Sleep: what upper cervical research has looked at

You wake up tired no matter how many hours you get. You're exhausted at 3 p.m. and wide awake at 3 a.m.

Illustration: a tangled blue thread that runs out into one clear line

Poor sleep is rarely the only thing going on, and none of the research below studied sleep on its own. Sleep was measured alongside fibromyalgia in one randomized trial, alongside chronic fatigue in a NUCCA study, and reported alongside seizures and mood in one case report. Here is what each found.

3 studies on this page

Designs: Randomized controlled trial, prospective study, case report
Published: 2004 to 2015
NUCCA lineage: marked on the NUCCA studies. QSM3, the method used at our office, is a progression of NUCCA.

Where these studies sit, by design and year

3 studies, published 2004 to 2015. Strongest design: controlled trial. 1 in the NUCCA lineage, ringed.

the studies

What each study looked at

Strongest study design first. The dots show the design, from a single case (one dot) to a controlled trial (four). How to read this library

Randomized controlled trial2015Hands-on care at C1 and C2

Fibromyalgia: 120 people, with and without upper neck care added to the same program

Who and how many: 120 people (52 women) with fibromyalgia and confirmed C1-C2 joint dysfunction, at a university research laboratory.
What was measured: Both groups had the same one-year multimodal program, and one group also received hands-on care at the top of the neck. Measures: the Fibromyalgia Impact Questionnaire, pain catastrophizing, pressure pain thresholds, sleep quality (Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index), the Beck anxiety and depression inventories, and 3D posture, at the start, at 12 weeks and one year later.
What was found: The group that also had upper neck care did significantly better over time on every measure: fibromyalgia impact, pain measures, sleep quality, anxiety, depression and posture.
Limits: One research center, and the result needs repeating elsewhere. The upper neck care was a hands-on manual method aimed at C1 and C2, a different style from orthogonal upper cervical care like ours.

Read the abstract on PubMed → Source 1

Prospective study2012NUCCANUCCA lineageNot indexed in PubMed

Nineteen people with chronic fatigue syndrome, six months after a NUCCA correction

Who and how many: 19 people diagnosed with chronic fatigue syndrome under the 1994 CDC criteria, fatigued for six months or more.
What was measured: Quality of life on the SF-36 health survey and sleep on the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index, before a NUCCA atlas correction and after six months of monitoring to keep the atlas aligned.
What was found: The SF-36 general health score rose from 30.3 to 55.6 and the mental health score from 46.4 to 68.6, both statistically significant. The sleep quality score went from 12.1 to 6.1, where lower is better.
Limits: No control group and a single practitioner, both named by the authors. Nineteen people. A version of this study published in 2012 as a conference abstract reports different post-care scores.

Read the abstract on the journal's site → Source 2

Case report2004Upper cervical

A 23-year-old man after a head-first fall: seizures, sleep, mood and migraine

Who and how many: One man, 23, who landed on his head in a pole vault fall at 17. Over the next six years he developed rapid-cycling bipolar disorder, seizures, a sleep disorder, neck and back pain and migraines, and saw many physicians.
What was measured: Thermography and X-rays of the upper neck, then assessments by his neurologist at the start, at 2 months and at 4 months of upper cervical care.
What was found: After one month he reported no seizures or manic episodes and better sleep. At four months his migraines had gone from about three a week to two a month. At seven months he reported no symptoms, and he remained free of them 18 months later.
Limits: One person. The author proposes a link between the fall, the upper neck and his symptoms, but a single case can't establish it.

Read the abstract on PubMed → Source 3

before you draw conclusions

What this research does and doesn't tell you

In every study here sleep was a secondary measure in people with another main condition. There is no upper cervical study on this list of people whose main problem is sleep. Ongoing sleep problems deserve a medical look as well, including for sleep apnea.

Published research can't predict what will happen for any one person, including you. Studies report averages and single stories; your nervous system is your own. That is why The Lazar Method^™ starts with measurement, not with a promise.

We measure first, so the answer is about you, not an average.

Before any correction we measure how your nervous system is regulating your body: heart rate variability, thermal and muscle tone scans, PostureIQ™, and digital X-ray of the upper neck. QSM3, the method used at our office, is a progression of NUCCA. Dr. Jonathan Lazar, D.C., or someone personally trained by him, will go over your scans and images with you.

If we can help, we'll tell you. If we can't, we'll help you find someone who can.

Talk it through on a 15-minute Clarity Call →

This page is educational and is not medical advice. Keep the doctors who know you in the loop.

citations

Sources

Moustafa IM, Diab AA. 2015. The addition of upper cervical manipulative therapy in the treatment of patients with fibromyalgia: a randomized controlled trial. Rheumatol Int 35(7):1163-74. PubMed 25782585 · DOI 10.1007/s00296-015-3248-7
Woodfield C, Dickholtz M Sr. 2012. Improvement in Quality of Life in Patients with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Following Upper Cervical Chiropractic Care: A Prospective Clinical Study Journal of Upper Cervical Chiropractic Research December 11, 2012:92-99. Not indexed in PubMed. Article page on vertebralsubluxationresearch.com
Elster EL. 2004. Treatment of bipolar, seizure, and sleep disorders and migraine headaches utilizing a chiropractic technique. J Manipulative Physiol Ther 27(3):E5. PubMed 15129207 · DOI 10.1016/j.jmpt.2003.12.027

Titles are quoted exactly as published. Sources checked 2026-11-03.

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