Easter holidays 2023: this is how your body tells you that you need to rest

The Easter holidays are a perfect opportunity to do things. However, sometimes what we need most is to invest in rest.

When we don’t rest enough we feel immediately that our mood and our reflexes suffer, but there are other invisible processes that are also affectedsuch as the immune system, blood pressure or memory. How does this lack of rest manifest itself in the body? This is how the body is warning you that you need to rest.

Symptoms of lack of rest

There are some everyday symptoms that can alert us that our life habits have led us to a nervous imbalance.

Resting allows the body to repair itself. to delay oxidative processes, to recover energy. Resting is as natural and necessary as the succession between day and night, winter and summer or wakefulness and sleep, the paradigm of rest.

If we feel identified with most of these situations, surely our life habits have led us to an imbalance of the nervous system that will have to be corrected.

Hunched back Legs crossed tightly Frowning eyebrows Clenched fists Crossed arms Tight lips Crick neck Tight jaw Intestinal problems Gasping Nervous cough Blinking Low back pain Headache Continuous yawningNor should continuous feelings be accepted as normal of helplessness, loss of control, lack of motivation and energy, irritability, procrastination (always leaving things for later), difficulty concentrating, bad mood, extreme reactions…

why do we need to rest

Under normal conditions, sleeping about eight hours a day should be enough. to feel rested, prevent diseases and keep your mind organized and ready to continue learning.

But our experience indicates that sleep is often not enough to achieve complete rest. Because?

We accumulate fatigue without realizing itthinking that we are always able to take a little more (often thinking that we “must” take a little more), untilSurprisingly, there comes a day when the seemingly smallest effort or the most insignificant setback they overwhelm us and we collapse.

But we have the advantage of know when we are at the limit of our capacity and say “enough”. A limit to which, by the way, it is not mandatory to reach…

Why stress leads to fatigue

The nervous system consists of two parts: the parasympathetic and sympathetic systems, which affect the same organs but with opposite effects.

The parasympathetic system is concerned with long-term survival, maintains blood circulation, heartbeat and breathing at a low and constant rate. Distributes energy in a regular and balanced way throughout the body.The sympathetic system prepares us to act urgently and immediately.is one that allows us to face threats in the classic way of attack or flight. The energy that the parasympathetic system has been accumulating, the sympathetic system puts immediately at the service of the organs and muscles that need it. Blood pumps faster, breathing is shorter and faster, muscles tense.

When we are faced with a stressful situationthe brain stimulates the pituitary gland to release a hormone called ACTH; this makes adrenal glands (internal secretion glands located above the kidneys) secrete stress-related hormones: adrenaline and cortisol.

The adrenalin is responsible for increased heart rate and blood pressure. increase the metabolism of macronutrients (carbohydrates, proteins and fats) to provide us with the necessary energy to get out of the emergency situation. As part of this process, the body secretes amino acids and depletes its stores of calcium and magnesium in the muscles. cortisolhelps release energy inhibits the normal functioning of the immune system so that it can deal with any immediate threat. This allows one to better defend against accidental pathogens, but in the long run it makes the body more sensitive to infectious diseases.

What situations cause stress and fatigue

The situations that can cause stress They range from physical danger, such as a traffic accident, to the simple unpleasant events of every day: traffic jams, arguments, waiting on the phone, complaints, work overload…

Usually, at the end of the specific situation, the body will return to its normal statein which energy is distributed and used by the parasympathetic system.

But if this situation continues For weeks or months, the body may not return to previous energy levels. If these situations they are repeated too frequently, the body cannot bear the imbalance and reaches exhaustion.

It then obtains reservations from where it can: consume the vitamins C, vitamin B, magnesium and zinc that are available, and increase the risk of cellular oxidation and related diseases (cardiovascular, cancer). That’s how tall it can be the price of not knowing how to stop on time and rest deeply.

The current pace of life, with the juggling between work, social and family life, pushes us towards this excess activation of the sympathetic system. But the biggest impediment to getting off that car is usually yourself.

We say “we don’t have time”, but we often let the seconds slip away before the virtual images on television, which displace the most valuable minutes: listening to the silence, meditating, looking at a landscape, wandering aimlessly, sitting on a terrace to watch people go by.

why do we need sleep

While we sleep, we don’t feed or mate and are apparently more vulnerable to danger. What advantage does sleep offer from a biological point of view for the survival of the species? To answer that question, let’s look at how we sleep.

Our sleep cycle occurs in two stages.; first the non-REM stage (Rapid Eye Movement or rapid eye movement). In this period the brain produces longer and slower brain waves.Later we enter REM sleepin which the body is totally relaxed (deep sleep), but, paradoxically, the mind is active.Most studies on the processes we carry out during sleep focus on this phase; numerous tests have shown that REM sleep is important for consolidating memories and draw conclusions and behavior patterns from everyday experiences. Physiologically, the initial storage of these episodes in the hippocampus is transferred to the cerebral cortex. At the same time, memories of specific episodes are incorporated into more general knowledge called semantic memory, in which people remember data without being aware of how they learned it.

The popular expression of “sleeping on it” is not in vain: when we sleep, we settle our experiences and thoughts, order them, file them and understand them better.

We could say that every time we sleep we become wiser. But also the non-REM phase fulfills its function. In it, genes are activated to produce the proteins involved in the adjustment of synaptic connections.

in our brain, Every action, every sensation, and even every thought and emotion causes an electrical current. that relates certain neurons. These connections or synapses are very active during the day. In the waking state, the brain invests most of its energy in creating and keeping them “on.”

Researchers have verified that the non-REM period allows this energy to be returned to a minimum level and homogeneous in all areas of the brain. That is, it maintains synaptic homeostasis, releasing overloaded areas and again creating free capacity for new connections the next day.

Therefore, if we didn’t sleep, we couldn’t learn, think or feel anything new.

Some researchers believe that sleep helps the body cope with adverse biochemical consequences of daily metabolic activity.

Small animals usually have a faster metabolism and also sleep more. A faster metabolism produces more free radicalswhich damage DNA.

Some studies have found significant oxidative damage caused by free radicals in the brains of sleep-deprived laboratory mice, thus deducing that sleep can fulfill a protective function against the oxidation process.

Other studies relate sleep to the proper functioning of the immune system, due to the production of the hormone melatoninthat stimulates the elimination of cells in poor condition.

Melatonin levels, synchronized with light and dark cyclesbegin to rise in the afternoon, peak at bedtime, and fall again in the morning, before waking up.

Lack of sleep, on the other hand, has been linked to an increase in obesity, depression, cardiovascular disease, and diabetes.