Sleep: Vitamin Zz

[vc_row row_type=”row” use_row_as_full_screen_section=”no” type=”full_width” angled_section=”no” text_align=”left” background_image_as_pattern=”without_pattern” css_animation=””][vc_column][vc_column_text]Hey fellow ninjas,

This month I will go over the importance of sleep and what it looks like when you are deprived of it. Have you ever said to yourself “I can sleep when I’m dead!” Or “the early bird gets the worm!” Are you one of those people who THINKS they can get by on four or five hours of sleep almost every night? Do you say to yourself you don’t need sleep? That’s for the lazy, unmotivated people who have absolutely nothing to do. What if I told you that sleep is WAY more important than you probably think. Would you believe me? Below I am going to share some key points as to why sleep is next to being just as important as clean eating when it comes to your performance in and out of the gym.

Sleep Deprivation and Your Hormones

Studies have shown that just a week of sleep deprivation can cause significant alterations in your glucose tolerance (i.e. How readily your body can recognize glucose (sugar=energy) floating around in your blood and utilize it to fuel activity). Impaired glucose tolerance can lead to diabetes and cardiovascular disease. Not only can the alteration cause diabetes, but it can also lead to weight gain. Your sleep patterns are directly correlated to your weight. So here’s how that works, stay with me on this….like stated before, impaired glucose tolerance is a side effect of sleep deprivation. When your body doesn’t transfer glucose into your cells efficiently, you feel tired and hungrier than you should be, so what do you do? Naturally You eat. Not only do you eat, but you eat more than you should. And remember, your body is already in a poor state of utilizing glucose efficiently, so guess what happens to the excess calories it’s not using? That’s right, it will get stored as fat. Usually on your butt, thighs and belly.

Leptin and Ghrelin

Lack of sleep has been shown to lower the hormone, leptin. Leptin is the appetite suppressing hormone produced by fat cells, which is normally produced at night. If you’re not sleeping, your body isn’t producing it. Also, along with the leptin, you produce the hormone ghrelin, which stimulates hunger but normally in lesser amounts. If you’re not producing leptin, then you’re not off setting the ghrelin, which then leads to hunger. Research has found that people who are tired are more likely to grab a carbohydrate dense sweet and salty food. So let’s see how this pans out, you’re glucose tolerance is off, you’re hungrier, and you’re reaching for all the wrong foods, which leads to weight gain.

Cortisol

You’ve probably heard of cortisol, usually in a negative way, but we actually need it so we respond to stress appropriately and not get sick. What we don’t need is elevated levels right before bed time. Studies have found, people who sleep on average, four hours, have elevated cortisol at night. The levels decrease six times slower when compared to to people with controlled cortisol levels. These elevations can lead to the development of obesity and diabetes.

Sleep Deprivation and Your Brain

Studies have shown that lack of sleep affects our cognitive skills. For us trying to get better in the gym, having a sharp mind is important. Attention, alertness, reaction time, memory, skills and creative thinking will all suffer when we don’t get enough sleep.

Sleep Deprivation and Your Immune System

Lastly, when there is a lack of sleep, your immune system suffers. I could get all technical and tell you how the Helper T cell activation and action system works but I’ll keep it simple. There are specific immune cells that come out at night to fight off foreign substances, repair damaged tissue and prevent inflammation. Key point, they come out AT NIGHT. Whenever you skip out on sleep, the immune cells that fight inflammation become unbalanced and can put the body at risk for infection, chronic disease and cancer. So as you can see, EVERYONE needs adequate sleep, 7+ hours a night if they want to perform optimally throughout the day. Sleep is vital to our health and well being. They say to improve your sleep, shut down all devices, computers, phones, tvs, music ect, at least an hour prior to shut eye. Picking up a good book to read always helps to relax the mind before falling asleep.

I hope this helps and maybe it was the one thing standing between you and your next PR! Over and out!

 

Coach Jamie Justin[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row row_type=”row” use_row_as_full_screen_section=”no” type=”full_width” angled_section=”no” text_align=”left” background_image_as_pattern=”without_pattern” css_animation=””][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”15411″ qode_css_animation=””][/vc_column][/vc_row]