Therapy experts are here to help you reduce your stress and increase your focus. You can also add a 20-minute red light therapy session to your massage appointment so you can start your treatment with even more rejuvenating outcomes.
