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Blog Posts Tagged vasopressin | Sheila Meyer

vasopressin

Does Sleep Evade You? One Simple Tip.....


Hydration is vital to keeping the body functioning properly.  Hydration, in fact, is so vital that a person is unable to survive more than a few days without water.  Lack of adequate daily hydration can lead to "dehydration"

Affects of Dehydration
  • negatively impacts
    • mood
    • cognitive abilities
    • kidney function
    • physical performance
    • extreme fatigue
    • lethargic
    • headaches
    • dry mouth and nasal passages
    • muscle cramps
Since hydration is so important for most body systems, it is understandable that dehydration would have diverse symptoms, including creating barriers for sleep. 

How The Body Loses Water
  • Urination (most water loss)
  • Insensible Water Loss (water loss not easily measured)
    • loss of 40 to 800mL/day in the average adult 
    • 600 to 800mL/day characterizes 30 to 50% of all water loss 
    • breathing (respiratory system)
      • over a full day > 300 to 400mL/day  (15 to 25% of all water loss)
      • most of this loss happens during sleep
    • skin (sweating)
    • fluid excreted with stool
  • no fluid intake during sleep normally
  • less than 6 hours of sleep per night
How Are Sleep And Hydration Connected?
A study has suggested that getting 6 hours of sleep or less every night disrupts the way the body's hormonal system regulates hydration and could leave your body not adequately hydrated.  Vasopressin is a hormone that gets released during the day and night to manage fluid levels. 
  • released quickly and later on in the sleep cycle
  • waking up early may miss the "window of opportunity" for the later release of Vasopressin disrupting hydration
  • makes sure body does not lose too much water while sleeping
    • can pull water back into the body from urine if needed
  • lack of sleep can prevent the appropriate amount of vasopressin from being released
Can you see the domino affect here?  Not enough sleep can contribute to dehydration.  Dehydration can contribute to poor sleep.  

How To Improve The Sleep and Hydration Connection?
  • Stay hydrated throughout the day (water as primary beverage)
  • Reduce fluid consumption an hour or two prior to bed
  • Limit alcohol and caffeine at night (diuretic effect and interfere with normal sleep cycle and quality)
  • Elevate legs in the evening
    • fluid tends to collect in the lower legs.
    • allows body to reabsorb water before bed
  • Urinate before going to bed
  • Stick to a good bedtime schedule
As you can see, to get a good night's sleep there is a fine line between too much hydration and not enough.  Of course, there could be other reasons why a good night sleep may escape you including a serious medical condition.  However, if these possibilities have already been ruled out, check out my other blog posts or these other resouces for additional insights. 




Resources:


My Freedom Journey

 
People, including doctors, thought we were crazy...all in our heads.  After all, how could normal, every day household and personal product smells affect your ability to function, to cause you to be incoherent and feel shaky inside, to have an emotional break-down?  Inside we were dying.  Outside we appeared normal. 
Fragrances were, and are, part of every day, normal life.....candles, laundry, cleaning, perfumes.  Everyone and their neighbor used them.  For us, we either had to isolate ourselves or suffer the following day or two with a toxic hangover.  Isolation is never a good option, especially with children.  During the summer it was impossible to go outside without inhaling someone's laundry or the recent lawn product application.  My husband was so bad one summer that he could eat constantly and, yet, still lose weight.  Every month I would get a sinus infection and/or chest congestion. 
Then came the food sensitivities and autoimmune disorders.  How could food cause my ears to be red and hot, my cheeks to flush, and cause my entire body to break out multiple times in a horrendous, red, itchy, inflamed rash only to burn when scratched and ooze yellow, sticky fluid?  Imagine, every day having gauze pads over the majority of your body under your clothes and hoping the rash doesn't drain so much that it soaks through your clothes.  It would take months to disappear.  People said "just get a cortisone/steroid shot" for relief.  They could not understand why that was not my choice
By discovering and eliminating my many triggers, finding a new, non-toxic way to support my immune system, my liver, and my thyroid, I have not had a major skin breakout for about 3 yrs and have been able to manage my autoimmune disorders without the use of standard medication. 
I finally found a way to acquire "Freedom from Toxins", "Freedom to Achieve Wellness", and "Freedom to Choose". 


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