You go to the gym and do the most awesome
bestest workout possible, meal prep all your
bland broccoli and chicken breast, and take
all the overpriced supplements you found on
a fitness Instagram, yet even though you seem
to be doing everything right, your buddy,
who started getting in shape about the same
time as you, is still getting better results.
And he or she does the same workouts but hardly
meal preps while eating the occasional pizza
and ice cream, and the only supplement he’s
taken is a protein shake he found on sale
in the bargain bin.
So how is this possible?
Well, what you didn’t realize is that your
friend is doing better at the number one most
important thing outside of exercising than
you are.
While you’re binge-watching on the new hot
TV series, or playing your favorite videogame
for hours, or even just staying up doing…
whatever you might be doing on the internet,
your buddy is hard at work… sleeping.
If you’re the nocturnal type that gets hardly
any sleep with the occasional 8 hour sleep,
chances are you’re holding yourself back
from getting the best results possible.
We already know how important sleep is just
for the sake of survival, after all, all animals
have to sleep some time.
When it comes to increasing your gains, sleeping
is pretty darn important.
Let’s start off with the most obvious effect
of not sleeping enough, and that’s the negative
impact on performance.
If you ever go to the gym feeling tired and
sleepy, chances are you won't be doing half
as much work as you normally would.
Studies on sleep found that subjects chronically
lacking sleep had significantly slower reaction
times on the psychomotor vigilance test.
Slower alertness means both lower mental and
motor capacity.
Plus, studies found sleep deprivation increases
the amount of mistakes people make, leading
to a possible increase in injuries.
And we all know, if you’re hurt, you ain’t
working out to begin with.
As far as actual performance, sleep deprivation
doesn't really affect your peak capabilities,
meaning you still can push heavy weights or
perform at a high intensity, but... you'll
get tired quicker.
Researchers believe this is because when sleep
deprived, people tend to have trouble metabolizing
glucose.
Since glucose is important for energy, not
being able to break glucose down means your
energy levels will be breaking down instead.
Outside of performance, sleep plays the ever
crucial role of balancing hormones.
When we sleep, your body releases high amounts
of anabolic hormones such as testosterone
and IGF-1.
You’ve probably heard of testosterone before
and its close relationship with building muscle.
When sleep is disrupted, however, especially
when disrupting the first cycle of REM sleep,
the release of these ever-important hormones
take much longer.
This can disrupt the body’s ability to repair
and build muscle during sleep, and even worse,
a study found that subjects suffering from
sleep apnea had lower levels of overall testosterone.
A combination that for sure will reduce your
gainz.
And the effect on hormones doesn’t stop
there.
One thing that sleep is also good for is bringing
down the levels of muscle-"breaking" hormones,
aka catabolism.
Cortisol, the main culprit of these hormones,
remain elevated whenever you don't get a good
night's rest.'
And the tricky thing about this is that the
time you sleep matters, too.
Even if you’re getting the proper amount
of sleep, studies have found that people sleeping
in the daytime were not able to bring down
cortisol levels as much as people sleeping
regular hours of the night.
This is because there is a connection between
cortisol secretion and the natural clock in
which your body operates on known as the circadian
rhythm.
You night owls might be losing more muscle
mass than your early sleeping counterparts
cause your cortisol levels are shot.
And even if you're not shooting for gains
but let’s say you're trying to lose weight
instead, sleeping doesn't necessarily help
you lose more weight, but it does help you
lose the right type of weight.
When compared to people that slept 5 and a
half hours per night, people that slept 8
hours per night lost the same amount of weight,
but they lost 55% more fat while preserving
60% more muscle.
It's almost like you're... sleeping your fat
away.
Not to mention that multitude of studies have
shown lack of sleep increased levels of the
appetite-raising hormone ghrelin while decreasing
leptin, the hormone responsible for making
you feel full.
So less sleep can equal to more eating, and
a bigger belly.
So moral of the story is, don't mess with
sleep.
Get your sleep, and get enough of it.
Heck, if you're watching this right now at
1 in the morning, turn off your phone, your
computer, whatever, don't even bother
sharing, nor following.
Just go to sleep!
Now!
Let your dreams be dreams...
Good night.
