Did You Know That Sleep Impacts Much of Our Health?
When we’re stressed, it can lead to not sleeping well… which can in turn cause more stress. Did you know that…
• While we are sleeping, our bodies are not just resting but going through different sleep cycles where the body releases hormones to repair and regenerate tissues, bones, and muscles. It also restores energy and helps you fight off or recover from illness. Additionally, it decreases other hormones such as cortisol, and it balances the hormones that affect our feelings of hunger and fullness, etc.
• We need to enter the deeper stages of sleep for most of these healing and restoring processes to take place. That means when we’re not sleeping well it not only keeps us from feeling rested but affects our overall health in numerous ways.
• When we’re in fight-or-flight mode, the body tightens our muscles and sends more oxygen to the brain, which can make it harder to fall asleep or stay asleep.
• In response to stress, our levels of many hormones change as our body reacts. It will increase production of the ones deemed more critical to the stressful situation (such as adrenaline and cortisol), while decreasing production of what are deemed to be non-critical hormones in dealing with the stress (such as those controlling the immune, digestive, reproductive, growth systems, and even our sleep).
• The body is complex with many systems working in a holistic manner to keep the whole operation functioning properly. This means that when one aspect is out of balance, it can cause a chain reaction of events leading to poor sleep quality.
Restoring balance to the body and helping it achieve a deep state of relaxation are two of the main ways that Reflexology can improve your sleep quality.
Need some help reducing your stress levels? Do you need help with improving your quality of sleep? Then call Louise Richardson, Reflexologist TODAY at (813) 965-1697 to grab one of the openings, but hurry! Space is filling up fast!