Tag: SLEEP

Serotonin and Sunlight: The Refreshing Combination

A dull day looks gloomy, feels gloomy and is gloomy. And that gut feeling is actually scientific and very much real!! 

Rise and Shine with the Sun

Serotonin (5-hydroxytryptamine or 5-HT) is a multi functional molecule, which fulfills the role of a  neurotransmitter as well as of a hormone. Brain derived serotonin (BDS) works a neurotransmitter, whereas, gut derived serotonin (GDS) functions as a hormone.these two can never mix up and are separated by a special membrane, the blood-brain barriers Also, the synthesizing process of serotonin is a multistep process and due to the presence of two different kind of genes in an enzyme involved in producing serotonin, BDS and GDS are considered to be two distinct molecules. Serotonin, in the hormonal form, has established linkage with mood, perceiving abilities and memory. Also, relation between low levels of serotonin and depression/anxiety has also been traced. Other functions of the serotonin include regulation of sleep, digestion, blood clotting and also has a part in the regulation of the bone density. 

Now, sunlight has an important role in the health of an individual. Now you may ask, how? Well, it is because sunlight is believed to trigger an increase in the release of serotonin in the body. Serotonin, apart from being a mood booster, is also said to help with focus and feeling calm. No wonder, it is called the ‘feel-good’ chemical of our body. Hence, during season change, especially to winter, people have a significant chance of experiencing season based pattern depression, which was formerly known as  Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD), which is linked to the noticeable decrease to sun exposure. Also, serotonin, when acetylated and methylated, results in melatonin. Melatonin is the primary hormone related to the sleep cycle. Apart from that, melatonin is also involved in blood pressure regulation. So, it is an obvious fact that disturbance in levels of serotonin will ultimately affect the production of melatonin in the body, which in turn, will affect the sleep related processes in an individual. So if you are looking for a change from the night owl habits, how about soaking up some sunlight? P.S. Normal blood pressure and a healthy circulatory system are complementary! 

Limits for a reason…

GDS, surprisingly, isn’t too friendly with the bones. Higher than normal serotonin levels have been linked with osteoporosis (bones being porous and hence, fragile). With the laboratory experiments, it has been observed that serotonin prevents the replication and development of the osteoblasts. This leads to production of a significantly lesser number of cells by the osteoblasts in comparison to the cells destroyed by the osteoclasts. This, in return, leads to a lesser amount of bone material and the bone becomes porous. Sounds bad right?

But as they say, where there is a will, there is a way. The researchers have found a way to lower the serotonin levels, if and when required in the body, by a dietary regulation. This regulation involves the reduction in intake of tryptophan, which happens to be a requirement in the synthesis of serotonin. Talk about curbing a problem from the bud, huh?

So, all and all, serotonin is a pretty amazing hormone, but only at the normal levels. 

Website Reference:

How the Gut Talks to Bone
https://www.tricitymed.org/2018/08/5-ways-the-sun-impacts-your-mental-and-physical-health/#:~:text=That%20serotonin%20you%20soak%20up,also%20helps%20your%20body%20produce.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/medicine-and-dentistry/serotonin

Resting the body from exertionby the medicine of Sleeping

Article by – Shishir Tripathi

Intern at Hariyali Foundation
In collaboration with
Educational News

In the present world where everyone is running all the day and even night too, it is highly important to have a proper sleep schedule so that the body and the brain relaxes when the tiring day of an individual ends. Not only people working in offices, but also the women at home require rest after the tiring day doing all types of house chores. Kids in the family too need rest after playing all day.

Many working people who sit the entire day in front of computer/laptop screens, mobile phones/tablets, need rest after time to time. Doctors advise that doing eye exercises and yoga for people whose eyes are exposed to electronic screens for the entire day. In big offices, there are separate areas for relaxing after the office work ends or in between too.

The human body is not a machine to be taken work all the day and expecting the machine to do more work the next day that too at a faster speed and more energy.

Students these days are attending online classes all day long sitting in front of mobile phone or laptops. Continuous screen exposure is really very harmful for the eyes, for the spine and can cause severe headache and pain. Not only classes, children but the entire youth is continuously online on social media for hours with all the recent updates. Continuous usage of phone and electronic devices may ruin the sleep schedule and will cause disruption in the normal sleeping process. Many people come to the doctor, complaining that they want to sleep at night when they are in bed but couldn’t. Many psychological disorders and other physical disorders and abnormalities are harming the normal, regular sleep schedule of the person.

Women too doing all the kitchen chores and other chores including cleaning, dusting, washing and the endless work at home face regular ache in the body and if not treated at time can cause internal injuries in bones and severe pain that can last for the rest life. Women at home should take rest time-to-time so that any physical ache and headache should not trouble them any day.

People do different work and have different sort of lifestyles but the one most common way of resting the brain and the body is ‘Sleep’. Many people argue that we feel by sharing updates on our social media handles or by playing any game or by following a certain hobby, but the most appropriate way of resting is sleeping after a tiring day. If one requires, he or she can have short naps in their offices in between the work. But only short naps won’t work. An adequate sleep in bed is so important for proper working of the human body and its internal organs/glands too. When a person sleeps, his body is involved in healing and repairing of heart and blood vessels and sleep reduces the risk of heart disease, kidney disease, blood pressure and stroke. Sleeping and relaxing the body will help the person wake up with more energy and a joyful and calm mood too.

Many so called health conscious people say that one must not sleep in afternoon; otherwise they’ll not be able to sleep at night. It is true to some extent but not entirely correct for all the people. It is the basic fundamental of every machine that if one want more work from it then surely extra rest and extra care is required. If that extra care and attention is not given to a machine, it will be surely going to collapse one day. This was just an example to understand that if a person is doing more of physical and mental work all day, then he or she needs proportionate rest too at the end of the day to release all the exertion of the day.

Experts say that 6-8 hours of sleep is required by the human body. But actually it is up to the person that how much he or she is tired, how much physical or mental exertion he or she is exposed to? It is purely a person’s own choice to sleep as per his awareness and benefits of sleep and his exertion from work.
The best way to sleep is either sleeping on the back with straight body and facing up towards the ceiling or sleeping towards the left side. Moreover sleeping towards the life side is considered good because it helps the body to clear intestinal waste from the brain and reduces the risk of developing Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and other neurological diseases.

So these were the benefits of taking rest and sleeping but still for the people who sleep a lot, there are disadvantages too. For people who are the least tired and sleep a lot (oversleeping basically) it can cause problems like obesity, heart disease, diabetes, increased pain and inflammation, cognitive impairment, impaired fertility, depression etc.

Therefore, one must take rest as per he or she takes work from his or her body and at the same time oversleeping and resting without doing anything will even cause severe problems.


So have adequate rest and work with full enthusiasm and energy.

How to Sleep better at night..!

3 Ways to Improve Your Sleep

Most people aren’t getting enough sleep, plain and simple. But—and this is the important thing to realize—we don’t recognize that we are sleep deprived. In my article on the science of sleep and in my comprehensive sleep guide, I covered this problem, discussed how sleep works, and shared a variety of practical ways to improve the quality of your sleep. If you’re looking for a primer on how to sleep better, check out those two resources.

However, if you want to improve your sleep, there are actually some very simple and practical ways to go about it. I call these strategies the 3 Levers of Sleep.

Here’s how the 3 Levers of Sleep work…

The 3 Levers of Sleep

If you want to improve the quality of your sleep and boost your performance there are 3 levers you can “pull” to give yourself a boost.

  1. Intensity
  2. Timing
  3. Duration

Intensity refers to how well you sleep. As I described in detail , there are different phases of sleep. Two of these phases are particularly important: Slow-wave sleep (also known as deep sleep) and REM sleep. The percentage of sleeping time you spend in these two phases largely determines the quality of your sleep each night. 

Timing refers to when you go to sleep. What time do you go to bed? This factor is important for two reasons. First, if you get in bed around the same time each night, it is easier for your body to develop good sleep habits. Second, the time you go to sleep should be in accordance with your circadian rhythm.

Duration refers to how long you sleep. This one is simple: how much time do you spend sleeping each night? 6 hours? 8 hours? It can be easy to convince yourself that duration isn’t very important, but it is critical to your growth, performance, and recovery. Professional athletes often sleep over 10 hours per night. If you’re taxing your body and mind, then duration is crucial for you as well. 

How to Sleep Better

How can you use these 3 levers to improve your sleep?

When it comes to intensity, the truth is that there isn’t much you can do. Your body largely manages the intensity of your sleep cycle  for you. It adjusts automatically based on what you need and how much time you are spending asleep. Exercising consistently and getting proper nutrition will help, but these actions only indirectly improve sleep intensity. 

This is actually good news because it simplifies things for you. Because your body manages the quality of your sleep on its own, you only need to focus on two factors: timing (when you go to bed) and duration (how long you’re in bed).

If we make another assumption, then we can simplify the situation even further. That assumption is this: You wake up at approximately the same time each day.

If you wake up at about the same time each day, then your sleep duration is basically determined by when you go to bed. Generally speaking, if you get into bed earlier, then you’ll end up sleeping more. Improve the timing and you’ll improve the duration as well.

And that brings us to this practical punchline…

Master Your Power Down Routine

If you’re focused on how to sleep better, timing is perhaps the most important of the 3 levers of sleep. The intensity of your sleep is managed automatically by your body. The duration of your sleep is largely dependent on when you get into bed (assuming you wake up around the same time each morning). And that means getting to bed at an earlier, more consistent time is critical for improving the quality and duration of your sleep.

Sleeping period not only determines how much you take rest but also the amount of energy and work you will be able to produce the next day. If you are taking proper recommended time sleep which is around 7-8 hours and maintain this cycle continuously for a extended period of time you will surely be able to notice a drastic change in your lifestyle and how much productive you have been since you are following the cycle.

To maintain the cycle I have mentioned the best ways as per my knowledge accounted from different researches and from my personal experience though I know not everyone’s body reacts the same but I would definitely recommend it as my routine has improved significantly. Talking about the other aspects of maintaining your sleep would be that it would be beneficial for you in a longer run , your metabolism and the way your body needs to cope up with the ageing factor requires you to start healthy as it is well said that “ Rome was not built in a day” . The earlier you start working on your body the longer it will pay you in many ways , you will notice that you stand out from others , for an instance you can see that from  defence personnel who have retired but still not tired as they are trained for maintaining their health in the least resources available as they know if they do not sleep at night it would not matter as they still have to wake at 4am the next morning .

To conclude I would like to say starting from things that require the minimum effort from side and gradually going towards the harder things is the process you should follow .

How Important Is Your Sleep?

Our lives are fast. Time does not wait for us and we do not wait for the time. Neither can catch up to each other. There are days when you have so much work and tasks to do that sleep feels like an impossible reality. You have to submit the report to your boss in the office, you have to pick up groceries from the market on your way home, you have to read a bedtime story to your kid and see that they complete their homework. There isn’t enough time left and you end up going to bed late and getting up early. And then there are days when you are determined to get your eight hours of sleep at any cost. You don’t mess around with unnecessary work and end up getting a good night’s sleep.

alarm

Sometimes sleep seems like a perfectly fine waste of time. Why should you spend close to one-third of your life sleeping when instead you could gear up and do something more useful? You could, after all, achieve great success in those lost hours. Not sleeping should be the thing responsible for your body, right?

This is the part where your brain tricks you. Sleep is essential for forming memories. It is responsible for your brain’s physiological maintenance. When your body is asleep, your brain is still awake acting like a mental janitor by clearing out all of the junk that has accumulated as a result of your daily thinking.

Here are a few reasons why should you make sleep a priority

  1. Fatigue: Sleep deprivation results in fatigue, low energy throughout the day, and poor concentration. You have an irritable mood and are inattentive.
  2. Immunity: Your immune system is more likely to break down when you have burned the candle at both ends. It can cause abnormal thyroid function and growth hormone secretion.
  3. Prediabetes: Sleep deprivation causes impaired glucose tolerance, or higher than normal blood sugar levels.
  4. Stress: Not having enough sleep causes elevated levels of cortisol (stress hormone). You are likely to have neurological disturbances including visual illusions, hallucinations, blurred vision, memory lapses, and droopy eyes.

sleepSo the next question automatically becomes how to make sleep a priority? Here are a few suggestions you could practice:

  1. Enticing bed routine: Our brain loves patterns. Save appropriate activities until the minutes leading up to bedtime. This signals your brain that sleep is on the horizons and your brain treats it as a reward.
  2. Streamlined and peaceful bedroom: By re-purposing your sleeping space you are tricking your brain, making it difficult to go to bed. Leave your gadgets, snacks, and work stuff out of the room for a blissful sleep.
  3. Consistent bedtime: Although easier said than done but try to maintain a consistent routine. Research shows that the most beneficial hormone secretions and bodily recovery occur between the hours of 10 p.m. to 2 a.m.
  4. Sleep is an investment: The busier you are during the day, the less time you have to sleep. Re-prioritize your schedule and invest some hours in your sleep. A little extra sleep is instrumental in health and work benefits too.

Image Courtesy: GOOGLE