Welcome, I have received the same question from clients who are struggling with sleep and have often asked is having the correct amount of sleep important for training and overall health, the answer is yes, according to the NHS 1 in 3 of us suffer from poor sleep and I’ll explain why sleep deprivation has an impact on our health and training!
We have to firstly understand that today’s world is challenging and tough, we test and push ourselves day after day, month after month, year after year until we reach that point in life when we need to give ourselves a break to recharge, this could be a short weekend away with family surrounded by nature or a long holiday to recover and go again. You could be pushing yourself to achieve personal goals with work or it could be that deposit on a new house but all has an impact on your health, also the modern age with smartphones, tablets and iPad which emit blue light also has a contributing impact to health and sleepless night, our bodies run on a circadian rhythm and the part in our brain called the suprachiasmatic nucleus uses the surrounding environmental cues to initiate sleep.
When you are sleep deprived your immune system takes a hit and you could experience fatigue, lack of being focused, Impacts memory, mood and according to studies shorten life expectancy and also studies have shown lack of sleep increases blood sugar levels which leads to diabetes, obesity.
Its critical to use sleep to the maximum as some people need a minimal of 7 to 8 hours to get a full recovery from an intense program, as sleep is a fundamental part of the muscle building process or if you are looking to change body composition, increase muscle mass, ready for your next gym session as it gives the body a chance to have the ability to repair and grow the broken down muscle fibers, some people might need less, and the old phrase pops up “less is more” I’ve been told but when you wake up tired, dozy, fatigued its highly likely you’re not getting enough sleep and you have the risk of napping at work or throughout the day to make up for the lack of sleep and it shouldn’t be considered a replacement for lack of sleep.
To Protect your eyes and sleep from blue light switch off all devices 20-30 minutes before bed, decrease the amount time in front of screens, if that’s not possible use screen filters on the smart devices or use computer glasses.