Poor sleep is not really a disease but a phenomenon that is the symptom of another condition. Diseases that can lead to sleep problems are: stress, high blood pressure, obesity, menopausal problems, cardiovascular disease, increased blood sugar levels, headaches and intestinal problems. You can try to combat poor sleep yourself with a few simple remedies. Firstly, it is wise to use as few sleeping pills as possible. Natural sleeping aids should also be avoided, although they have significantly fewer side effects than synthetic sleeping aids. NB! This article is written from the personal view of the author and may contain information that is not scientifically substantiated and/or in line with the general view.
Source: Peter Griffin, PublicDomainPictures
Contents:
- Poor sleep increases the risk of accidents
- Poor sleep makes you fat faster
- Poor sleep and impotence
- Poor sleep and depression
- You produce too little happiness hormone
- Light leads to less good sleep
- Irregularity is a contributing factor
- Eat good!
Poor sleep increases the risk of accidents
It is vital to sleep well. Poor sleep leads to reduced concentration and this can lead to accidents when you work with machines or move in traffic. Poor sleep is debilitating and can lead to all kinds of diseases. The immune system responds less well if you sleep poorly.
Poor sleep makes you fat faster
Being chronically tired due to prolonged poor sleep is a risk factor for obesity. How does that work? If you sleep poorly you feel lethargic. You have a lack of energy. This means you have less resistance to choose a sensible diet; you choose to consume energy-rich (read sugar-rich) food. You start snacking and lose yourself in eating cookies and all kinds of sweets. Many people add extra sugar to their coffee and even people who normally don’t use sugar sometimes add sugar to their coffee or tea to get some extra fuel and become more active. But that’s not how the body works. The body is not a machine that you throw extra pure fuel into to make it run. If we just eat we get enough fuel. Sugar is a completely unnecessary product, pure fuel, but so pure that the body cannot use it and converts too much sugar into a fat layer. This is because the cells themselves all have a fuel reserve and sugary foods replenish this reserve very quickly; so quickly that the body switches to applying a fat layer.
Poor sleep and impotence
Poor sleep leads to reduced blood circulation and reduced oxygen transport. This puts the body in a kind of reserve position. Only the most vital parts of the body, such as the organ system and the brain, still receive enough oxygen. Symptoms such as impotence can arise indirectly from sleep deprivation.
Poor sleep and depression
Long-term or actually chronic sleep deprivation leads to a mental problem. People are more likely to become trapped in a negative spiral of thoughts and no longer have the resilience to escape it. As a result, people can become depressed from too little sleep. In addition, there are mutually reinforcing causes. Suppose someone eats a lot of sugar to counteract the feeling of fatigue, then this person will end up in a sugar dip half an hour after consuming sugar. This sugar dip makes people feel even more lethargic. This can increase depressive feelings.
Source: Peter Griffin, PublicDomainPictures
You produce too little happiness hormone
Melatonin and serotonin are two important hormones that are produced during sleep. Serotonin is also called the happiness hormone. When you get enough sleep you feel happy because serotonin levels in the blood are at normal levels. A deficiency of serotonin leads to depression.
Tryptophan is an important amino acid for the human body that, together with vitamin C, zinc, magnesium and sunlight, ensures the production of serotonin.
Light leads to less good sleep
Humans are wired in such a way that more melatonin is released during darkness, causing a feeling of fatigue. The use of lamps, computers and television disrupts the release of this hormone. Watching television can make you feel tired due to another cause: melatonin release; it is a hypnotic medium as the image changes and movements in the image lower your level of consciousness. This allows you to fall asleep in front of the television without actually contributing to restful sleep, which we all need on average eight hours a day.
In a room where there is a lack of darkness during nighttime sleep, the body produces less melatonin. This can disrupt the wake-sleep rhythm.
Irregularity is a contributing factor
The body is made up of habits. Man is a true creature of habit. When you go to sleep at exactly the same time every night, you program the body to get up. Anyone who goes on holiday will notice that he or she quickly switches to a different rhythm. Some holidays even require you to get up a lot earlier than normal. This may cause problems for the first few days, but after two or three days you will get into a certain rhythm. You can then fall asleep and get up more easily because you have reprogrammed your body in a short time. If you go to sleep at a completely different time every night, you are more likely to sleep poorly.
Eat good!
Healthy food; Eating lots of fresh products and little sugar contributes greatly to good sleep. Sometimes you just lie awake because you ate too little or too little nutritious food. Your stomach may not be growling yet, but you are restless. Eating too little and not eating nutritiously enough can lead to a hunger state in the body, making it very difficult to sleep. You can quickly eat something if you lie awake at night, but make sure you eat something healthy and filling. Sometimes simply eating fruit such as a banana can help.
