It’s pretty ironic that one of the biggest indicators of someone’s health and fitness is the act of doing nothing. Sleep impacts your fitness more than actually doing any activity. After breathing, sleep is the most important factor that impacts your health and fitness. Some might understand why we consider it so important at The Spot Athletics and this blog will give you some insight into why we value sleep so highly.

The Gainz: You do not get better from training, you get better by recovering from training. Sleep is where most of this recovery happens. With increased growth hormone and other growth factors produced when we sleep, the body becomes its best while you rest.

Your Heart: A lack of sleep has been linked to higher blood pressure and cholesterol. It is also linked to higher perceived stress levels and stress hormones such as cortisol. All of these factors are linked to increased risk of a heart attack, which could end your health and fitness journey permanently.

Your Pain: A lack of sleep raises levels of inflammation in your body. This means that those little aches and pains become a lot bigger deal. If you think the “bum knee” is an issue, that is nothing compared to the fact that more inflammation is also accosted with a higher risk for cancer and diabetes.

Your Energy: We have all experienced how it feels to wake up from a good night’s sleep and attack the day with fervor. We also know what it is like when we stay up to late and our alarm goes off and we dread the day ahead. Consistently getting the proper amount of sleep means consistently being able to crush your day. This type of trend is cumulative and builds on itself to make you super productive.

Your Memory: When you sleep your subconscious brain is busy at work. It files events and emotions away from your day, connects them to other events and stores them in an orderly way. Deep sleep is basically when your brain declutters from the day and allows you process everything better the next day. This decluttering allows for more space to remember things the next day and since it is neatly stored, recall things from previous days.

Your Feels: A lack of sleep is linked to serotonin deficiency. Serotonin is what we like to call your “feel good” chemical. It causes feelings of happiness and satisfaction. People who are low in serotonin have an increased risk of depression. We like to say that if you feel good, you do good. Health and fitness are good for your body, when you feel good, you want to do more of the things that are good for you.

Your Weight: Whether you want to lose fat or put on muscle, you can’t do it without the proper amount of sleep. People who have a lack of sleep are far more likely to be overweight and/or obese. When you sleep, your body regulates hormones that are crucial to appetite, muscle building and fat loss. Without the proper amount of sleep and thusly, these key hormones, you will struggle tremendously to reach your body composition goals.

Sleep Guidelines:

The amount of sleep someone needs changes with age:

School Age Children (6-13): 9-11 hours

Teenagers (14-17): 8-10 hours

Adults (18+): 7-9 hours

A few tips and tricks to get better sleep.

Don’t use electronics or watch TV 1 hour before bed. If you must, use blue light blocking software like f.lux or nightshift.
Ensure your room is as dark as possible. In nature, there are no street lights, alarm clock and charging lights. Your room should mimic a natural environment as much as possible.
Plan your bed time based off of your required waking time. If you need to be up at 4am, then you should plan your day to be in bed by 8pm. This type of planning eliminates the need to make a decision when you are tired and thusly more likely to throw on another Netflix series.
Plan physical activity to end at least 2 hours prior to planned bed time. Getting a big lift in and then trying to go to bed 20 minutes later will be an exercise in futility. The chemicals and hormones released from training take a little while to clear your system and allow your body to relax and go to sleep.
Avoid caffeine and stimulants late in the day. This seems like a no brainer but many people violate this and find themselves up at 2am when they need to wake at 6am for their day.
Have a routine. The more automated your night time routine, the more likely you are to get great sleep. When you have an automated night time routine, your brain gets to put itself on autopilot and start to shut down for a great nights sleep. Changing your routine every night means your brain must engage and make decisions. This stimulates parts of the brain that make it more difficult to go to sleep.
Your bed and pillows matter. You spend more time in your bed than in any other piece of furniture in your house. Make sure that you have a good bed with the level of support that you find most comfortable. Ensure your pillows are the support you need to wake up and feel as good as possible after 8+ hours of laying in the same position.

Conclusion:

Now that you understand why sleep is so important, how much you should get and what you need to do to get better sleep, there is no reason for you to not doing this amazingly powerful pillar to your health and fitness. We understand that life can get busy and people have a tendency to cut out sleep to get other things done. In our experience this is not a sustainable way to live a healthy and productive life. We listed above all the consequences of not getting sleep, so hopefully you will prioritize your sleep above everything else you have going on in your life. After all, you life literally depends on you getting sleep.