If you’re always tired, make this noise for an energy boost

Health

By Nadine DeNinno

If you’re not getting your ZZZ’s, try some MMM’s.

A sleep expert has revealed three easy remedies for those who constantly feel tired and don’t get enough sleep.

Dr. Nerina Ramlakhan told The Guardian that humming is a nifty trick to combat feelings of tiredness thanks to a chemical reaction that happens inside the body.

Ramlakhan explained that by humming with the mouth closed, the body naturally produces “nitric oxide in the nasal cavities, which is an antiseptic, antiviral and anti-inflammatory.”

Past studies have also confirmed that humming increases nitric oxide and several other experts agree that humming can indeed reduce feelings of exhaustion.

“After you finish humming, if you immediately breathe in through your nose, you can capture quite a bit of the nitric oxide,” Louis Ignarro Ph.D., who won a Nobel Prize for his nitric oxide research, told Shape.

The professor of molecular and medical pharmacology at UCLA explained that nitric oxide helps to expand airways and open blood vessels wider to allow the lungs to get more oxygen. That increased blood flow leads to better circulation, crucial for fighting off illness.

“Nitric oxide in the lungs will kill or inhibit the growth of many bacteria, parasites, and viruses,” he said.

And just a few seconds of humming is all you need, according to Eddie Weitzberg, M.D., a researcher at the Karolinska Institute, who said five seconds of humming led to the equivalent of 15 times more nitric oxide in the nasal cavity compared to five seconds of traditional exhaling.

“If you do 10 seconds of humming, all the air is exchanged,” he said. “With normal breathing, it takes between a half-hour and one hour.”

An added bonus? The vibrations of humming have been shown to reduce stress, too.

In addition to a humming break, Ramlakhan said that taking regular quick breaks for a few minutes — and keeping them screen-free — can help and suggested up to five minutes every hour and a half.

“But built into those is a shorter rhythm – the ultradian rhythm – a cycle of about 90 minutes,” she told The Guardian. “If we were to live in rhythm with our cycles, we’d allow ourselves the intermittent, intentional replenishment of energy. We’d oscillate, rather than drive on relentlessly and into the ground.”

And finally, her last tip for a boost when feeling low energy is to think positively, since “fatigue is a common side effect of anxiety.”

“When you’re feeling low and tired, close your eyes and conjure up the image of that memory: how it felt, the color of the sky,” Ramlakhan said.