Hey there!

Hope you’ve had a good week so far! I’m back with another post, this time it’s on sleep.

You shouldn’t be skipping your sleep.

Most likely I’m sure you live busy lives, and quite often you don’t have enough time in the day to complete everything you want to get done. I fully understand. And the first thing that tends to get sacrificed is your sleep or the amount that you’re getting.

When you’re training, sleep is one of the most important factors in healing your body and keeping you energized throughout the day. If your sleep starts to suffer, you will definitely feel it and trust me.. you’ll know. You will start feeling drained, not have the ability to focus to just name a couple, and it just impacts your daily life.

Being sleep deprived can lead to a whole array of damage to your body and lead to chronic health problems over the long term. Some of these effects include:

  • Weight gain
  • Depression
  • Moodiness
  • Colds & flus
  • Cognitive dysfunction
  • Type 2 diabetes

These are just some of the effects on the body.

Your muscles repair when you are sleeping so it is paramount that you get your rest.

So how much sleep do you actually need?

Most people have heard the eight hour per night rule, but to be honest it can vary between individuals. There is no “one set rule” on how much sleep you should be getting per night. Though most people tend to find 7-8 hours per night as the golden standard for feeling rejuvenated and functional. Naturally the more physical exercise and training that you do, the more sleep is required in order to rebuild and repair upon those stresses.

Muscles and the nervous system take a lot of stress from training, and if you don’t recover and get the amount of sleep that you body needs, you may start to feel symptoms of overtraining, and start coming down with a bug more often. These can also lead to feeling unmotivated and stressed. If you are feeling that you really just don’t have the time to get all the sleep you need in one hit, there is one way you can catch up!

And that is….. Nap! It is perfectly fine to take a nap at some point during the day. Elite level athletes take naps all the time, especially because they need it due to the constant stress of training on their body. Napping will help restore some positive energy needed for the rest of the day. I’ve personally been napping quite a bit more recently and I can personally say it does help. I have more energy and generally just feel more alert. Just ensure you find the right balance of how long you nap for. Nap too long and you will feel groggy upon waking up, but nap too short and you won’t get the benefits of that extra energy boost.

Some people can get away with 6 hours sleep per night while others may even need upwards of 9 hours or more. It all depends on your individual bodily processes, how much stress is in your life, how much physical labour you do + plus many other factors. Find what is right for you and stick with it. Don’t cut your sleep short it’s extremely important.

Hope you have great weekend and be sure to take some time to relax, de-stress and nap. Your body and mind will thank you for it.

To your success in fitness,

-Tiz