Tips for sleeping well and quality for those of you who have diarrhea

Diarrhea is one of the common digestive problems experienced by everyone. Not only does it make the stomach feel sick, many people complain that it's hard to sleep when they have diarrhea. The reason is, you often go back and forth to the toilet because you can't stand heartburn and want to defecate. So, so that you can sleep peacefully, let's try the following tips for sleeping well!

Tips for sleeping well and quality during diarrhea

In most cases, diarrhea usually goes away on its own within a few days, even without taking diarrhea medicine. However, diarrhea still disturbs sleep every night.

This was conveyed by Stephen Bickston, MD, as a medical lecturer and director of the chronic irritable bowel disease (IBD) program from Virginia Commonwealth University Health Center, to Everyday Health. According to him, prolonged diarrhea should get special treatment immediately. Because if not, this will not only damage your sleep hours, but also trigger other, more serious diseases.

So, so that this doesn't happen to you, let's follow these tips for sleeping well during diarrhea.

1. Calm your mind

Tips for sleeping well this one is most often ignored by many people, or maybe you too. The question that may arise in your mind is why do you have to calm your mind when you have diarrhea?

Keep in mind that stress can make your diarrhea worse, you know. This is because all activities in your body increase when you are stressed. Starting from the palpitations of the heart, gasping for breath, tense muscles, to increasingly rapid intestinal contractions.

Without realizing it, this increased bowel activity can exacerbate the symptoms of diarrhea. The more stressed you are, the worse your diarrhea symptoms can get and it will make it difficult for you to sleep.

So, try to calm your mind before going to sleep. Try closing your eyes for a moment, then take a deep breath and exhale slowly. Repeat a few times until you feel much calmer.

2. Drink lots of water

When you have diarrhea, persistent bowel movements cause your body to lose a lot of fluids and electrolytes. This triggers various symptoms of dehydration such as frequent thirst, headaches, nausea, to make it difficult for you to sleep.

As a solution, drink plenty of water to prevent dehydration. Can also be added by drinking ORS (salt and sugar solution) or fruit juice to restore electrolytes lost due to diarrhea.

3. Eat soft foods

The next restful sleep tip is to pay attention to the types of food you eat before bed. To help your bowel movements return to normal, choose foods that are semi-dense or soft, such as bananas, rice, applesauce, and toast. This diet is known as the BRAT diet.

So far, there are still many people who think that high-fiber foods can help treat diarrhea. Whereas what happened was the opposite.

Fiber is indeed good for the body because it can facilitate digestion. However, if consumed during diarrhea, high fiber foods such as vegetables or whole grains can be very difficult to digest and make diarrhea worse.

4. Choose foods that contain probiotics

Probiotics are very important for maintaining digestive health, especially for those of you who have diarrhea. The good bacteria contained in probiotics can help fight germs in your digestive tract. As a result, diarrhea symptoms become lighter and even heal quickly.

To treat diarrhea, try to eat foods that contain probiotics, such as yogurt or cheese, a few hours before bed. Guaranteed, your sleep tonight will no longer be disturbed by the desire to go back and forth to defecate.

5. Take diarrhea medicine before bed

The most important tips for sleeping well is not to forget to take diarrhea medicine before bed. Now there are many diarrhea medications that you can buy at the pharmacy, including loperamide (Imodium®), bismuth subsalicylate (Pepto-Bismol®), or attapulgite (Kaopectate®).

These drugs work by slowing down the movement of the intestines so that the stool becomes denser. Stomach pain due to diarrhea will also gradually recover and you can sleep well afterwards.