Sleep is a massive talking point in the fitness industry right now and we thought we’d share with you some sleep knowledge.
When we’re sleeping, the body uses this time to recover from the day’s work, stress, and physical activity it’s been through. Many people believe that it’s the time their heads are on the pillow that counts as quality sleep but this couldn’t be more wrong. It’s actually the quality of the sleep that’s the important thing. Another thing to think about is sleep deprivation, as this is one of the biggest causes to overeating.
To achieve a good night’s sleep, you should try and create your own sleep sanctuary. There are a few things you can do straight away to improve the quality of your sleep.
- The body repairs itself better in a cooler environment, so turn down that heating.
- No snacking 2 hours before bed or in bed, there’s only 2 things we should do in bed and that’s sleep and sex.
- No devices before bed. You’re trying to prepare your body to rest, not give yourself things to think about while you try and dose off.
- Try as best you can to blackout any light that comes into the bedroom.
In a study between 2 groups of people carrying out a lifestyle change, one group were deprived of sleep and only managed 5 hours sleep a night, while the other group had 8 hours sleep in their own sleep sanctuary and the results were phenomenal. The group that slept for the 8 hours burnt a massive 55% more fat whilst sleeping than the group who slept for just 5 hours. WOW.
When sleeping, the body produces lots of hormones to help repair it for the next day, some of these are HGH (human growth hormone) Leptin, which controls your satiety status, Ghrelin which is your hunger hormone, Cortisol which helps to metabolise fat and lots more, and really importantly Melatonin.
Melatonin does a whole lot of things in the body but one of them is it creates brown adipose tissue in the body. Now I know everyone thinks adipose tissue is fat and you are correct it is but there are two types. The difference between brown adipose tissue and white adipose tissue, is the brown tissue helps turn fat into energy and the white tissue stores fat. Melatonin is also known as the best anti-cancer hormone and which is increased th with a better quality of sleep.
In summary, getting around 8 hours sleep has so many benefits. Create that sanctuary and happy dreaming.
If you’re interested in finding out more about how to get better quality sleep then I recommend Shawn Stevenson’s Sleep Smarter.
By Michael Cox