Weight Loss Spotlight

Proper Sleep

Weight Loss & Proper Sleep

The importance of getting enough sleep just can't seem to be repeated enough times. The recovery time is just as crucial to your muscle as the nutritional part as well as the actual workout is.

Without the proper amount of sleep, the muscle will end up in a catabolic state, which means the muscle will break itself down during and after the exercise.

The body releases a lot of essential hormones for muscle recovery and muscle growth while we sleep. Without proper sleep, we cannot function for very long, not physically nor mentally. Our body is depleted of important nutrients such as vitamins and minerals, if we are sleep deprived.

Bodily growth and repair only occur during rest or sleep, never during exercise. One of the most important hormones, growth hormone is being released while we are sleeping. Growth hormone is stored in the pituitary gland and the body releases it in response to sleep, exercise and restricted food intake. It's of great importance to us to have a sufficient level of growth hormone in our body because of all the benefits it provides us with. Growth hormone can help you burn fat and convert it into energy and muscle.

A healthy growth hormone level helps your body to strengthen your ligaments and tendons, enhance protein synthesis for muscle growth and keep the connective tissue strong and healthy. Not getting your sleep is trying to drive a car without putting any gas in it, it just won't drive very well at all. Studies show that the over training syndrome occurs primarily because of insufficient amount of rest and sleep. The other common result from not getting enough sleep is the weakening of your immune system. If you are over trained and are not getting enough rest you are subsequently much more susceptible to infections of any kind.

Suffering from a lack of sleep while trying to get through a tough workout could result in not only your body breaking down energy wise but you are also more prone to injuries like tendon and ligament injuries because your whole system is weak from lack of rest. If you increase your exercise intensity you also need to increase your rest and recovery time in between workouts. If you fail to do so you will most likely end up sick our injured and this will set you back from training even further. The secret to injury free training is to carefully balance training and rest.

A sign of over training is insomnia. If you know that there is no reason for you not to be able to sleep at night you are most likely not getting your well needed 7-9 hours of good rest.

A great percentage of the American population suffers from insomnia and other sleeping disorders. While you can always pop a pill to be able to sleep, there are other ways to improve your sleep. Drink an herbal relaxing tea before bedtime like a chamomile, valerian root or bedtime mix tea. This will help you unwind from your busy day and make you relax so you can fall asleep. Eating certain kind of foods can also interfere with your sleep. Having a large dinner with red meat late at night could keep you awake due to the difficulty your body has to digest red meat. Eating anything high in sugar before bedtime can give you horrible nightmares and prevent you from getting into that deep sleep you need to feel rested in the morning.

The best thing to eat before bedtime if you are hungry is protein. That will make you sleep well and the digestion of the protein won't affect the release of hormones in your body while you sleep.