Sleeping in a tent improves the quality of sleep and allows us to regenerate in an almost therapeutic way. When daily stress is skyrocketing, one of the most immediate consequences is the lack of a noteworthy night’s rest. This is because, to fall asleep quickly and deeply, you need conditions that are often difficult to find during everyday life. And as if that wasn’t enough, numerous studies have ascertained that the lockdown to contain the Coronavirus pandemic has further worsened the quality of sleep. One of the reasons is also the lack of exposure to sunlight: a factor that, when we walk in the mountains and decide to camp for a night in a tent, is obviously not missing. Natural light, fresh air, green and silence: they are all fundamental ingredients for a sleep capable of reconciling you with the world.
So let’s find out why, according to science, sleeping in a tent can help us rest effectively.
5 reasons why you sleep better in a tent
All campers will have noticed: when the weather conditions are favorable, You sleep better in a tent. Which doesn’t mean sleeping more, because you often get up early to resume your excursions. But the quality of sleep when we are in nature it is often high, and the reasons are yet to be discovered: from the hands of the biological clock going back (thanks to melatonin) to the distance from technology.
The biological clock is rebalanced
According to an important study, published in the journal Current Biology, a weekend camping can turn back your biological clock almost an hour and a half, rearranging it to much more natural rhythms that simply follow exposure to sunlight. A couple of nights in a tent can have positive effects on sleep even once we return home. To regulate the biological clock It’s melatonincapable of acting on the brain and promoting a quality night’s rest.
The fluctuation of this hormone is closely linked to light: when it increases, melatonin decreases (and vice versa). The artificial light in our homes, however, has disrupted the natural production of melatonin: we start producing it later and sleep gets worse. This is why falling asleep after sunset, without being disturbed by artificial light, significantly improves the quality of your sleep.
>> READ ALSO: Camping in Lombardy: where to go for holidays or a weekend
The sounds of nature induce sleep
Imagine being in your tent and feeling the relaxing rustling of leavesthe whistle of a light breeze or the sound of a waterfall in the distance. These sounds (which never stop) are enclosed in the definition of “pink noise”, that is, a set of auditory stimuli in which the low-frequency components have greater power (unlike white noise in which the power is the same for any frequency). Science claims that pink noise, typical of when we are surrounded by nature, is able to convey a feeling of relaxation and stimulate deep sleep (especially that of children).
Sex produces hormones that improve night’s rest
In a couple, physical closeness and the intimate atmosphere created in a tent can stimulate the desire to have sex. And sex improves the quality of sleep: after reaching orgasm, the body releases important quantities of a hormone (oxytocin) which helps to relax and reduce stress levels.
Furthermore, in women, sex makes you feel high the presence of estrogen, which help you sleep deeply and fall asleep sooner; in men’s bodies, however, they increase after intercourse prolactin levelsa hormone that induces a sense of drowsiness and a desire to sleep.
>> READ ALSO: Is sex before sport bad?
In the outdoors there is a lower level of carbon dioxide
Carbon dioxide levels outdoors are about a third lower than in an indoor room. From the results of a 2016 study, published in the National Library of Medicine, it is noted that subjects who slept in a room with lower CO2 levels rested better and showed more efficient mental functions the next day (compared to those who slept in a room with classic CO2 levels). In fact, several plants and trees that surround us when we are in a tent, they absorb carbon dioxide at night, bringing notable benefits and lowering stress levels.
We use our smartphones less
When we are camping, we usually use our smartphone much less. Partly because we are forced (there is no reception), partly because we try to “detoxify ourselves” from technology in such a way as to truly come into contact with nature. In this regard, dozens and dozens of scientific studies support that look at your phone before sleeping it can cause sleep disturbances: chatting until late confuses neurophysiological mechanisms because the human being is activated by light (whether solar or artificial) perceiving it as a stimulus, unlike darkness which is perceived as a stop sign.
(Photo: Bazil Elias / Pexels)
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2024-06-26 10:08:56
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