Are you getting enough sleep?
We all know that sleep is an important part of our everyday lives. Obviously you cannot function without it! But what are the effects if you're doing an extreme workout program? Well, it's actually the most important aspect of recovering from our workouts! You thought working out was the most important part of your day? Think again! One of the most important parts of your workout program is getting enough sleep every night. When you are sleeping, that's when your muscles are healing and getting bigger!
First let's look at what happens if you DON'T sleep enough.
Metabolism:
Depriving yourself of sleep can decrease your bodies level of a hormone called Leptin, which is responsible for telling your stomach that you feel full. This will cause you to not know when to stop eating! Also, not sleeping enough increases your levels of Ghrelin. This increases your appetite and makes you want to eat more! Not to mention, you'll be tired and sluggish all day!
Here is an interesting little snippet from our friends at Wikipedia:
"In a study conducted by Turner, Drummond, Salamat, and Brown, working memory was shown to be affected by sleep deprivation. Working memory is important because it keeps information active for further processing and supports higher-level cognitive functions such as decision making, reasoning, and episodic memory"
So basically, what they are saying here is that running on little to no sleep is not a good decision!! You will be slower, less focused, and even more prone to injury! There's no prize for being the person running on little to no sleep. A lot of people claim to be "totally fine" or say "I don't need that much sleep," when they only get four to five hours.
If you go without much sleep only once in a while, it probably won't affect you much. Sure, you might be a little more irritable, and your workout might not be 100%, but it's not going to kill you. Think about eating a diet only consisting of Mcdonald's french fries and water... sure you would "survive" but you're not going to be thriving!
So, in the long run it's much better to develop a good sleep ritual that will get you to bed at a reasonable hour so you can get the right amount of sleep!
Here are some tips to make going to bed easier and to cut out the crap that's going to keep you awake all night:
1. Limit your caffeine Intake to earlier in the day, stopping caffeine after about 4 pm. (unless you drink so much caffeine that it doesn't affect you in that way. If that's the case you should probably look at cutting down your caffeine intake overall).
2.Try to turn off the T.V. and computer an hour before going to bed. Going to sleep with the T.V. on is actually a stimulatory experience for your brain. Just all the light bouncing off the walls in a dark room will not let your body relax to the point where it's comfortable enough for deep sleep! even though you might still "sleeping."
3. Have some (non-caffeinated) tea, listen to soft music and read a book. Having herbal tea and reading can actually help regulate your breathing. It can help you get out of your head and all the things bothering you during the day. This signals to your body that you're shutting down for the night.
These are just a few basic ideas of why sleep is important and a few tips on getting to be earlier.
Of course there is a TON of other information regarding this topic out there, but we just wanted to touch on the parts we thought were most important. If you have any questions, comments or anything to add to this topic, please comment below!! We'd love to hear from you.
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