All three of those things - workout, diet and sleep - are an absolute must. But if you look at each one as a pillar of health, then sleep is the most fundamental. You need at least seven hours of good quality sleep every night for a healthy mind and body. But getting enough sleep isn't just for the gym. Here are our tips on why snoozing is so important and what happens when you don't get enough rest.
Without enough sleep, your body suffers from "metabolic grogginess" (great term, but not great for the body). Broadly speaking, this means that the hormones in the body are no longer able to control fat cells as effectively. The hormone insulin removes fat cells and lipids from the bloodstream to prevent fat storage - and this hormone drops when you're not rested enough. This leads to insulin resistance and fat storage in all the wrong places.
Whether you're a professional athlete or a budding gym-goer, sleep is your best friend. A study by the Stanford University School of Medicine found that basketball players who slept more than 10 hours a night for a period of 5-11 weeks improved their fitness, their average sprint time and shooting accuracy, and also suffered from less daytime sleepiness.
Poor recovery makes it harder for the body to recover from a workout. This decreases growth hormones (which are produced during slow-wave sleep) and increases the stress hormone cortisol, which negatively impacts mood, digestion, and various other bodily functions. It also limits the body's muscle growth (and as we know, muscle is the enemy of fat) and makes you more prone to injury.
As you snooze, your brain is running at full speed. As you sleep, memories are strengthened and you "practice" skills you've learned throughout the day. This process is called consolidation, which the American Physiological Society has extensively studied. Did you learn a new tennis swing today? Do you want to refresh your dance steps? Believe us, after a nice nap, everything is much easier to do.
Turning away from the cookie jar has nothing to do with willpower. Hunger is controlled by two hormones: leptin and ghrelin. Leptin, made in the body's fat cells, is responsible for suppressing hunger. The less leptin produced, the hungrier you are. The less sleep you get, the less leptin you produce. Similarly with the hormone ghrelin: the more ghrelin is produced in the stomach (the hormone increases with sleep deprivation), the more appetite is stimulated.
The moral of the story is that if you don't get enough sleep, you make yourself vulnerable to weight gain and your workouts won't have the desired effect. Maybe you're one of those people who can get by on just five hours of sleep a night, but it's not doing your body any good. So how do you make sure you're getting enough sleep? Here are our tips:
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