What to do to keep your sleep schedule on track during the holidays
Unexpectedly, coffee can help you deal with disruptions.
It’s not the most difficult task to keep your sleep patterns in check during the holidays. After New Year’s Eve, everything goes haywire. But what to do if you don’t want to miss the long-awaited vacation? Somnologist Olga Begasheva helps with the answer.
Why is it important to keep the regime?
Keeping a sleep schedule is of great importance for health, given that the need for sleep is individual. Some people can sleep for 5-6 hours, while an immature body sometimes needs 10 hours of sleep to recover. The most basic problem is sleep deficiency, and this phenomenon is called sleep phase shift. As a result of the violation of the regimen, circadian rhythms are disrupted, and then there is a release of cortisol. Usually this hormone is released between 5 and 7 a.m. and, as a result, a person feels “like a cucumber”. When shifting the sleep phase, cortisol is released at 12 o’clock or even later, in adolescence this phenomenon is calmly tolerated, but in mature years it is accompanied by anxiety and can even lead to depression.
How not to throw off the regime?
More activity. Engaging in sports contributes to a stable emotional state, gives a pleasant feeling of fatigue, which will help to fall asleep earlier and exclude the possibility of spoiling the regime. Any physical activity contributes to a strong healthy sleep, to which each of us aspires.
Daily walks will also make sleep healthier. This is the darkest time and seasonal depression is common due to the lack of serotonin and dopamine production. People feel irritable and mood swings occur. It is important to walk: the more, the better, which is about two hours in the fresh air a day.
Coffee is not a bad cure for failures in the regime, because this drink improves blood circulation, is a great venotonic, dilates the blood vessels of the brain and will be a good antioxidant.
Following the regimen has an incredible effect not only on external but also on internal factors, so if you want to be toned both physically and mentally, these tips are paramount for you, especially when it comes to the holidays.