With the arrival of hot summer months, humid nights, late sunsets and early dawns make it difficult to get a good sleep. Sleep is the moment when both our brain and body go to rest. We say to sleep at least 6 hours a night, but sleeping more than 9 hours as well as under 6 hours is risky in terms of health. The body repairs itself during sleep. While 7-9 hours of sleep is necessary to improve concentration and memory, sleeping more than 9 hours increases the risk of sudden death, heart disease, obesity and diabetes.
INCREASES THE RISK OF HEART DISEASE
Sleep also gives our heart time to rest. Sleeping less than 7 hours does not rest the heart and poses a risk of cardiovascular disease. Sleeping for more than 9 hours increases periods of dream sleep and can increase blood pressure and heart rate. Insomnia stresses your body and leads to the release of more adrenaline, cortisol and other stress hormones. These hormones cause your blood pressure to rise during sleep and increase the risk of heart disease.
Deep sleep recharges the body
Sleep time is as important as sleep time for health. If you say that I sleep 8 hours, but go to bed at 2 am and wake up at 10 am, this is also wrong. And then there are morning and nocturnal, namely chickens and owls. The general belief is that people who go to bed early and get up early, namely chickens, are luckier. Considering that most activities take place between 9am and 5pm, nocturnal owls may seem unlucky. We call the sleep problems caused by the necessity of being at work at 9 am and trying to comply with social norms, which we see in owls, as ‘social jet lag’. Owls release less serotonin and dopamine. In contrast, morningbirds-hens exhibit better social adjustment because they are less depressed. But being a night person isn’t such a bad thing. For example, nightgoers are more creative. Their mental abilities are stronger and they like to take risks. Cortisol levels are high. Cortisol predisposes you to take risks. It teaches to protect the body against sudden dangers. Nightgoers miss the deep sleep period because they fall asleep late, but they spend their dream sleep periods more productively. Dream sleep is about creativity, practical thinking, while deep sleep is restorative sleep that recharges the body.
Are you morning or night person?
Morning people go to bed early, get up early, are active and energetic at the beginning of the morning, their energy decreases towards the afternoon and evening and they have difficulty staying awake after a certain time. If you often find yourself yawning shortly after sundown, you’re probably morning sickness. Nightgoers, on the other hand, go to bed late and get up late, have trouble getting up in the morning, are very tired, but feel energetic later in the day, they can work very actively and productively at night while everyone else is sleeping. If it’s past midnight and you still don’t feel sleepy, you’re probably a night owl. Night workers may find it difficult to maintain a routine job during the day and adapt to the school schedule.
Review your eating habits
Whether you like staying up late at night or prefer early morning sunlight, quality sleep plays an important role in mental and physical health. Meditation, deep breathing, aromatherapy, a warm shower, reading, journaling, and other calming rituals before falling asleep can help you develop a pleasant and relaxing nighttime routine that encourages you to start your sleep cycle earlier. Because they get up late, they often skip breakfast and eat later at night. In addition, nocturnal eaters tend to eat less Mediterranean and consume more caffeine and alcohol. If your goal is to fall asleep earlier and wake up earlier, you should change your eating habits a bit.
How can we sleep better in humid hot weather?
■ Get rid of melatonin with the morning sun: Spending 5 minutes in the sun every morning will allow you to sleep more deeply at night and add 20 more minutes to your sleep. An early morning dose of sunlight regulates your brain’s biological clock. It increases the production of dopamine, which provides energy during the day, and therefore the nighttime production of melatonin, which triggers sleep.
■ Increase your brain’s alpha waves with a perfumed shower gel: A warm shower at night with a lavender scented body shampoo improves our sleep quality by 50 percent. Warm water has a sleep-inducing effect on your body temperature, lavender aroma helps to spread a relaxing alpha wave in your brain. If you still do not feel relieved, apply 2 drops of ylang ylang oil, which you can easily find in herbalists, to your hand. As you inhale this sweet smell, your brain will relax and it will trigger your sleep in 15 minutes.
■ Avoid getting angry with kiwi: When you eat 1 kiwi close to your bedtime at night, you will get a quick sleep at night. Kiwi is rich in vitamin C and vitamin K nutrients, it calms the nervous system and allows you to relax even in hot humid weather.
■ Banana is the best sleep medicine: I recommend people who have sleep problems to consume half a banana an hour before going to bed in the evening. Thanks to the tryptophan substance in it, the production of melatonin is triggered and makes it easier to fall asleep. Since it contains complex carbohydrates, it also protects your insulin level all night and prevents your sleep from being interrupted by hypoglycemia.
■ Soothe tense muscles with watermelon and tomato: Consuming a few slices of watermelon or tomato during the day will help you sleep better and more comfortably. Here, lycopene stands out. Grapefruit and mango also have lycopene, which relaxes tense muscles and calms the brain’s anxiety center.
■ Relieve stomachaches with cumin powder: It’s hard to fall asleep in hot, humid weather. Especially if you have abdominal pain after a full stomach, this is even more difficult. Add a quarter teaspoon of cumin to your dinner. This spice will speed up the production of your digestive enzymes and eliminate nighttime indigestion and stomachache.
■ Try to sleep with an eye patch: The most important factor that allows you to fall asleep at night is to sleep in complete darkness. For this reason, you should definitely close the curtains, prevent outside light, and even better, try to sleep with an eye patch. In this way, the production of melatonin will be triggered and it will make it easier for you to sleep in a quality and deep sleep.
