Dehydrated After Sleep?
Learn why you may be dehydrated after waking up
Your first thought is likely that you should be drinking more water.
But what if you are already meeting (or exceeding) recommended water intake levels?
Maybe there is something you are doing while you are sleeping that is resulting in excessive water loss.
Now I doubt you are running marathons while sleepwalking. If so, that’s impressive.
So how are you breathing?
Mouth breathing can result in a net water loss increase of up to 42% when compared to nasal breathing during sleep.
This can lead to increased fatigue, vulnerability to inflammation, shallow chest breathing, and more instances of apnoea, arousals and awakenings.
We don’t want that.
To change this we need to reprogram the way we sleep. This takes time, effort and focus.
There are a few strategies people can use.
The simplest but likely the most challenging is to tape your mouth shut. Medical paper tape can do the trick. Duct tape is overkill.
Other strategies include ensuring nasal airways can be as open as possible. Simple solutions you could try if this is difficult for you include nasal irrigation, breathing aids, and steam from a hot shower.
📘: Breath: The New Science of a Lost Art - James Nestor
What Do You Do The Most?
What activity do you do the most in a day?
When you add up all the seconds, minutes, hours, days, what activity do you do the most?
Is it working?
Sleeping?
How about breathing?
We breathe over 20000 times a day. Contrary to many other things, like working, sleeping, or eating, breathing happens without us thinking about it. It is controlled by our nervous system. And our nervous system is influenced by the events and activities that surround us.
Stressed at work? This affects your nervous system. This can affect your breathing.
Worried about the weight you are about to lift? This affects your nervous system. This can affect your breathing.
Favourite sports team just won the championship? This affects your nervous system. This can affect your breathing.
Because it is the thing we do the most, this likely means that it is an area that could be improved. Just because we do it a lot, doesn’t mean we are perfect.
The first step to improvement is awareness.
Are you a nose breather? Are you a mouth breather?
Does it change based on the activity?
Put it in the comments or send a message! Would love to hear.