Highlights
- Sleep plays a crucial role in maintaining good health
- Lack of sleep may even affect our gut health
- Prolonged sleep deprivation has also been tied to cognitive decline
Sleep plays a crucial role in maintaining good health. Experts point out that lack of sleep may even affect our gut health and negatively impact the brain. Prolonged sleep deprivation has also been tied to cognitive decline. A new study now links poor sleep and sperm quality in men. The study was published in the journal Sleep Research and noted that semen volume and total sperm count was the highest in the participants who slept adequately - 7-7.5 hours in a day. Too little or too much sleep was found to have an inverse relationship with the two semen parameters.
Another recent study has established a link between poor sleep and risk of developing gestational diabetes in pregnant women. "More information is needed to determine if short sleep duration is a contributing factor to the development of gestational diabetes," Dr. Sirimon Reutrakul from the University of Illinois at Chicago College of Medicine was quoted in an IANS report.
Loss of sleep may stem from a host of factors, one of the most common one being stress. Excessive sugar intake and junk food consumption has often been tied to poor sleep. Ayurveda suggests few medicinal herbs that may help tackle sleep deprivation and insomnia, some of these would include Ashwagandha, Jatamasi, Sarpagandha, Vacha, Shankhapushpi and Brahmi.
How to use Ayurvedic herbs for better sleep
Just a teaspoon of Brahmi powder can be mixed with a teaspoon of Ashwagandha powder and boiled in two cups of water. Let the potion reduce to one cup, drink once a day.
Inputs from IANS
Ayurveda inputs sourced from 'The Complete Book of Ayurvedic Home Remedies' by Dr. Vasant Lad.