Sleep Optimization: A Guide To Quality Sleep
The complete guide to optimize your sleep!
Sleep... Some need less than others, while many need the whole 9 yards. Regardless of age, activity level, BMI, etc.. sleep is essential to your overall health. You may not know this now, but after reading this article you will understand how much of an impact adequate sleep is to daily performance, recovery, and even mood!
Anywhere from burning fat while you sleep to the best sleep-supported supplements, this article has it all! Keep reading to learn more!
Sleep... Everyone Needs It
Whether you're a bodybuilder, athlete, or fitness enthusiast, we all know that sleep is essential for optimal performance.
Although exercise is a way to boost energy and increase endurance and strength, having enough sleep is critical for muscle adaptation and injury prevention.
With the busy flow of life, it's easy to go to bed late, wake up early, and repeat the lack of sleep cycle. However, it's important to keep sleep as one of our main priorities to improve overall health and wellbeing! Did you know that while you sleep, the body is working to repair itself from muscle breakdown, allowing for new muscle growth? Rest days are important!
From burning fat while you sleep to the best sleep-supported supplements on the market, this article covers it all! Keep scrolling to learn all things sleep and how to optimize your quality and quantity of sleep!
Table of Contents:
1. Importance of Sleep
Did you know that you spend about one-third of your entire day dedicated to sleep? However, for most of us today, going to bed late and waking up early seems to be the norm!
Whether you're a bodybuilder, athlete, CEO, or even mom of three, having enough sleep each night is critical for brain functioning and daily performance. Think of the last time you only got a few hours of sleep and had a high-speed, optimal functioning type of day... Probably never, right?
Just as food and water is essential to survival, sleep is just as important. This time allows you to form and maintain new pathways in the brain, making it easier to concentrate and respond quicker. Additionally, sleep affects every tissue and muscle in the body; brain, heart, lungs, metabolism, immune function, mood, and disease resistance are all impacted by the number of Zz's you get each night.
Interestingly enough, research shows that a chronic lack of sleep, or getting poor quality sleep, increases the risk of disorders including high blood pressure, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, depression, and obesity (NIH, n.d).
While we have broken down the importance of sleep in a previous blogpost, this article will focus solely on how sleep affects overall muscle growth and recovery and tips to getting proper sleep. Keep scrolling to learn more!
2. Understanding the link between sleep & exercise
Sleep is essential for not only exercise recovery, but also exercise performance. Furthermore, sleep and exercise compliment one another as exercise has been long associated with better sleep, while adequate sleep enhances exercise performance.Research has found that poor sleep may contribute to low physical activity levels, which then emphasizes a robust bidirectional relationship between exercise and sleep.
Making sure you are getting enough quality sleep will optimize your overall health in addition to exercise performance. Additionally, sleep allows muscle tissue time to rest and recover in between workouts. This is a time for your body to rest, rejuvenate, and prepare itself for the next day ahead!
Not only does enough sleep allow for muscle recovery, but it is also an important factor in energy levels throughout the day. Think of a time where you felt sleep deprived physically and mentally and pushed through an intense workout. Probably not one of the best workouts in the books and soreness and recovery might have been more intense.
Along with sleep providing energy for your workouts, having enough sleep will also prevent sport-related injuries. Again, sleep gives the body time to repair and regenerate the broken down muscle tissue from exercise. Muscles, tendons, ligaments and bones all need this time to recover to avoid potential injury down the road.
An interestinganalysis based off of student athlete surveys shows that athletes who slept on average <8 hours per night were 1.7 times more likely to have had an injury compared to athletes who slept for >8 hours (Milewski MD, 2014). Research suggests 8+ hours of quality sleep will reduce risk of injury and allow for enough time to properly recover muscle tissue.
To read more about the importance that sleep has on athletic performance, recovery, and injury prevention,CLICK HERE.
3. Can you burn fat while you sleep?
Fat loss is the common goal for many individuals. Whether this is done by diet and/or exercise, fat loss is achievable in many ways. After all, the very basics of weight loss comes down to a consistent caloric deficit. But what if told you that you can burn fat during your sleep? Yes, you heard that right!
On average, our body burns about 50 calories/hour while we sleep (Sleep Foundation, 2022). The exact number of how many calories you burn each night varies from person to person and is dependent on diet, exercise, and difference in basal metabolic rate (BMR) and resting metabolic rate (RMR).
So in short... Yes, you are actively burning calories while you sleep in addition to burning fat during the day.
Looking for a healthy lifestyle strategies to enhance your fat burning ability? Read one of our articles on how to supercharge fat burning while you sleep!
4. Does lack of sleep affect muscle growth?
Did you know that without enough sleep, your muscle mass potentially decreases? Overtime, lack of sleep can be damaging to your metabolic function. A study found by the NCBI indicates that chronic sleep loss is associated with catabolic stressors and results in the loss of muscle mass and functioning abilities. That said, inadequate sleep affects the body's metabolic process, thus making it harder to maintain muscle mass, slows the speed of fat loss, and decreases muscle protein synthesis.
The quantity of sleep matters the most with respect to training. The more Z's you get, the better and faster muscle growth and recovery will be. As for recovery purposes, sleep is also essential for muscle repair. Human growth hormone, HGH, is another hormone that is produced and responsible for muscle recovery. A higher amount of HGH is released while you sleep rather than the amount produced upon waking hours.
Furthermore, the amount of sleep impacts the replenishment of muscle glycogen. Glycogen is one of the body's main fuel sources that get's depleted during exercise (Murray & & Rosenbloom, 2018). To sum this up, lack of sleep detriments the body's ability to replenish your muscle's main energy source.
Want to learn more about how sleep impacts your ability to grow muscle mass?CLICK HERE to read the blog on sleep to muscle growth connection!
5. The best supplements for optimal sleep
What if we told you that there is a way to fall asleep faster, sleep deeper, and rejuvenate your brain? MitoBurn® & Zalaria™ might just be your answer to a good night's sleep!
Sleep supplements are over-the-counter products that contribute to the process of falling asleep and staying asleep. These supplements are usually made from synthetic ingredients, derived from plants, or are obtained from vitamins and minerals. Many people who suffer from mild to moderate insomnia tend to lean toward natural sleep supplements opposed to prescription sleep medications.
We can assure you that there are a handful of natural sleep supplements that help can help you wind down and relax without the next day slump. Click below for an in-depth article description of two popular sleep supplements Zylaria™ and MitoBurn®: both found in AstroFlav'sMetaBurn!
The Bottom Line:
Working from home, running to office, or making the gym a priority, sleep is crucial to daily performance wherever you're at in life! We like to compare sleep to food and water: we need it for survival. Without sleep, we are unable to perform at our best, recover from workouts, and enhance our overall health.
As you know by now, sleep plays a huge role in exercise and recovery. Without enough sleep, our muscles are unable to recover and grow as they would with enough rest. Additionally, having enough sleep optimizes energy levels and allows for improved performance during our workouts. Going hand in hand with recovery, lack of sleep can be detrimental to your muscle gains. Having enough sleep ensures hormones are functioning as they should, allowing for new muscle growth!
All in all, sleep is crucial for your overall health and wellbeing. Making sure you are getting enough sleep will improve your daily functioning and athletic performance. Ensuring you are getting enough quality sleep is key!
Need help falling asleep and staying asleep? AstroFlav's nighttime sleep-aid,MetaBurn PM enhances your ability to fall asleep while also working as a safe and effective fat-burner! Click the link at the bottom of the page to try yours today!
RESOURCES
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4341978/
Milewski MD, Skaggs DL, Bishop GA, Pace JL, Ibrahim DA, Wren TA, Barzdukas A. Chronic lack of sleep is associated with increased sports injuries in adolescent athletes. J Pediatr Orthop. 2014 Mar;34(2):129-33.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25028798/
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. (n.d.). Brain basics: Understanding sleep. National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke. https://www.ninds.nih.gov/health-information/public-education/brain-basics/brain-basics-understanding-sleep#:~:text=Without%20sleep%20you%20can’t,neurons)%20communicate%20with%20each%20other.
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Can You Burn Fat While You Sleep?
How to supercharge fat burning while you sleep!
MetaBurn PM contains the most revolutionary and cutting-edge sleep-inducing ingredient, Zylaria™, the powerful metabolism-boosting ingredient MitoBurn® to supercharge fat-burning while you sleep, along with Sensoril® ashwagandha to improve and manage stress levels. ALL this while you sleep.
Reduce time to fall asleep.
Sleep More, Stress Less.
Increase Sleep Duration. Sleep Better and Longer.
Nighttime Metabolism Boost.
Feel Refreshed, Renewed and Re-Energized.
Wake Up Energized Without a Sleep “Hangover"
Unlock the deepest sleep from within while boosting your metabolism and burning fat.
MetaBurn PM contains the most revolutionary and cutting-edge sleep-inducing ingredient, Zylaria™, the powerful metabolism-boosting ingredient MitoBurn® to supercharge fat-burning while you sleep, along with Sensoril® ashwagandha to improve and manage stress levels. ALL this while you sleep.
Reduce time to fall asleep.
Sleep More, Stress Less.
Increase Sleep Duration. Sleep Better and Longer.
Nighttime Metabolism Boost.
Feel Refreshed, Renewed and Re-Energized.
Wake Up Energized Without a Sleep “Hangover"
Unlock the deepest sleep from within while boosting your metabolism and burning fat.
At AstroFlav, we want the best for our customers. It is our goal to help everyone achieve their fitness goals and steer them in the right direction with trust-worthy advice AND trust-worthy supplements!
Have you tried our nighttime sleep-aid, Metaburn PM?
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