The Importance Of Healthy Sleep Patterns
In an increasingly fast-paced world, sleep is often the first thing to take a hit. Job and family stress, limited time, poor nutrition and substances used to increase energy such as caffeine can all interfere with sleep. We’ve all heard the old adage, “I’ll sleep when I’m dead,” but the truth is that, without sufficient sleep, you might shorten your life and lower the quality of your waking day. Well-rested people are better-equipped to take on a challenging day, and exhaustion can make even simple tasks seem daunting. By taking time to sleep, you’re taking time to ensure that your body is healthy and fit and that your emotional life stays well-balanced.
Sleep and Physical Fitness
Whether you’re trying to get in shape for the first time or hoping to add muscle to an already toned physique, sleep may be the secret ingredient in your fitness recipe. While you’re sleeping, your body is hard at work repairing the cellular wear and tear of the day. Growth hormone is released during sleep, and this important hormone plays a vital role in both muscle growth and repair. Protein synthesis in the muscles also occurs during sleep. No matter how many protein shakes you drink, without sufficient sleep your muscle growth will be stunted.
Many of the fitness-building functions of sleep only occur during rapid eye movement sleep (REM), which is the deep stage of sleep during which dreaming occurs. You have to be asleep for anywhere from 10 minutes to two hours to enter REM sleep, so brief naps are not enough. If you wake up during the night to work or are so busy that you can only afford to sleep a few hours, you won’t gain the benefits of REM sleep. Moreover, REM sleep plays an important role in consolidation of memory and learning. This includes muscle memory. Your body processes what you’ve done throughout the day and encodes it in long-term memory. While you might not think of exercise as part of learning, your muscles must learn and remember how to work together and coordinate your fitness activities. Without regular, quality REM sleep, you may find that your fitness routine is much harder than it would otherwise be. A study published in the Journal of Sports Medicine and Fitness, for example, found a direct correlation between healthy sleep habits and physical fitness.
Sleep and Physical Health
While strong muscles and a gorgeous physique are important physical fitness goals, most people exercise because they want to be healthy. Regular exercise can increase your life span, reduce your pulse and blood pressure, improve circulation and lung function and even help ward off cancer. But you won’t get the full benefits of exercise if you’re not getting enough sleep.
A study presented to the American College of Cardiology found that poor sleep hygiene – defined as too much, too little or irregular sleep – can increase blood pressure, risk of congestive heart failure, chest pain and coronary artery disease. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services emphasizes that poor sleep also increases your risk of diabetes, obesity and cancer, but healthy sleep habits can help you fight off infection and disease, improve heart health and remain in peak physical condition. Different governmental agencies and medical authorities recommend different amounts of sleep, but most organizations agree that six to nine hours of sleep per night is a healthy goal. If you’re sick, suffering from a chronic illness or recovering from an injury, you may need more sleep, so consult your doctor for healthy sleep guidelines.
Sleep and Mental Health
Researchers are increasingly recognizing the role physical fitness plays in mental health. Several studies, for example, have found that regular exercise can be as effective at treating depression as anti-depressants, and exercise has several mood-boosting benefits. If you’re not getting enough sleep, however, these benefits could be lost. Insufficient sleep is a major contributor to depression and anxiety, and can make stress seem daunting. Poor sleep sometimes leads to a vicious cycle: people don’t exercise because they’re too exhausted, and this lack of exercise leads to depression. The depression, in turn, makes sleep even more difficult.
Without proper sleep, your cognitive functioning might also suffer. Students perform worse in school when they don’t get enough sleep, and workers are more likely to make errors when sleep-deprived. While it might seem like you’re putting your all into something if you neglect sleep, the odds are good that you’re actually working less effectively and less intelligently if you’re depriving yourself of sleep.
Sleep can seem like an inconvenience to people afflicted with busy, stressful lives. But give yourself the present of a good night’s sleep and you’re likely to find that your life suddenly feels more manageable, your fitness routine is easier and your stress is less overwhelming.