Getting Quality Sleep Impacts Health and Fitness

WASHINGTON — We’ve all woken up feeling groggy and dreading the day ahead. When you’re busy and stressed, it’s hard to get to bed early. Even if you manage an early bedtime, sometimes you can’t fall asleep. The CDC states that 33% of adults sleep less than seven hours per night, and up to 70 million people have a chronic sleep disorder. 

Beyond feeling sluggish, chronic sleep deprivation can be detrimental to your health. If you’re into going to the gym and staying fit, sleeping is when your muscles repair and grow. Here, we will explain how missing out on sleep can affect your health and fitness and give you some tips to get better sleep.

What Is Healthy Sleep?

First, let’s define what makes sleep healthy. A study published in the Nature and Science of Sleep Journal categorizes normal, healthy sleep with the following qualities:

• Sufficient duration of at least seven hours.
• Sleep continuity, meaning no sleep disruption or difficulty staying asleep.
• Regular sleeping schedule.
• Absence of sleep disturbances like sleep apnea or restless leg syndrome.

If you experience medical sleep disturbances, tell your doctor to look for underlying causes.

How Lack of Sleep Affects Your Health

Sleep plays a crucial role in optimal health. It is necessary for multiple functions and systems in your body, including your brain, metabolism, hormones, immune and cardiovascular systems.

Research links sleep deprivation with the following outcomes:

• Increases Risk of Chronic Diseases: Sleep deprivation is linked with chronic diseases like type 2 diabetes and insulin resistance, hypertension, heart disease and obesity. It can also increase your risk of stroke, heart attack and death.
• Weakens Immune System: When you sleep, your immune system produces antioxidants called cytokines, which help reduce inflammation and prevent illnesses. Not getting enough sleep adversely affects your immune system.
• Increases Depression and Anxiety: Inadequate sleep is associated with depression, anxiety, other mood disorders and increased stress. It can cause lower quality of life and emotional well-being. It also reduces your ability to control emotions.
• Impairs Cognitive Function: Not getting enough sleep can impair cognitive function and reduce focus and attention, leading to an increased risk of accidents.

How Sleep Affects Your Fitness

In addition to exercising and eating a healthy diet, you may have heard that sleeping well is a key component of optimal fitness. Here’s how it plays into your gym sessions.

• Increases Energy Levels: Getting enough sleep helps you feel energized and improves your mood, making you more likely to follow through on your workout plans.
• Improves Endurance: More energy can lead to better endurance during your training sessions. You may be able to exercise for longer before fatiguing.
• Improves Performance: A meta-analysis in the Sports Medicine Journal found that sleep loss negatively affects athletic performance. This may be because sleep impacts cognitive function, and athletic performance requires sharp focus and attention. Training while sleep deprived may also increase your risk of injury.
• Muscle Growth and Recovery: When you do resistance training, your muscles recover overnight. Cytokine production during sleep helps repair damaged cells and tissue. Muscle protein synthesis, the muscle growth process, also occurs while you sleep.

Tips for Improving Sleep

The American Academy of Sleep Medicine recommends getting seven to nine hours of sleep per night. 

If you have insomnia, sleep apnea or other sleep conditions, talk to your doctor. If you are otherwise healthy but sometimes have trouble falling, or staying, asleep, these tips may help.

• Sleep Hygiene: “Sleep hygiene” refers to your sleeping conditions.
• Set a Schedule: Going to bed and waking up at the same time can help regulate your melatonin production and circadian rhythm.
• Manage Environment: Reduce noise and light. Try blackout curtains and earplugs if you live on a busy city street. The ideal temperature may be about 65 degrees.
• Avoid Screens Before Bed: Exposure to light blocks your body’s ability to produce melatonin. Try reading a book or relaxing in bed instead of looking at your phone right before you shut your eyes.
• Try to Relax: A short meditation or some breathwork before bed can help you relax and reduce stress.

Lifestyle Tips

What you do before hitting your pillow also matters. Here are some daily lifestyle tips to improve sleep overall. 

• Caffeine Timing: A study in the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine states that consuming caffeine six hours before bed can disrupt sleep. Try to stop drinking caffeinated beverages before then.
• Meal Timing: Avoid eating a heavy, slow-digesting meal close to bedtime. On the other hand, going to bed hungry can also disrupt sleep.
• Avoid Alcohol, Drugs and Smoking: Alcohol, drug use and smoking all disrupt your sleep and circadian rhythm.
• Exercise Regularly: Many studies show that regular exercise improves sleep quality — even for people with insomnia. Exercise can also decrease the time it takes to fall asleep, help you stay asleep longer and increase melatonin production. 
• Manage Stress: Relaxing before bed is important for a good night’s sleep, but managing daily stress can also help. 

Sleep Well

There’s nothing like a good night’s sleep after a long day and waking up feeling refreshed. Sleeping well and enough can also improve your physical and mental health. Good sleep quality is crucial to recovery from exercise, and can help you feel more energized and dialed in at your next workout. Shut the blinds, relax and drift off to dreamland.

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