Sleeping & Fitness

by Makena Nixon

Sleep is a foundational cornerstone of health and wellness. It is essential for focused mental performance, a stable mood, a strong immune system, a healthy stress response, an efficient metabolism, as well as proper cellular regeneration and repair. Sleep is when your body does its maintenance work; therefore, without adequate sleep, you won’t be able to live a long and healthy life.

Even though sleep is vital for health, more than a third of American adults do not get enough sleep (CDC, 2016).Which means approximately 108 million people in the U.S. are sabotaging their own fitness goals. Are you one of these adults who are not getting adequate sleep?

Take a moment and assess your current sleeping patterns because not only is your sleep affecting your energy level but also it is impacting your exercise performance. Sleep is a cycle that is divided up into four different stages, each of the four stages is essential for the body to completely rest. However, stage 3 and stage 4 are the most important when it comes to exercise recovery. During stage 3 (beginning of deep sleep) is when human growth hormone (HGH) is released. While stage 4 (deepest slow wave sleep) is when the body undergoes most of its physical and mental repair and regeneration work as HGH is continually released. Human growth hormone helps maintain and repair muscles and cells, which is essential to improving fitness and athletic performance (Idea Fit, 2014). HGH also helps in weight loss by regulating the body’s fat and muscle proportions (Idea Fit, 2003).

So what is the recommended amount of sleep for muscle and cell regeneration? Research has shown that for optimal health, people should aim for 8 hours of sleep each day. Sleeping less than 6 hours or more than 10 has been linked to metabolic syndrome, a larger waist circumference, higher triglycerides and elevated blood glucose (Idea Fit, 2018). In addition to long-term health issues, people can develop chronic fatigue from short-term sleeping patterns during high training volumes. Getting enough sleep and getting regular exercise are both important, so how do you decide which one takes priority? You really shouldn’t put yourself in that position, because you absolutely need both.

Sleep needs to be taken into account as much as getting in our fitness goals of hitting 10,000 steps a day, half marathon training program, yoga classes or heavy lifting days since it is critical in allowing you to reach those goals.

This is the perfect time of year as the days are getting shorter, the weather is becoming cooler and the business of the holidays is approaching to reassess what you are doing inside and outside the gym. In reality, you can not solely rely on sleep or exercise to keep improving your health and wellness but need to find the correct balance of training, rest, nutrition and sleep.

Next time you are going to cheat yourself of sleep, remind yourself that sleep is pivotal at avoiding various diseases and it is the time for repairing and restoring muscles and cells aiding in your exercise performance. You won’t be able to operate at 100 percent-not just in the gym but in your everyday life too.