How Lack of Sleep Affects Your Workout

Impact of lack of sleep

Lack of sleep can actually prevent you from achieving your desired athletic performance. In short, it can be explained as follows.

Muscles do not grow during exercise, but during rest after intense exertion.

While you sleep, the body restores the chemical balance of muscle cells, removes waste products from cells and replenishes glycogen stores. Cells adapt to the stimulating effects of exercise, muscles grow.

It is at night that 70% of the daily value of melatonin is produced - a sleep hormone that protects the body from stress, strengthens it and restores it. Lack of sleep, as well as sleep in a noisy or bright room, drastically reduce the production of this hormone.

Not spending enough time to sleep after exercise can stress your body and trigger the production of cortisol. You lose less fat and more muscle. Cortisol slows down your metabolism.

In the body that adapts to surviving stressful situations, the production of the hormone ghrelin, which increases appetite, is increased, and the level of leptin, which suppresses appetite, decreases. As a result, you increasingly crave sweet and fatty foods. You start to eat more and more and again move yourself away from the goal. And because of the elevated cortisol levels, you wake up feeling overwhelmed and tired.

Also lack of sleep:

Reduces concentration. You have to be careful while doing sports, no matter what exactly you are doing. If you are a boxer, it will fly to you due to scattered attention. If you work out in the gym, you will start to miss the details of the technique of performing the exercises and generally do everything carelessly.
Weakens your immunity. We persist in ignoring this fact. But the disease not only takes our strength and time, but also throws us back in the training process.
You are showing lower results.

How to make up for a lack of sleep

The most obvious tip is to get more rest. But what if you still can't get enough sleep, and you need to increase the anabolic effect?

1. Create the right environment

Sleep quality is often more important than quantity. And for sure quality comes to the fore when you do not have enough time to sleep.

A deep, full sleep is possible only in a dark and quiet room. For residents of large cities, it is more and more difficult to create such conditions. However, try to protect yourself from any noise during sleep, try earplugs.

Negatively affects sleep and light. Two hours before rest, put your mobile aside and try not to use gadgets. Dim the lights at home for an hour. A sleep mask may work for you.

2. Use nutritional supplements

Supplements can help you fall asleep and increase the anabolic effect of sleep. With their help, you can restore the imbalanced balance of hormones in the body and feel better in the morning.

For faster falling asleep, you can take ZMA (zinc, magnesium, vitamin B6; increases testosterone levels, makes sleep stronger and deeper), GABA (gamma-aminobutyric acid) or melatonin itself (quickly absorbed, reboots the biological clock). To increase the anabolic effect, use glutamine, BCAA (help to maintain and build muscle mass).

Talk to your doctor before starting supplementation.

3. Lie down and get up at the same time

Follow a strict schedule. This will help your biological clock to tune, and the body will independently allocate its resources during sleep.

4. Drink

Experts advise drinking half of your individual daily allowance for water in the morning. Getting enough water will also help you stay full of strength and energy.

5. Train as early as possible

If you can't work out in the morning, try doing it as early as possible in the evening. Exercising shortly before going to bed, you risk not getting enough sleep and, accordingly, harm your muscles again.

Sleep affects our training results too much to be neglected. Sleep and exercise properly.