“Sleep is the best meditation” – The Dalai Lama
Experienced exercisers know that furthering our fitness results involves constant reviews and changes: We review our food intake, our approach to training and re-assess our goals. There are many theories on what enhances athletic performance and fitness results; high intensity training, resistance training, a more efficient metabolism through diet and exercise, carb loading, carb cutting! More protein for lean muscle growth… often sleep is not a part of the equation… However, recent research has found that sleep is a big factor when it comes to improved fitness, weight loss and athletic performance.
Recent research by Cheri Mah at Stanford Sleep Disorders Clinic and Research Laboratory at Stanford University shows that athletes who focused on extending their sleep time to 10 hours per night increased their athletic performance (“To Improve Fitness, Try Sleep” – Tara Parker-Pope). This small study involved five members of the Stanford Women’s Tennis Team. For the first two weeks the athletes maintained their normal training and sleeping schedules; they took part in sprinting and hitting drills to measure their performance. Then the players were told to extend their sleep to 10 hours per night for five to six weeks. The outcome of this was that the athletes performed better on all drills; sprinting times dropped on average from 19.12 seconds to 17.56, hitting accuracy (measured by valid serves) improved to 15.61 serves up from 12.6 and a hitting depth drill improved to 15.45 hits up from 10.85.
Katherine Hopson, who writhes the “On Fitness” column for the T.S. News and World report also mirrors this outcome in her training (“To Improve Fitness, Try Sleep” – Tara Parker-Pope); “I expected my first run back in Brooklyn to be a death march. Instead, I felt the best and went the fastest that I have in weeks. One possible explanation came to mind: I erased my chronic sleep debt on vacation, thanks to sleeping in as long as I wanted in the mornings and napping most afternoons, which made me extremely well rested when I took that run”. Katherine hung up the running shoes and focus on ‘sleep-loading.’
The two most basic states to sleep are REM (Rapid Eye Movement) and NREM (Non-Rapid Eye Movement) sleep (“States of Consciousness” – Dennis Coon). NREM sleep helps us recover from fatigue built up during the day. Often when people exercise at high intensity or exert themselves physically to extremes, this state of sleep increases. NREM sleep is a deeper stage of sleep where your body recuperates and during this stage of sleep, your pituitary gland secretes more muscle growth hormones than during your waking hours (“Why Sleep Is Key for Weight Loss” – www.fitday .com). NREM sleep dominates the first third of our night’s sleep and for high intensity training individuals it can take up to 25-35% of the night.
REM sleep (Rapid Eye Movement) is a time of high emotion; the eyelids move rapidly, the heart beats irregularly and blood pressure and breathing waiver. This is the dreaming phase of sleep and totals about on average per cent, 90 minutes per night (just like a feature movie!). Just as a physically exerted person experiences more NREM sleep to allow physical recovery, an emotionally exerted person experiences more REM sleep to alleviate emotional stress due to its link with dreaming (“States of Consciousness” – Dennis Coon). People suffering dramatic emotional stress such as a death in the family, trouble at work, marital conflicts or other emotionally arousing stressors are said to experience increased REM or dreaming phases of sleep.
Sleep affects several hormones in the human body. Two hormones that play an important role in stimulating and suppressing your appetite are leptin and ghrelin (“Why Sleep Is Key for Weight Loss” – www.fitday .com). Leptin is produced by your body’s fat cells and is responsible for suppressing hunger and Ghrelin is released by your stomach and stimulates your appetite. Lack of sleep can lower the levels of leptin in your body and can heighten the levels of ghrelin, encouraging you to eat more. Also, lack of sleep affects Cortisol levels. Irregular or shortened sleep heightens cortisol levels in your blood and lowers metabolism as cortisol stimulates breaking down protein into glucose. Lack of sleep stimulates weight gaining hormones whereas regular sleep and recovery stimulates metabolism and appetite suppressors.
Sleeping is part of the body’s healing process; growth hormones are released to stimulate muscle repair and gain, cortisol levels lower to boost metabolism, we have also been proven to concentrate better and perform better when we are rested. Yet we are also eager to sacrifice time spent resting! Many of us view sleep as time standing still! So we compromise it to study, work, train, give to our families, loved ones and friends and then wonder why we have such little left! The pleasure in what we have gained for this sacrificed is often lost by the terrible fatigue we feel. Why is sleep seen as such a selfish moment when it makes us such better versions of ourselves?
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