Why you need more rest in your life

We all get stressed from time to time, but we bet you can’t remember when you last gave yourself a break – which is why you need more rest in your life. Not only does a stressful day tire you out mentally, but it can actually take a toll on you physically too. When we’re stressed the adrenal glands in our bodies release chemicals to try to help the body maintain a healthy balance. Too much stress can overwork the gland, causing it to stop releasing these chemicals properly. This is called adrenal fatigue and can have all sorts of symptoms like feeling exhausted but being unable to sleep, feeling blue and becoming reliant on products containing caffeine and sugar for instant energy hits. So, what can we do in order to keep our stress levels down and our adrenal glands healthy?

Work-life imbalance

One of the greatest sources of stress in modern life can be our jobs. If you’re going through a really busy period at work with lots of deadlines it can really add to your stress levels. Research tells us that a staggering two thirds of office workers will check their work email before 8am, 40% will do so at the dinner table and a huge 80% will continue to work from home after they have left the office. Spa Director at Stanley House, Jo Bullock, advises leaving stress it where it belongs: at the office. While smartphones and tablets do make our lives easier in a lot of ways, they can also have the opposite effect. Having your work email account synced to your phone means that you are much more likely to look at them after the working day has ended. This means that ‘we’re not clocking off for the day and letting our brains switch off and get that all important rest’, as Jo puts it. So when it comes to the end of the day, take a break from those emails that can wait until the morning and get some relaxing time in.

Food for thought

Eating the right foodstuffs is also key to feeling well. By making sure you eat at regular intervals your blood sugar levels should stay balanced, meaning your adrenal gland won’t need to work as hard. Jo recommends ‘eating little and often, every two to three hours is ideal’. If you’re feeling stressed and tired, your blood sugar may be low so why not try a high energy but healthy snack like banana and nut butter on toast.

Make your life sunnier

Getting plenty of vitamin D from the sun is a really good way of helping your adrenal gland function as it should. Jo explains that this is because vitamin D raises our cortisol levels, which aids the function of the glands, allowing them to work more efficiently. As if we needed another reason to sit out and work on our tans!

Get a treatment

And finally if you feel like you need some extra R&R you can book yourself in for a treatment specifically designed to rejuvenate your adrenal glands at the spa at Stanley House. The Ila Adreno Restore treatment is a strengthening therapy which restores overworked adrenal glands and reduces anxiety and stress. The treatment includes a full body scrub, a targeted abdomen wrap to promote healthy adrenal gland function, and finally a Ku Nye massage to fully de-stress. So, if you’re feeling stressed or run down, it might be time to take a break and rest up that body.