Ask Arianna Huffington, founder of Huffington Post, what her secret to success is, and she’ll tell you, “Sleep.” More people are now sleeping less because of our addiction to devices, leading Huffington to start The Sleep Revolution, which is also the title of her book published earlier this year. But sleeping isn’t the only recipe for health. Drinking water is another simple habit your body will thank you for. In fact, when it comes to sleeping and drinking water, more is the key, not less.
In reality though, it’s not that simple to do. Most of us spend our days constantly dehydrated and exhausted, easily stressed out and prone to developing health issues. Keep on reading to find out more about the miraculous health benefits of water and sleep – and why you should start sooner than later.
Water is the best elixir in life, hands down.
The next time you’re tempted to order caffeinated, carbonated or sugary drinks to go with your meal, think twice. It may seem like a torture to chug down tasteless water, but in the long run, as studies have found, you’ll find yourself thinking clearer and be happier. There’s a reason why infused water is gaining popularity – not simply because it’s a fad – people really have felt the benefit of dunking fresh fruit into their H2O. Besides, it never hurts to carry bottled water everywhere you go. It’s good for weight loss and it also keeps your energy up. You see, the energy you get from the sugary, caffeinated drinks is often short-lived and makes you jittery. On the other hand, water would keep you alert and energized longer. In case you need more reasons to start drinking nine to 16 glasses of water a day, take a look at the following benefits:
- Happy kidney is a healthy kidney.As one of our vital organs, the kidney needs water to process 200 liters of blood everyday, allowing toxins, metabolic wastes and excess ions to leave the body through urine. It regulates volume and chemical makeup of the blood and also maintain the proper balance between water and salts, acids and bases.
- Calorie control.Dump your diet pills and turn to H2O as it helps better with weight loss. Drinking a glass of water, or more, before every meal helps curb your appetite. In fact, if you’re feeling hungry and you’ve eaten recently, drink a glass of cold water, and wait a minute or two. You could just be dehydrated.
- Stay sharp-minded.Have you ever felt so stressed out that you start counting down the remaining hours you have to spend at the office despite that mountain of reports to finish? Drinking water will help boost your concentration and alertness. At any rate, a few minutes of bantering around the water cooler is always a good idea to boost anyone’s mood.
- Clean, glowing skin. Having super clean face without clogged pores, pimples or acnes is no longer an impossible dream as long as you chug enough water. It sends toxins out of the body and makes your face less likely to have unwanted facial problems. Visualize your healthy, glowing skin – which equals sexy, need we say more.
- Bye bye muscular pain. When your muscles scream in pain and every joint in your body feels like it’s about to come off, water can come in handy. Fatigue, tiredness, aching muscles and joints indicate dehydration, so yes, water is definitely a solution.
- Digestive issues. According to health experts at Mayo Clinic, along with eating a high-fiber diet and limiting foods that are high in fat, drinking water during or after a meal aids digestion. Water and other liquids help break down food so that your body can absorb the nutrients. Water also softens stool, which helps prevent constipation.
When you’re not feeling well, just sleep it off. You’ll feel better afterwards.
Not everyone is lucky enough to sleep seven to nine hours a night (kids and teens need to sleep even longer) given all the stress and disturbing thoughts we have to deal with on a daily basis. Still, sleep is imperative to recharge body and mind. As scientists will tell you, an extra hour of sleep could mean a lot of difference in one’s health, mood, weight and even sex life. Here are more reasons why you should go to bed an hour early tonight:
- Proper sleep makes you happy.Researches have shown that people suffering from sleepless nights or sleep less than the recommended hours are less happy and tend to have bad mood. They are also at a greater risk to suffer from depression and anxiety.
- Less risk of developing heart problems and diabetes.A study found that individuals sleeping for five hours a night or less had 45 percent increased risk for heart attacks. Another study showed that adults who sleep six hours every night are 1.7 times more likely to develop diabetes while those sleeping for less, at five hours every night, are 2.5 times even more likely to do so.
- Enough sleep helps you focus better.Many vehicle-related accidents have been attributed to sleep deprivation suffered by the people involved in those misfortunes. Scientists have also found that medical workers who spend on average 80 hours a week on the job commit more serious and costly errors, because of their lack of sleep.
- Prevents headaches and migraines.If you have enough sleep every night, you will have fewer episodes of agonizing pain drumming on the side of your head or all over it.
- Keeps certain kinds of cancer away.Unfortunately, not all of us can sleep at night as some have to work night shifts, which can be bad news for our health. Science discovered that night workers are at a bigger risk to develop colon and breast cancer in the future.
- Improves your memory.Dream is the tool with which our brain processes the entire events we had gone through that day or before — linking events and memories. Adequate sleeping therefore helps your brain process things better, which leads to better memory quality.
