Why enough sleep is so important
Sleep is so important for so many reasons.
Did you know that by getting enough hours of sleep you can improve your health, productivity and body composition? Here’s 5 reasons why you need to make sure you’re getting enough sleep at night!
FAT LOSS
Sleep deficiency increases the risk of obesity. Lack of sleep messes with two of your hormones that regulate your hunger. When you don’t get enough sleep, your level of ghrelin (makes you feel hungry) goes up and your level of leptin (makes you feel full) goes down. This makes you feel hungrier throughout the day and more likely to make grab high calorie, nutrient dense convenience foods.
DETOXIFICATION
Between the hours of 11pm – 3am your liver neutralises and breaks down toxins. If you miss this window then your body will not detoxify. Your oestrogen receptor sites are on the hamstrings. Many toxins disguise themselves as oestrogen and are called xeno-oestrogens – therefore these get stored in the fat on the hamstrings.
HEALTH
It’s no secret that your health is the most important thing that we have. Anything you can do to improve your health and the quality of your life you should be doing it regardless of the aesthetic results it produces. Getting enough quality sleep at the night can help protect your mental health, your physical health, your quality of life, and your safety. Getting enough quality sleep can help prevent depression and make you more alert.
REPAIR AND RECOVERY
When you sleep you produce human growth hormone. This not only increases rate of fat loss but also helps repair cells and tissues. Contributing towards helping you recover from those sessions in the gym! The more lean mass you have the more calories you’re going to burn.
PRODUCTIVITY
Getting enough sleep during the night helps you function better during the day. Therefore you’re going to perform better at everything including during your workout. You’ll also have quicker reaction times, make less mistakes and finish tasks faster than if you didn’t get enough zzz’s.
So how much is enough?
For adults 7-8 hours per day
Tips for a better sleep
REMOVE DISTRACTIONS
When you can’t drift off it’s so easy to just check your phone quickly. But the backlight stimulates your brain making you feel more awake.
PRACTISE GRATITUDE
Practising gratitude before bed makes you think about all the amazing things in your life, this puts you in a positive frame of mind making it easier to get to sleep.
GET COMFORTABLE
You should sleep in a pitch black room with no lights or sounds, you shouldn’t be too cold or too hot. Just cool. Invest in some decent quality bedding which makes for a great slumber.
I hope these tips can help you in some way.
Your Trainer
Claire xx
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