Why You Need to Sleep
Sleep is the secret sauce.
What if there was a supplement or drug that improved your mental performance, decreased anxiety, decreased blood pressure, improved blood sugar, and reset your body’s hormones to levels that made building muscle and losing body fat easier with no negative side effects? Would you take it?
Good news, bad news is that there is no supplement or drug that does that but you CAN get all of those benefits when you improve your sleep.
Sleep is the secret sauce.
The importance of sleep extends beyond rest and looking good; it impacts physical health, cognitive function, emotional stability, and overall quality of life.
Sleep is a time for your body to repair and regenerate after you hit the gym. Did you know that you are actually damaging muscle tissue when you lift weights and your body responds by repairing that damage by laying down more new muscle? That rebuilding process primarily takes place when you are asleep because many hormone levels peak during deep sleep. That means if you want to maximize your time spent in the gym it would behoove you to prioritize your sleep as well.
You also maintain optimal immune function whenever you prioritize sleep. During sleep, your body produces cytokines (there’s a $100 word) which are proteins that help fight off infections and inflammation like little ninjas. When you choose to adopt a “sleep when I’m dead mentality”, you create a shortage of cytokine ninjas which means you are begging for increased sickness.
If you want better regulation of hunger and appetite, sleep more.
Poor sleep disrupts your brain chemistry making you want to eat the hindquarters off of a horse and seek out high calorie high sugar foods all while hormonally priming your body for fat gain.
Sleep is also crucial for mental performance. While you are sleeping the brain processes and neatly organizes all the information you took in from the day. If you have ever studied late into the night, gone to bed, and awoken the next morning to find the subject you were studying coming much easier to you than the night before you know what I am talking about.
During sleep your brain transfers information from short-term to long-term memory. This conversion is essential for learning and retaining new information and skill sets.
Poor sleep can impair your ability to remember information and perform mental tasks, like those TPS reports that are due with the cover letter. A bad night’s sleep also impacts your physical coordination which can lead to higher risk of tweaking something during your workout.
You also make better decisions when you are well rested and you have more willpower to say no to temptations that pop up during the day which should be of particular interest to you if you want to lose bodyfat because you will need an increased ability to say no to those hyperpalatable (think Oreos and Lays potato chips) foods in the breakroom at work (or the pantry at home).
If you want to better manage stress in your life, focusing on a good night’s sleep can help because adequate sleep improves your emotional regulation by affecting your brain’s ability to process and respond to emotional situations. I for one know that little annoyances that I normally can tolerate will cause me to snap when I am sleep deprived (maybe you can relate). When you are tired all the time it leads to heightened emotional reactivity and increased stress levels which does not make you fun to be around so for the love of God get some sleep!
Now that I hopefully convinced you just how crucial sleep is for not only health but your fitness goals, you might be wondering about how to get more of it or how to maximize it.
Let's start with setting up your bedroom.
If you want to ensure you are getting the highest quality sleep here are five areas in your bedroom to look at:
1. Control Light Exposure
Light plays a crucial role in regulating your circadian rhythm. Invest in blackout curtains to block any unwanted lights from peaking through your bedroom windows (like the neighbors' insane flood light that turns on every time the outside cat trips the motion sensor) or consider a sleep mask if you are traveling. You also want to eliminate the lights from electronics and their chargers in your bedroom (phone chargers, surge protectors, and digital alarm clocks are common offenders). The goal is to make your bedroom as dark as possible at night.
2. Stay Cool
The ideal sleeping temperature is typically between 60-67°F (15-19°C), I can hear all the dads out there now, “Don’t touch the thermostat!” If you don’t want to touch the thermostat, use a fan which can double as a white noise machine. There are even high speed devices like the Chilipad that you sleep on to maintain a comfortable temperature throughout the night. The key takeaway is when you can drop your core temperature quickly by keeping your room cold, it helps you fall asleep faster and keeps you asleep longer.
3. Invest in Quality Bedding
You spend a third of your life asleep so it’s important to invest in a good mattress and pillows. A comfortable mattress and pillows are essential for restful sleep. Choose a mattress that supports your sleeping position and invest in high-quality pillows that provide adequate neck and head support. Once you have your mattress and pillows nailed down, get some good sheets and you may want to consider a weighted blanket which can help if you are a restless sleeper.
4. Minimize Noise
Whether its a barking dog, a loud party, or your snoring partner, unwanted noise can keep you from reaching the deeper stages of rest. Use earplugs or a white noise machine to drown out disruptive sounds so you can drift easily into deeper levels of sleep.
5. Create a Relaxing Ambiance
Your bedroom should call to you at night because you enjoy sleeping in it so much. Use soothing colors, such as soft blues or greens, add calming scents with essential oils and keep your room clutter-free.
If possible do not use your bedroom as an office or living room. You want your bedroom to exist for one purpose, rest. You want to avoid having computers, TVs, and other electronics in your room and avoid doing anything in your bed other than sleeping…and adult activities. That means no TVs, computers, phones, or food in bed.
Once you have taken care of your bedroom and are set up for your best night's sleep, we can move on to the behaviors before bed that will set you up for sleep glory!
The key behavior that we want to focus on is a proper winddown routine. When my children were born I learned just how important it was to have a set bedtime routine. Which begs the question, if bedtime routines are effective for infants, toddlers and adolescents, why do we stop whenever we become adults? Certainly not because bedtime routines are not ineffective for adults. In fact, a bedtime routine is one of the most important habits you can maintain for the rest of your life.
Five steps to creating an effective bedtime routine:
Step 1. Get Consistent with Your Sleep Schedule
Go to bed and wake up at the same time every day, even on weekends! Consistency helps regulate your internal clock and improves sleep quality. If you have ever traveled to another timezone, you have experienced the power of your internal clock. When you do not go to bed and wake up at the same time every day you are giving yourself jetlag on a smaller scale.
Step 2. Create a Pre-Sleep Ritual
Develop a calming pre-sleep routine that helps you unwind. I once heard someone say that you should not have an alarm on your phone that wakes you up but, have one that signals you to begin your pre-sleep ritual instead. This may include activities such as reading a book, bathing, or practicing relaxation techniques like deep breathing or meditation.
**One habit I highly recommend is writing down your to-do list for tomorrow during your pre-sleep routine for two reasons. First, I have found that it has made me the most productive I have ever been and second, you capture all the ideas of what you need to do that are swimming around in your brain on paper so you have a clear mind before bed.
Step 3. Shut off caffeine 8 hours before bed and have your final meal 2 hours before bed
Avoid consuming additional caffeine after lunchtime. The halflife of caffeine is 8 hours meaning that if you consume 100mg of caffeine at 2pm you will have 50mg of caffeine in your bloodstream eight hours later at 10pm.
Eating a heavy meal before bed can negatively impact your sleep as your body attempts to digest and absorb the meal. If you struggle with indigestion, reflux, or simple restlessness at night and you have been eating closer to bed time try to avoid eating at least a few hours before bedtime so your body can better digest your food and even out your blood sugar before your head hits the pillow.
Step 4. Avoid Electronics Before Bed
The blue light emitted by screens can interfere with melatonin production, the hormone responsible for signaling your body that it is time to sleep, leaving you feeling “tired and wired” aka exhausted but unable to fall asleep.
Turn off electronic devices, dim the lights as much as possible at least an hour before bedtime, and switch to amber hue lighting before bed instead of plain white lights which contain the blue light wavelength in them if you want to get a jump on your natural melatonin production.
Step 5. Manage Stress Effectively
Cut back on negative stress as much as possible. Navigating a poor career choice, dating the wrong person, and even a bad commute to and from work are all examples of stress that can literally keep you up at night because it keeps the hormone cortisol, which is responsible for waking you up every morning, chronically elevated.
It is trendy online to hate on cortisol right now because it does create negative effects when it is chronically elevated however, just like any other hormone we want it to be balanced in the body. Both too much and too little of any hormone in your body can create health problems and that includes cortisol.
The key takeaway is to take steps to eliminate sources of negative stress whenever possible and learn strategies for handling stress whenever you cannot eliminate the source from your life.
Supplements that Can Help with Sleep
Before we get into supplementation, it is worth stating that there are no magic pills and supplements may be helpful for some but they will not replace having a solid bedtime routine that you consistently follow and a great place to rest your head at night.
Always consult a healthcare provider before taking any new supplement. Now that all that out of the way, here are some supplements that may help.
Magnesium
Magnesium plays a role in regulating neurotransmitters that promote relaxation and sleep. A supplement of 200-400 mg of magnesium glycinate or citrate taken before bedtime may help improve sleep quality.
Valerian Root
Valerian root is an herbal supplement known for its sedative properties. It may help reduce the time it takes to fall asleep and improve sleep quality. Typical doses range from 300 to 600 mg taken 30 minutes to two hours before bedtime.
Chamomile
Chamomile is a gentle herb often consumed as a tea. It has mild sedative effects and can help promote relaxation. Drinking chamomile tea before bed may help ease the transition to sleep.
Ashwagandha (KSM-66)
Ashwagandha is an adaptogenic herb that is used to help combat stress and has been shown to help users fall asleep faster, and sleep deeper. Take 250-500mg per day during periods of high stress.
Wrap up
Sleep is the secret sauce when it comes to improving your fitness and health. It is also perhaps the most overlooked aspect of maintaining a healthy body both physically and mentally. If you are serious about making significant changes to your body you cannot overlook the quality and amount of sleep that you are getting on a weekly basis. There is not a single bodily function that is not improved by a good night's sleep.
If you want:
Less body fat
To build more muscle
To improve your blood pressure
Increase your mental performance
Get stronger in the gym
Be more patient and have increased willpower
Fight depression and anxiety
Get serious about your sleep. Set up your bedroom, find an effective pre-sleep routine, and consider taking one or two helpful supplements to maximize your sleep quality and quantity. Prioritizing your sleep is a crucial investment in your long-term health and happiness.