There’s a saying that goes, “You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make him drink.” It’s about how you can provide someone with what they need, but you can’t control their actions. It’s a fitting analogy for sleep. You can try all you want to get a good night’s sleep, but ultimately it’s up to your body and mind to cooperate.
Luckily, there are some things you can do to get a sound slumber. In this post, we’ll discuss the importance of sleep and share some tips on how to get the best sleep possible. So whether you’re struggling with insomnia or just looking for ways to improve your quality of sleep, read on!
The Hormones Controlling Your Sleep
Sleep isn’t just about personal choice but an activity induced by various hormones. Knowing this will allow you to research what triggers hormones that encourage sleep or the hormones that hinder it. As a result, you can shy away from food and activities triggering hormones harmful for sleep and do more of what induces hormones good for slumber.
Adenosine
Adenosine is the hormone responsible for making you feel sleepy and is often released in the first stages of sleep—the non-rapid eye movement (NREM) stages. Adenosine builds up throughout the day through a series of bodily chemical indigestion: from glucose to glycolysis to adenosine triphosphate and then to adenosine, triggering the sleepy feeling before you go to bed.
Melatonin
Another hormone responsible for making you feel drowsy when the sleeping time comes is melatonin. Melatonin production is induced by taking in melatonin-rich food like the following:
- Milk
- Pistachios
- Grapes
- Tart cherries
- Rice
- Goji berries
- Mushrooms
- Corn
- Oats
- Eggs
- Bananas
These hormones are also released when darkness or nighttime comes.
Cortisol
The hormones in the body know just when to come, and cortisol comes when the sun rises or when triggered by light. It is the hormone that drives you to wake up and stand in the morning and keeps you awake throughout the day. It is responsible for keeping you energetic and alert to do your daily tasks.
Leptin and Ghrelin
One of the bodily functions of sleep is digestion and appetite, thanks to leptin and ghrelin, which are responsible for controlling appetite. With proper sleep, the production of these two hormones stays at a healthy level, allowing you to eat healthily. But with disrupted sleep, the production of leptin and ghrelin is disturbed, causing eating disorders.
7 Benefits Of Good Night’s Sleep
Knowing what hormones affect sleep and how they are triggered will allow you to make wise choices for your health. For instance, you need to ensure that cortisol won’t be triggered before sleeping time. Meanwhile, adenosine and melatonin should be activated before sleep to make you drowsy. Having a great sleep every time will allow you to reap the benefits below.
Healthy Weight Maintenance
Discussed above are the roles of leptin and ghrelin in sleep and appetite. If you have enough sleep, leptin and ghrelin production will be healthy, ensuring that your food intake will keep your weight healthy and normal.
When you have enough sleep, you’ll feel more satisfied with your meals and skip the cravings in between, which are the root causes of weight gain. Also, you’ll have the energy to move and burn some fats, unlike when you lack sleep, you feel lazy and just lay in bed or stay all day indoors.
Prevention of Type 2 Diabetes
Part of the production of adenosine is the breaking down of body glucose. When you are already in the NREM stage of sleep, your blood sugar level also drops and is regulated. On the contrary, if you stay awake and lack sleep, this glucose breakdown and regulation aren’t met, leading to the formation of illnesses, particularly type 2 diabetes.
With this, ensure that you aim for relaxed and deep sleep to give the body the chance to break down sugar and keep you healthy the next day and for the long run.
Keeps the Heart Healthy
Aside from breaking down sugar, the heart is another body part greatly affected by sleep. During NREM, your heart rate slows down and relaxes throughout the night to rest from working all day.
This rest ensures that heart diseases will be kept at bay, especially heart inflammation and high blood pressure. Lack of good sleep can lead to chronic sleep deprivation, which affects the heart first and results in heart diseases and conditions.
Maintains a Sharp Mind
Good sleep also benefits the mind. The brain is controlled by an internal clock called the circadian rhythm. This rhythm recognizes light as a sign of day and wakefulness and dark or night as a sign of sleep time. This rhythm is maintained when the mind is well-rested because of sleep.
As a result of consistently good sleep, you have a fresh mind each day, ready to make decisions, critical thinking, and academic tasks. The mind is also able to store memory properly and recall it later.
Aids in Stress Management and Gives You Good Mood
Lack of sleep clouds judgment as the mind isn’t able to rest. Your mood is also affected because sleep deprivation causes mood swings, irritability, and impulsiveness. To ensure you won’t feel emotionally overwhelmed, anxious, or depressed, having a complete sleep every time is important. When you have complete and sound sleep, your mind is fresh, so no matter what challenges you face during the day, you can objectively solve them.
Sustains Energy, Especially for Athletes
Part of the NREM stages of sleep is the relaxation of muscles which ensures that you won’t move while you sleep to give them a break from the whole day’s errands. Upon waking, your whole body is energized and ready to take on another day.
Sleep’s positive effects on muscles are especially advantageous to individuals who have an active lifestyle, are athletic, and do sports as a career. This helps them avoid muscle fatigue and even posture instability, which is a long-term negative effect of sleep deprivation.
Boosts the Immune System
Sleep generally affects your overall mental, emotional, and physical wellness. Good sleep boosts your immune system because the different aspects of your health are intact. As a result, you won’t be susceptible to bacteria and viruses.
The production of antibodies is also healthy, which ensures the neutralization of toxins and activation of bodily chemicals that help fight diseases. With proper sleep, a healthy diet, and good habits, it will be easier to recover because your body has the strength even if you get sick.
5 Tips to Achieve Sound Sleep Every Time
The body itself is equipped to induce sleep at night and wake you up during the day. Through a healthy lifestyle and conscious desire to ensure you have a restful sleep at night, you can sleep for 7-9 hours. Here are some tips to have a sound sleep every time.
Tip#1: Satisfy the circadian rhythm through light and dark.
One of the best ways to get a restful sleep is to train your body by following a sleeping schedule. Together with sleeping time, ensure that the sleeping environment is sleep-inducive. Use soft lighting or turn off the lights to induce hormones causing drowsiness. Make sure you have a bed, mattress, and pillow that cradles you to sleep. Keep your room cool for comfort and free from noise and distractions, so you can focus on relaxing.
Tip #2: Keep an active lifestyle.
Sleep is a well-deserved reward when you have done all the work during the day. Skip napping if you notice that napping in the day makes it difficult to sleep at night. It will also be easier for you to doze off when you are active throughout the day. If you can squeeze in some exercise, that would be best. Staying active will keep you out of the couch, your laptop, or your phone screen, which aren’t helpful for your sleep.
Tip #3: Relax your mind.
Give yourself the pampering it deserves after a long day by doing the following:
- Feel the relaxation as you enjoy a warm bath.
- Induce more relaxation with the relaxing scent of candles.
- Infuse your humidifier with essential oils.
- Give yourself a face, hand, and foot scrub.
- Turn on some zen music.
- Tone down the lighting.
- Count the great things you experienced throughout the day.
- Look forward to the goodness that is about to happen the next day.
Fill your mind with positive thoughts while making yourself feel special and relaxed. You can even turn your room and bathroom into a home spa!
Tip #4: Change your belief about sleep.
Change your perspective on sleep. Some people may see sleep as non-essential and often ticked off of the basic daily needs. In truth, sleep should be a priority because it allows you to be efficient in everything you do. Wipe away the belief that you’ll have plenty of time to rest when you die. Lack of sleep can be a root cause of many diseases causing death.
Tip #5: Have a healthy diet.
Since bodily chemicals highly control sleep, make it a habit to take in what’s suitable for your sleep pattern. Avoid food and drinks that will keep you awake at night. Below are what you should and should not eat before sleep.
Food good for sleep
- Almonds
- Yogurt
- Figs
- Chamomile tea
- Cottage cheese
- Chicken and turkey
- Kale
- Watermelon
- Bananas
- Milk
- Kiwi
- White rice
- Honey
- Prunes
- Pistachios
- Beans and chickpeas
Sleep depriving food
- Chocolate
- Ice cream
- Coffee
- Fatty foods
- Red meat
- Soda
- Alcohol
Introducing Karviva Unwined
We know just the right one for you if you seek a healthy alternative to your daily drinks that will not put your sound sleep at risk. Check out Karviva Unwined. It will satisfy your cravings for wine without giving you the alcoholic kick that will disrupt your sleep.
It is 100% alcohol-free, created from non-genetically modified organisms, and gluten-free. If you are health conscious or worried about your sugar level, you can still enjoy Karviva Unwined. This drink does not have any sugar or sweeteners in it. Plus, every 12 fl oz of it only has 80 calories.
Why Choose Karviva Unwined
You may think that alcoholic beverages aid in better sleep because you feel drowsy quickly. But the truth is, it is more disruptive than helpful. Alcohol messes with the rapid eye movement (REM) stage of sleep, which is essential in remembering memories and turning learnings into long-term recollections.
Good thing that Karviva can be an alternative to your wine and booze craving at night. This drink is a combination of healthy ingredients like the following:
- Aronia berry
- Dark cherry
- Schisandra berry
- Mulberry
- Pear
These fruity flavors strengthen the immune system and bring wellness to the heart and mind—on top of its most incredible gift of good sleep.
Why It Is Better Than Alcoholic Beverages
Here are some of the reasons why your wine glass is better filled with Karviva than alcohol-infused drinks:
- The ingredients of Karviva work together to calm the mind and get you ready for the next day’s grind. On the other hand, alcohol can give you a hangover affecting how you run the next day’s tasks.
- Karviva berries are good for the heart. The ingredients have anti-inflammatory capabilities ensuring a healthy circulatory system. On the contrary, alcoholic drinks increase heart rate and even lead to an attack with too much consumption.
- Alcohol disrupts sleep, affecting the immune system and making you more susceptible to sickness. Karviva, meanwhile, boosts your immune system.
Final Thoughts
Beauty sleep is vital for your physical, mental, and emotional wellbeing. It’s essential to get the right amount of sleep every night to feel refreshed when you wake up in the morning. Warding off diseases also begins by simply having a good night’s sleep.
So we hope that you’ve learned a lot from this article, especially about the tips to have a better sleep. More so, you can consider trying Unwined by Kaviva in your next dinner time or late night chill time. The drink brings plenty of benefits to the body, but above all, it contributes to your beauty sleep! Check out our products and experience for yourself their great benefits.
