You have possibly heard the phrase: you can sleep when you’re dead, and back in the day you probably didn’t mind skipping it when you were out partying or working late to meet that deadline that your boss set. But if you are serious about your health and keeping your physique lean and trim, then you are going to want to discover why eight hours of sleep a night is incredibly important for your overall health.
- Rebuild and Repair
When you’re sleeping your body is able to rebuild and repair itself, which is exactly what you need if you’ve been through a grueling workout. While supplements and protein will go a long way towards helping you sculpt and tone, sleeping is where your body rebuilds what’s been broken down and repair those micro-tears made in the muscles. So in essence, sleeping well will have you waking feeling stronger in the long run.
- Keeps You Mentally Strong
Forgetting where you placed your keys, or having a brain fog until that first cup of coffee may be the norm, but when you get your full eight hours a night, you’re far less likely to suffer from short-term memory loss or walk around in a cloud of fatigue. Sleep strengthens neural pathways and if you’re learning a new skill, it’s vitally important to get your sleep in each night in order to maintain and better retain the information you’ve assimilated.
- Less Stressed
People who are chronically sleep-deprived tend to also gain weight faster due to messing with leptin production, along with increased anxiety due to excess cortisol staying in the system. Sleep helps your body flush out these excess hormones, which allows your body to fully recover from trauma and anxiety as you rest. It’s as good as yoga to help you destress.
The Science
When you sleep at night your body goes through several stages of sleep, and it is critical that you reach each one successfully. So, try to avoid waking frequently at night in order to get the full benefits.
Stage one – Non-REM Sleep: During this phase of sleep, you are most likely to wake easily at sudden noises or loud sounds. Your brain waves are focused on muscle memory and logging each movement learned throughout your waking hours.
Stage two – HGH Sleep: During the second sleep stage your body relaxes and your brainwaves slow down as you begin producing the Human Growth Hormone. This is responsible for increasing muscle tissue growth as well as regulating the metabolism of the body.
Stage three – Deep Sleep: During this sleep cycle your body enters a deeper phase of sleep and blood supply to your muscles is on the rise, along with more muscle growth and more HGH is released.
Stage four – REM Sleep: During this phase, the Rapid Eye Movement (REM) of sleep, you’re likely to experience dreams as your brain kicks into high gear again. Extra oxygen reaches your muscles to eliminate any lactic acid (released during workouts). If you don’t reach this phase of sleep enough, then the lactic acid stays in your body and can cause intensely painful knots to build up. Prolactin is also released during REM sleep which helps with joint recovery as it’s an anti-inflammatory hormone.
If you’re not seriously prioritizing your sleeping schedule yet like you’re prioritizing the need for bingo for real money, then hopefully these reasons will help convince you of sleep importance to your workout routine, and overall lifestyle.
