ARE YOU GETTING ENOUGH SLEEP?
Last week I conducted a small survey, to find out how many people actually get a good night’s sleep.
And here’s what the findings reported...
You might be thinking that 7 - 9 hours is almost impossible to achieve, given the number of things that you have to do every day.
However, it doesn’t change the fact that without a good night’s sleep, you will always be operating at a sub-optimal version of yourself.
For a very long period of time, I too fell into the trap of pushing sleep right down to the bottom of my list of priorities, getting by on 4-5 hours of sleep on a good day.
In all honesty, a lot of this came from the mindset of “hustle now, sleep later”. I didn’t recognize the importance of sleep and therefore neglected it as something that I should prioritise.
Because of this, I want to share a small insight into why sleep is probably one of the most important things for your health and mindset.
Ps, let me not forget to mention the role sleep plays in helping you progress with your gym & body goals.
So, where do you start?
The first point I want to draw your attention to is something called the Circadian rhythm. If you haven’t heard of it, don’t worry too much. Most people haven’t so here’s a little bit of context.
Simply put, it’s your body’s internal 24-hour clock. This clock is responsible for controlling the hormones that make you feel sleepy as it gets later in the day, and more awake as the sun begins to rise.
As the day gets darker, your body clock responds by signalling your brain to produce a hormone called melatonin. Its purpose is to help put your mind and body into a more relaxed state, thus creating a better environment for you to fall asleep in.
You’ll be surprised at just how much goes on within your body, during the time in which you sleep.
Your brain begins to consolidate any new information learned throughout the day, which is useful when learning or studying a new topic and also creating memories.
Your pituitary gland (a small gland that helps to regulate your metabolism, general wellbeing, and many other bodily functions) releases the growth hormone, which helps your body grow and repair itself. This is key when weight training, as it helps to maximise muscle growth, and favour fat loss over weight loss.
The hunger hormone (Grehlin) also decreases, which is useful in helping you manage your cravings. A consistent lack of sleep can cause a rise in Grehlin, which increases your hunger and appetite over the following days.
On the opposing side, as the sun begins to rise and the day gets lighter, your body stops producing melatonin. This is a way of letting your body know that it’s time to wake up.
In an ideal world, this rhythm would allow your body to go through enough cycles of deep sleep to reap the associated benefits. However, this isn’t the case for most people today.
Due to many different lifestyle factors, the body’s 24-hour clock gets disrupted, and the ability for you to be able to get a good night’s sleep is diminished.
In some instances, people have become so used to functioning on less than 7-9 hours of sleep. However, this doesn’t change the evidence that points to all the long-term health issues that can be developed through a lack of sleep.
Here are some of the more common issues and some suggestions to help you get into a better sleeping pattern.
The most common thing for people to do before bed is to spend time in front of screens (TVs, laptops, mobile phones etc…). As relaxing as this may feel in the moment, these screens emit a blue light which actually stops the production of melatonin. In turn, pushing your body’s clock back and despite you falling asleep shortly after, your mind and body are still not in a state of actual rest. 1 - 2 hours before bed, aim to avoid screens and get the room to be as dark as possible.
If you don’t have a set time that you go to sleep, it’s more than likely that the amount of time you sleep will also vary. Like most things in life, unless you plan for it to happen, it generally won’t. Create a set time for sleep and stick to it.
Any stressful activities/work that you do closer to the time in which you go to sleep will cause an increase in the hormone, adrenaline. Adrenaline is necessary for when we need to be alert or in the ‘fight or flight’ mode. But as I’m sure you can imagine, you’ll find it very hard to sleep in this state of alertness. Where possible
