The Importance of Sleep. To many, sleep is often seen as overrated and thus many of us will only sleep for a short amount of time (6 hours or less). Why do we need sleep? Sleep has such a massive impact upon performance and (more importantly) health because of the wide number of vital processes that are dependent upon it. When we sleep the body carries out a number of functions that we are often unaware of; producing processes that help you deal with physical and mental stress, information processing, memory formation and the repair and restoration of (muscle) tissues. Sleep triggers the production of a number of hormones, this includes hormones like growth hormone and testosterone that are responsible for the repair and regeneration of tissues intrinsically involved in physical performance, and research shows that lack of sleep quickly impacts upon all sorts of physical tasks, with research covering sports such as weightlifting, cycling and running. The impact is two-fold, over the short term sleep issues have a massive negative effect upon the nervous system reducing strength endurance, concentration and co-ordination - all vital for (not just) sports and training, but also health. Over the longer term disruptions in hormone output will effect the body’s ability to recover the tissues such as muscle as well as impairing carbohydrate storage efficiency and reducing immune competence. Feeling Sleepy? To emphasise the importance of sleep plays in our lives: a bad night’s sleep will leave you weak and uncoordinated. Over a period of time this is going to leave you tired, fat and ill. Make sure you are getting enough quality sleep.
Posted on: Wed, 11 Sep 2013 13:07:27 +0000
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