- Increased Energy
- Increased Positive Mood
- Better Healing from Injury and Soreness
- Increased Immune Function
- Faster Gains from Training
What is Sleep?
In humans, sleep is a state where we lose conciousness and inactivity of voluntary muscles (the muscles that we can control voluntarily). When we sleep, there is a decreased ability to respond to a stimulus and sensory activity is somewhat suspended (source: wikipedia).
Source: somnapuresleepaid.com
Why is Sleep Important to Fitness and Well-Being?
When we sleep, we are put into an anabolic state. If you are interested in bodybuilding, this is VERY important. Anabolism is a metabolic process where your body takes molecules and builds them into structures like muscle (the reverse being catabolism). The bodily structures constructed during anabolism are not limited to muscle tissue however, as nervous, skeletal, and immune systems / structures are repaired, maintained, and contructed as well (source: wikipedia). So, the more sleep one gets in turn gives the body more time to work in an anabolic state. This is why sleep / rest is so crucial to bodybuilding and recovering from fitness, as well as preventing vulnerability to contracting disease.
Sleep plays a role in one's mental and emotional state as well. Not getting adequate amounts of sleep impairs one's thought processes, memory, and ability to learn (source: WebMD). Those who do not receive enough sleep are also more irritable and more prone to thinking negatively from not being able to function properly, at a high level, and / or with enough energy.
Source: thedementiaqueen.com
The Jtrain's Theory on Sleep
I might be saying a lot of what has already been said in this post, but I want to re-iterate, sleep is priceless to fitness. Body transformation success stems from a successful and working relationship between workout decision-making, dietary decision-making, and amount of rest. A great workout with a diet that is on-point is absolutely worthless if you're not putting your body into an anabolic state for an adequate amount of time through sleep. Your gains in the gym will be hindered or suffer if you're not getting enough sleep. The early bird might get the worm, but that bird doesn't get optimal muscle growth. Another popular saying is that "sleep is for the weak", when it fact it should be "those who do not sleep are weak".
Sleep to me is a time where your body puts everything together. It's the time it builds and repairs muscle, gives you the gains you've stimulated through your workouts, and serves as a biological switch to determining when your nutrition has started and stopped during a 24-hour period (kind of). Sleep is the BEST energy supplement, because getting enough of it gives you immense amounts of focus and energy that you can use to attack the workload you have in front of you for the day, whether work related, gym related, or social-relationships related. Sleep prepares your body to be the most optimal you for the next day, allowing you to attack everything with your all.
The Jtrain's Techniques for Falling Asleep
Man, if I had a dollar for everytime someone told me "I can't sleep" or "I've never been able to sleep" I'd be very well off financially. I'd be even richer if I had a dollar for every time they gave me an excuse as to why they couldn't fall asleep.
The truth is, I believe almost everyone is able to sleep well consistently if they use some of, if not all, of the techniques I'm about to propose (or other techniques they find useful). I understand that some people might actually have a relevant medical condition that prevents them from getting sleep....but let's be real guys.....you're probably not one of those people. So please keep an open mind when reading through these.
1) Sleep in a room that is cool / cold / low temperature
This is something that always worked for me. Personally, if the room is too humid / hot, I can guarantee you that I will wake up every 10 minutes trying to find a cooler spot on the bed or adjusting myself into a more comfortable position. Also, I tend to have nightmares more often when the room is hot.
Source: blogcdn.com
I realized that in the winter time I would have an easier time falling asleep. When I turned the AC up in my room and cranked some fans I would fall asleep no problem. This may or may not have had something to do with the cold air serving as some biological stimulus for blood to be rushed to the middle of my body and trigger some switch in my brain that my body needed to be shut down to conserve energy. I've shared this idea with some people, and they've reported positive experiences with sleep after doing so.
2) Never............EVER...........think about falling asleep
In fact, don't think about anything...at all. If you worry about that test tomorrow, your girlfriend breaking up with you, how you're not going to get enough sleep.....you will NOT fall asleep efficiently. Your mind will constantly be too bombarded and occupied with thoughts of falling asleep that it won't wonder off into a state of relaxation and sleepiness. We all have issues to deal with. We all have problems we'll have to eventually solve. But this is a sacred time. A time where you're going to cash in on how tired you feel and invest in repairing your body both physically and mentally.
Don't worry about the sleep you missed out on, but rather embrace and feel happy about the sleep you WILL get.
Source: wherewhywhen.com
Sleep is kind of like love. We call it "falling asleep". You fall into it. You let it take hold of you. You wander into it. Fall back, empty your thoughts, and let sleep take hold.
3) Sleep in a bed that is comfortable for you
Do you like a firm bed or a soft bed? If you don't know, you need to find out. Those who sleep better in firm beds will find trouble falling asleep in a soft bed and vice versa. Personally, I find myself most relaxed and able to fall asleep in a bed that is super soft and conforms to my body as opposed to a rigid bed. My parents are the complete opposite, and so I find it harder to sleep on my mattress at their house when I visit since all of the beds have firm mattresses.
Source: apartmenttherapy.com
4) Develop a wind-down routine
This is very important. If you go straight from what you're doing into trying to go to bed, your body is going to have a more difficult time adjusting. Find a routine that you can do every night before bed that calms and relaxes you and winds you down before trying to sleep. Personally, I turn off all of my lights and lounge in bed with the t.v. on for a good 20-30 minutes. Some people might like listening to music or checking their Facebook. For the longest time, I would also drink a glass of milk while watching t.v. Whatever it is, find something that winds you down. Sleep (and wake) cycles are very much something that needs to be "warmed up" or "primed" before getting into. Your body needs to be eased into sleep. As an aside, I also believe this to be true for waking up. Your body needs time to get ready to wake up, and so I'll take a 45 minutes to get myself ready to get out of bed in the morning, turning on the t.v. at the "20 minutes left" mark.
Source: stuartduncan.name
5) Develop a sleep-cycle
Going to bed at 1:00am for four nights in a row and then suddenly trying to go to bed at 9:00pm will be a difficult thing for your body to deal with. Your body is very good at adjusting to patterns that you give it over time (eating habits for example), and will therefore catch on around what time you start to go to bed. This is why it's important to go to bed at the same time each night, plus or minus an hour so that you and your body can be in-tune for when to start falling asleep. You'll start to notice that you'll get tired and want to fall asleep at the same time each night if you stick to a sleeping schedule. Having a sleeping schedule that is all over the place will confuse your body and will make falling asleep difficult.
6) Do not take naps
One of my views on sleep is that, to get a great night of sleep, it's important to accrue as much fatigue during the day as possible. and exhaust your body up until you plan on going to bed. In fact, sleep is very much like a bank account in that a surplus of sleep from days past will make it hard to sleep, and a deficit of sleep will make you crash harder when you sleep, or wear you down more and more each day if you keep getting inadequate amounts of sleep each night (source: wikipedia). If you take naps, you'll be closer to a sleep surplus and find it harder to fall asleep at night when you want to since your body has already attained some of the rest it needs. On days that I've gotten very little sleep, I refuse to take naps. This is because I know that if I skip a nap, I'll be that much more tired when it comes time to falling asleep and cashing in over night. Some people are all-in on naps and swear by them. In my opinion however, it just further messes with whatever sleep cycle you're trying to attain.
7) Exercise or do something that tires you out
Pretty self-explanatory. If you live a lifestyle that is sedentary and does not require you to expend energy, your body will find no reason to want to recharge or rest. Using the techniques above, I've never had a bad night of rest since middle school, but since bodybuilding have had a REALLY easy time falling asleep. It's because I exhaust myself in the gym. But it doesn't need to be the gym. Find any activity that will deplete enough energy for your body to be stimulated into making you want to rest. You'll not only be rewarded with a nice night of sleep, but with a healthier body from a more-active lifestyle!
Source: youbeauty.com
And those are my techniques for sleep. I'm really excited that I got to finally discuss it in my blog. It's something I've really be interested in as of late and wanted to share with you guys. These are things that have helped me have a great night of rest since I can remember. Let me know how they work for you, or if there are any other techniques that help you fall asleep that you'd like to share!
-Jtrain
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- *Have a question about natural bodybuilding / fitness / nutrition / stress? Need some advice? Email me at jtrainfitness@gmail.com and I will answer it on this blog! Be sure to enter your email to receive alerts for when the next blog post has come out, and be sure to tell your friends about this blog! Follow me on twitter @jtrainfitness and tell your friends to do the same!*
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I've recently had problems "performing", do you think this is due to a lack of sleep?
ReplyDeleteIt very well could be! Without any knowledge of what your dietary habits / medications / genetic predispositions are, I can tell you that from what I've read and heard from other people, and from my interviews with people while volunteering at a health clinic, that severe lack of sleep and thus energy can be a factor on one's sex drive.
DeleteYour body really only wants to do two things. Keep you alive, and reproduce. But it wants to keep you alive more than it wants you to reproduce. So if you don't have the energy required to keep you functionally fit, it's going to make you know that that's a priority before it reminds you of how you should be reproducing.
That's my take on it anyway. Does that make sense?