Our natural body rhythms, called the circadian cycle, regulate the body for sleeping and waking. Overriding this and forcing the body to stay awake actually affects the way cells work and causes us to be unproductive. Fortunately nature helps new mothers with the almost guaranteed sleep debt that occurs in those first few months. Oxytocin, the hormone of love, bonding and relaxation, is released during breastfeeding and helps keep a mother relaxed and sleep more easily. If you’re not breastfeeding it’s important to make time to naturally increase your oxytocin (see below). There are oxytocin receptors in the digestive tract which allows a person to relax after eating and to absorb more nutrition. It seems that higher levels of oxytocin during a time of guaranteed sleep disturbance actually helps to keep a woman healthy and possibly help counteract the damaging side effects of chronic sleep deprivation. However, the body can only sustain this if we work with it and find ways of improving our sleep when we have the chance.
Posted on: Fri, 16 Jan 2015 08:07:30 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015