Did you know people who get more sleep live longer?!
As if you needed another reason to cozy up into bed and sleep in!
Sleep is that important yet one of the most underrated tools for improving your health as well as getting results:
…Reshaping and ‘toning’ your body!
…Building muscle!
…Getting stronger!
…Feeling energized!
That’s right! Sleep has a big impact on your results because while snoozing, your body does some of its best, most important work!
Example: if you’re doing all the things – eating a well-balanced diet and exercising – yet nothing’s changing or feeling as good as it should, it may be time to evaluate your sleeping habits.
When you’re young, wild, and free, functioning on little to no sleep after pulling an all-nighter, girl’s night, thirsty Thursday happy hour, or Sunday funday is eh, no big deal.
Fast forward to adulthood when lack of sleep starts catching up and suddenly a sh!tty night’s sleep leaves you feeling all sorts of miserable:
- Crabby + irritable
- Low energy + lethargic
- Hungry + craving all the snacks!
- Exercising sucks and feels extra hard!
- Productivity at home + work declines
- Hormones + stress levels go bonkers
Sound familiar?
Sleep is a super important habit for creating and sustaining a healthy lifestyle yet is the first thing you ignore or downplay for many reasons:
- Evenings = your time to unwind after putting kids to bed.
- Evenings = the only time to catch up with your significant other.
- Monday Night Football doesn’t start ’til 8pm.
- You wanna read one more chapter before bed!
However, poor sleep is a trigger and once pulled, affects everything from your mood, focus and productivity, to your workouts, hunger levels and results!
If you have trouble sleeping – falling asleep, staying asleep, are hostage to tiny humans who interrupt your sleep or frankly just don’t care about your sleep, keep reading!
This blog is all about how to improve your sleep and catch those quality ZZZzzz’s so that you can maximize your results and health!
This blog is teaching you:
- Why your body *needs* sleep!
- How to get MORE, quality sleep!
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WHY YOU *NEED* SLEEP!
Sleep is hard because kids, demanding schedules, never-ending to-do lists, insomnia, and the inherent need for personal downtime (sometimes that’s the only peace and quiet to your day).
However…lack of sleep is scientifically proven to take a major toll on your body so much that it is known as the silent killer!
Poor sleep can lead to a range of serious health issues without obvious immediate symptoms. In fact, chronic sleep deprivation is linked to:
- Cardiovascular Issues: poor sleep increases the risk of hypertension, heart disease, and stroke.
- Metabolic Problems: Lack of sleep disrupt hormones that regulate appetite and glucose metabolism, raising the risk of obesity and type 2 diabetes.
- Mental Health Decline: Insufficient sleep can contribute to anxiety, depression and cognitive decline.
- Weakened Immune Function: Poor sleep can impair the immune system, making you more susceptible to infections.
- Increased Risk of Accidents: Sleep deprivation affects alertness and reaction times, raising the risk of accidents and injuries.
Sleep deprivation can also lead to unintentional weight gain because lack of sleep messes with your cortisol levels which trigger food cravings; making you more likely to overindulge in excess calories and processed foods.
Plus, think about what you want to do when you are tired and going on little to no sleep: NOTHING!
Being tired jeopardizes anything requiring energy, which is everything you do each day: take care of the kids, go to work, clean the house, cook, exercise, etc.
Now, when it comes to seeing results in your weight, body shape, stregnth, and how your clothes fit – sleep plays a crucial role and may be part of the missing link if nothing’s changing.
Here’s how lack of sleep slows and stalls your progress:
Your body relies on and needs quality, adequate sleep to properly repair and recovery after exercising!
While you sleep, your body releases HGH: a crucial hormone promoting healing, recovery, and growth to your aching muscles. Research shows this hormone surge happens every two hours of prolonged sleep.
Without adequate rest, you miss out on this stuff!
While exercising is part of this process, think of exercise as the stimulus and sleep as the acutal process where your muscles are repaired so that they can grow!
When your mucscles grow, you get stronger, burn more body fat, decrease fat mass, and see amazing results/ changes in your body shape, how your clothes fit, stregnth, etc.
Why waste all your hard work on the training floor?
If you are showing up, pushing your limits, and giving all your energy to look and feel your best, you need to nail sleep in order to see / create change.
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HOW TO GET MORE SLEEP!
It’s no secret that quality sleep contributes to you being and feeling your very best so, what’s standing in your way of quality sleep?
LIFE?! We got you!
Here are 6 tips for getting MORE sleep:
1. Prioritize a consistent bedtime: Not only during the week but on the weekends, too! Pick and stick with the same bedtime Monday-Sunday.
Building a consistent schedule Monday-Thursday only to dramatically stray Friday-Sunday defeats the purpose.
2. Avoid caffeine: Eliminate caffeine 8 hours before your bedtime. Instead, try herbal tea instead such as chamomile or any caffeine-free tea to wind down and prepare your body for sleep.
3. Embrace the cold + darkness: Make sure your sleeping environment is very dark and temperature is comfortable – not overly warm. For optimal sleep, the recommended temperature is around 65 degrees. Try cracking the window or using a fan to keep it cool and block external noise.
4. Ditch the devices: Turn off all electronics at least 30 minutes before bed. Do not scroll social media, text/sext or binge TV in bed – reserve bed for sleep!
The blue light from screens restrains the production of melatonin (the hormone responsible for keeping your sleep and wake cycle in check) making it even more difficult to fall asleep.
5. Engage in relaxing activities: Take a relaxing bath, read, drink some herbal tea, journal, or meditate to signal your body and mind it’s time to wind down.
6. Do a brain dump: Write down your to-do list for the next day to offset waking mid-night with random thoughts/to-do’s running through your mind.
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