By Leon Cooper
No matter how active you are throughout the day, either an athlete or a couch potato, we all have our downtime. And if our downtime is used correctly it can greatly enhance our lives, but if it gets abused then it can have serious effects on our health.
Getting enough sleep?
I’m talking about sleep. Everybody needs sleep the question is why and how much?
After you exercise your body needs to recover. It does its best recovery when you’re sleeping. This is because the body goes through an increase rate of anabolism and a decrease rate of catabolism. Anabolism is the building of new cells that have been broken down by exercise and catabolism is the breakdown of cells which occurs because of exercise. Long after an exercise bout the body is still adjusting to the increased work activity that it just went through which means that it’s still in a catabolic state. Now proper rest and nutrition will get it out of that catabolic state and into an anabolic state faster but the best time to be anabolic is when you’re sleeping. This allows for a faster recovery and allows for the body to regenerate and be ready to go the next day.
Sleep alone is not good enough. It needs to be a GOOD night sleep to get the best recovery. Now the standard “good night sleep” is 8 hours, but everybody is different. Some people need 10 hours to feel well rested and some only need 6. However 8 hours has been scientifically proven to be the optimal level of sleep per night.
Now I know that most of us would LOVE to get 8 hours every night but find it difficult to do. Well let me explain why it’s so important. First of all you can’t make up for sleep. How many of you have ever said “I’ll get 6 hours tonight then 10 hours tomorrow night because it’s the weekend, that’ll make up for it.” NO! It doesn’t work that way. Your body goes by how many CONSECTUIVE hours of sleep it gets in 1 24 hour period, not the combined hours you get during a week. Once you get into a deep restful sleep then your body’s natural recovery functions take over, but if you can’t get into that deep sleep and you keep waking up every hour then you’re disrupting the recovery phase and your body gets cut short. This makes you feel tired and lethargic the next day.
When you do get into that deep sleep a couple of things happen:
1 – Cortisol levels go down. This is the chemical that is caused by stress and stops any further recovery or development of the muscle tissues. We want this to be low!
2 – Testosterone levels go up. This is the hormone that will stimulate muscle growth and help burn fat. And yes women, we want you testosterone levels to go up as well.
3 – Human Growth Hormone (HGH) goes up. This is the natural hormone that gets stimulated by the pituitary gland in the brain when you’re sleeping. It also helps build muscle and burn fat.
4 – Insulin levels are regulated. The less sleep you get the higher your insulin levels which mean your body is working too hard to keep your blood sugar low and releasing too much insulin which can increase fat storage.
So how do we get the required amount of sleep with our busy schedules and hectic lives? Well if I had the answer I would probably be sleeping right now, but what I can do is give you some tips to help.
1st – First and foremost, on order to get a good night sleep one must invest in a comfortable bed and pillows. It is one thing that you should spend your money on and make sure you get the right one for you.
2nd – Get into a routine. Like exercising programs that require a scheduled routine on order to stay on track, so should your bed time. In fact why not set yourself a “bed time”. As kids we all had bed times because it was very important to get a good night sleep so that we could be alert and read to go the next day. Well what has changed now that we’re adults? We might not need the 10-12 hours that kids might but if we set ourselves a bed time and followed it then it at least gives us a chance for a good night sleep.
3rd – No more snooze. Get rid of the snooze button. If you’re into a deep sleep and the alarm goes off, it’s impossible to get back into that deep sleep in the 9 min that your alarm gives you. All you’re doing is creating an annoying reminder that you’re still in bed when you shouldn’t be. It’s far better to get that 9 min added onto your regular deep sleep then to be woken up every time. Pick a time to get up and set your alarm once. If you’re in a very bad habit of reaching over and slapping that alarm clock a bunch of times then maybe try setting a mouse trap on top of it. I guarantee you’ll only hit the snooze one more time. (Just kidding)
4th – If you nap during the day limit it to 20 min. Your mind wants to get into that deep sleep and stay there for as long as it can, so if you just limit it to 20 min then your mind wont fall into that deep sleep, it will be just a quick recharge for your brain. Save the deep sleep for the night time. If you go longer than 20 min then you will reach that deep sleep and then be woken up too early and feel not rested. It’s like sticking your toe in the water and saying that you went for a swim, you’re just teasing yourself. Plus it will mess up your routine and your sleeping patterns will be all jumbled.
A planned sleep schedule could be the key to getting great workouts in plus becoming better and more efficient at your work and daily activities. It’s a great tool for enhancing your mood, creating better thought processes and performing better judgments. Plus it gives you more energy to do what you want to do.
