Why Does Stretching Feel Good When Tired?
After a long period of inactivity, you often encounter rigidity and tension in your muscles. To feel better, your body will respond to the resulting tiredness by deliberately or subconsciously stretching your arms, legs, and neck.
The action will restore your muscles’ flexibility, and you will ultimately feel relaxed and perform your everyday tasks with relative ease.
Stretching can enhance your range of motion by minimizing joint and muscle stiffness that results from long periods of inactivity or keeping the same position for a long time. It is also an awesome exercise that often leaves you refreshed, but is not isolated to humans.
Animals too have been observed to stretch their limbs and bodies after moments of inactivity. Therefore, this phenomenon begs the question, why do you stretch when tired? Is stretching, whether deliberate or subconscious, our body’s instinctual reaction to tiredness? If so, can it be explained scientifically?
Why Do You Stretch When Tired?
You stretch when tired because of a scientific phenomenon called pandiculation. This behavior isn’t isolated to humans, though, because it has been observed in a variety of species, especially while transitioning from periods of low to intense activity.
Pandiculation is prompted by the sensations of muscle tightness, low heart rate, and joint stiffness. Stretching is your body’s natural response activated by the parasympathetic nervous system to improve circulation, relieve muscle tightness, and enhance the feeling of overall well-being.
This makes routine stretching a beneficial practice especially when you feel fatigued.
Why Do You Feel Like Stretching When You Are Tired?
When you sleep, sit, or maintain a relatively static position for an extended period, your muscles will naturally lose tone. Sleeping, for instance, causes fluid to pool along your back and legs. When you finally get out of that position, your body will instinctively stretch to restore normalcy by massaging the fluid gently into position.
Furthermore, stretching muscles after sleep can release stored tension. While releasing tension feels great for the body, the relaxation that accompanies stretching can sometimes feel like exhaustion.
However, stretching helps restore muscle strength by increasing blood circulation when you are tired. This wakes up the tight muscles and increases heart rate, which results in an invigorating feeling.
Stretching: The Scientific Perspective
Scientifically, the act of involuntary stretching is referred to as pandiculation. The behavior is prompted by the sensation of muscle tightness that stimulates the brain on the need to respond to an internal stimulus. What follows is your brain targets the specific area with a stretch. Stretching is, however, far from unique to humans.
The behavior has been observed in various species, especially while transitioning from periods of low to intense activity. In human infants, stretching is observed as early as 12 weeks from birth, and that remains the case throughout life.
When explaining the origins of this behavior, scientists generally assert that all vertebrates stretch as a body’s response to internal stimuli such as:
- Muscle tightness.
- Low heart rate.
- Joint stiffness.
According to a 2017 publication posted in the journal of Neuroscience & Behavioral Reviews, scientists linked the origins of mammalian stretching to the sleeping patterns, sun-basking, and wakefulness of our reptilian ancestors.
In the context of why we stretch while tired, the publication suggests that stretching stems from reptiles’ post-basking risk-assessment behavior.
In our reptilian ancestors, post-basking behavior was noted to begin with an organism exploring and scanning its immediate environment for the presence of mates, foods, and threats.
While at that, reptiles adopted stretch postures that could help them dip heads and scan with their eyes. That, in itself, not only points to stretching as common animal behavior but an ancient habit too. Humans, like other animals, pick up the behavior early in life and stick with it. But for what purpose?
Theories as To Why You Stretch When Tired
Stretching as A “Hardware Reset”
Scientists hypothesize stretching is a form of “hardware reset.” The human body is a biological and mechanical entity and is, therefore, meant to move. Sleeping implies a long period of inactivity and is quite a passive ability.
As such, sleeping leaves your body drowsy, your joints stiff, and the muscles tight in a sense. As a form of “hardware reset”, stretching is our body’s way of checking to ensure muscles are working properly.
Besides revving up the muscles, stretching helps the body to transition from sleeping mode to wakefulness by increasing muscle activity, blood circulation, and heart rate.
It also eliminates joint stiffness and muscle tightness accompanied by spending too much time in a relatively static position. Overall, pandiculation – read more about why you stretch in the morning – is a quick way for the body to get out of the tired or sleeping mode and adopt a state of readiness.
Stretching as A “Software Reset”
To explain why you stretch while tired, experts have put forward an interesting read. When you sleep, the relative rate of body activity becomes the lowest. Sleeping is accompanied by a slowdown in blood flow, heart rate, and muscle activity.
Also, the fact that you are maintaining one position all night means your muscles will tighten up. But humans, as is the case with other vertebrates, stretch instinctively to restore blood circulation and normal heart rate that wakes up the muscles.
Stretching essentially jump-starts the parasympathetic nervous system (PNS)- which is the section of the central nervous system that controls involuntary body activities like digestion and heart rate. In turn, all involuntary processes that have been otherwise slowed down in your tired mode are increased.
The blood flow to the muscles, for instance, will progressively increase signal strength from the brain to the muscles, thereby increasing your ability to perform your everyday tasks.
Stretching is also part of the body’s path to the feel-good factor. It progressively reduces pain, stress, and anxiety by alleviating muscle tension and enhancing your body’s homeostatic drive.
The ultimate result is your will to optimize the performance of body functions such as eating, sex, walking, and overall health.
What Are the Main Causes of Stretching?
Stretching is an internal body response to a stimulus linked to Fascia; a connective tissue surrounding the organs, muscles, and blood vessels. When this tissue becomes less flexible and inadequately nourished, the brain signals the body to stretch and target the area.
Stretching is your body’s quickest way to keep Fascia oxygenated, supple, and flexible. Once this tissue is nourished and free of tension, it becomes easier to exercise, move, or perform daily activities.
Final Thoughts on Why Do You Stretch When Tired
Long periods of inactivity in humans and animals alike are often accompanied by stretching. While that could be deliberate or subconscious, experts point to stretching as an instinctual reaction that seeks to restore proper biological and mechanical function. It also relaxes the body by dealing with the fatigue and promoting blood circulation.
The body is a complex mechanism and when something is out of whack or not in sync, it needs rejuvenation, thus the reason why do you stretch when tired.
