What happens if you sleep outdoors for a week? Several important changes will occur

Few people can boast of a good night’s sleep. The modern rhythm of life with its stuffy rooms worsens the quality of night rest. What to do? As an option – to practice sleeping in the fresh air. It will certainly not be worse. We tell you what will happen to the body if you move to fresh air for a while.

Svetlana Perez de Montes Rathherink.

certified clinical geneticist, nutritionist, expert of UniProf Academy of Physicians.

Sleeping in the fresh air is good for your health. However, you need to know a few rules to maximize your rest.

Why sleeping in the fresh air is beneficial

Sleeping in nature is useful not only for the body, but also for the emotional state. This kind of leisure can solve problems with sleep, and in general have a positive effect on all processes in the body. For this purpose, it is enough to spend about a week in the fresh air.

In addition to reducing the risk of allergic reactions to dust or human products, sleeping in the open air allows the body to receive more oxygen. Lower CO2 levels ensure deep, efficient sleep and fewer sleepless nights. That is indirectly regulates the stress hormone and keeps the adrenals and the entire endocrine system working.

But there are nuances

Sleeping in the fresh air naturally regulates body temperature. It is erratic and changes cyclically, controlled by the hypothalamus. Before we go to sleep, body temperature decreases, leaning into sleep, and continues to decrease during the BDH phase (during which dreaming occurs). It dominates the first third of the sleep cycle and increases brain activity.

During this phase, the hypothalamus reduces thermoregulatory control, so the ambient temperature has a greater influence on body temperature. And if it’s not right (too high), it requires the body to make extra effort to regulate body temperature, which can impair the quality of sleep and rest.

During the REM sleep phase, if the ambient temperature is not right, the body overstretches itself to regulate itself and expends some of the energy it should be spending on the detoxification process and forming new neural connections. Not to mention getting adequate rest.

Previously told about whether it is useful to sleep on the floor.

So what happens if you sleep in the fresh air for a while?

Nasal congestion may disappear, breathing will improve, skin irritations will disappear due to the fact that the air circulates constantly, does not “stagnate” in one room, does not concentrate allergens. But this applies only to sleeping in an ecologically clean area, not on the balcony near the noisy road.

After three or four days of sleeping in the fresh air, the brain is activated. You will feel a burst of energy due to the fact that the oxygen level is higher when sleeping outdoors. Sleeping outdoors in complete isolation from technology and lights will increase melatonin (the hormone responsible for circadian rhythms).

Natural light can help bring back natural biorhythms. By falling asleep at sunset and waking up at sunrise, a person follows the circadian rhythms that were laid down by nature. And this restores all the systems of the body. It is believed that prolonged exposure to fresh air, including sleep, can affect blood pressure (normalizing it).