How good is the night?

Night, as one can define, is the period between sunset and sunrise. Nevertheless, it has got its own interesting features.

Except for the “Nyctophobics”, who are afraid of the night and darkness, night-time is usually synonymous with slowness, dullness, low activity levels etc.

Have you ever thought why in movies night is always the chosen background for execution of a cold murder? Why tree-top spirits and ghastly-ghosts feel free to display themselves scarily only in utter darkness? Why should any out-of-the-normal activity take place only during the night in movies? That’s because night is always associated with crime, eeriness, and fear, and we have quite grown-up with this mindset. But, in reality “night” is a very positive happening. Read on how!

Day-Night rhythm

Except for those living in the poles, where they have continuous days and continuous nights for long periods, we on the other parts of the Earth are blessed with a rhythmic day-night cycle where once in 24 hours we could wake up fresh after a good night’s sleep. Because of the rhythmic day and night cycle, our body is also tuned into a “bio-rhythm” also called as “Circadian” rhythm controlled by our brain, where each person has his/her own time and order of doing things the same way each day. We can identify our most efficient or most depressed time of the day by this regularity. Our body assumes brightness or sunlight to being active. Sleep is the most beautiful thing that can happen to our body during night in this day-night cycle.

What happens to our body during a night's sleep?

It is a fact that one can voluntarily deprive oneself of food and water until death, but not sleep. So, it is important to fall asleep naturally, in a regular manner. We may think that the brain and the body are quite resting inactively during our sleep, but actually the body undergoes repair and detoxifications and a whole lot of functions are taking place to keep us mentally, emotionally and physically healthy.

When we say sleep, here it means the more common night-sleep. So, what happens when we sleep? As we fall asleep, the body temperature, heart rate, and breathing come down. Many hormones get released, all muscles relax. As the body temperature falls down, “Melatonin” the sleep hormone is produced to help accelerate the sleep process.

As the morning approaches, heart rate increases, blood pressure goes up as well as the body temperature, in anticipation of brisk activities ahead.

This type of a bio-rhythm existence helps in medical diagnosis as well, since issues like arthritis, allergic rhinitis, chest pain, asthma, heart attacks; strokes are more common during the early day. Epilepsy occurs in a more individualized pattern.

Do you know?
1. We are not supposed to take food late in the night or sleep just after food because when our body is immobile and inactive, the digestion processes is sluggish and so stomach enzymes and acids do not convert food into energy during the night.
2. We may feel our mouth being dry as soon as we wake up because there is decreased saliva production during the night.
3. The first urine is concentrated because the kidneys have slowed down their waste removal process during the night.
4. During deep beauty sleep, the skin's metabolic rate speeds up and many of the body's cells show increased production and reduced breakdown of proteins, thus helping cell growth during the night.
5. When we sleep, all our muscles relax including the throat muscles, and the opening narrows down to a small hole, and if the muscles are weak and fall back to obstruct the airflow, then snoring happens during the night.
6. Night-shift work means the need for the body to fight against the body’s circadian rhythm, which in turn depends on the natural day-night cycle. Day-time sleep cannot compensate in quality or quantity of a good night’s sleep, though the sleep-debt could be and should be made good in order to minimize the fatigue and maximize the performance at work-shifts during the night.
7. Jet lag or “Desynchronosis” is nothing but disturbance in the sleep pattern due to the alterations of the body's circadian rhythm as one passes through different time zones in a plane. Traveling East-West affects more than traveling North-South.

So, Good-Night Every Body!

Watch the Video: Tips to get a good night's sleep

G-O-O-D N-I-G-H-T

G-o to Bed O-ff the lights O-ut of tension D-ream your goals N-ice sleep I-gnore worries G-et up earlier H-ave a nice thought T-hank for everything