People always advertise and emphasize exercising and healthy eating when it comes to wellness. Though they’re right, they’re also missing something out—sleeping and recovery. Sure, eating right and moving more is great but if you’re not getting adequate sleep and allowing your body to recover, your efforts will go down the drain. Here are reasons why that is.
1. Sleep Gives You More Than Just Rest For Your Brain
Lack of sleep leads to high cortisol level that can affect muscle growth and you can also become slower, weaker, and less coordinated. Sleep helps your body regenerate much needed overall energy in order to perform at your best.
2. The Better You Sleep Tonight, The Harder You Can Go In Workouts Tomorrow
Getting enough sleep allows your body to repair muscles and keep your hormone levels up. So basically, sleeping is your body’s way of going into repair mode. Therefore, as you become renewed when you wake up, you are able to train harder and better.
3. 8 Hours Of Sleep Don’t Necessarily Equate To Quality Sleep
Although 8 hours of shut-eye is always recommended, you still should focus on the quality not the hours. You can sleep eight hours and wake up feeling more tired because it’s too hot or cold in your room or your bed isn’t comfortable. You also need an optimal environment for sleep and to maintain good sleep hygiene.
4. Rest Doesn’t Have To Mean Sleeping All The Time Though
Not giving your body time off from training can over exhaust your muscles, especially if you always do high-intensity workouts, and lead to a plateau. But if the idea of idling around doesn’t sit well with you either, better incorporate low-intensity exercises like walking and swimming in between your regular high-intensity ones. This way, you get to stay active without overdoing it.
5. Keep Tabs On Your Recovery
People like to monitor their diet and workout gains but forget about monitoring their level of fatigue. It’s important to pay just as much attention to whether your body is ready for a seriously tough workout or you should take it down a notch. This is to see how prepared your nervous system is for exercise—giving you an idea of how much power, coordination, and energy you can give to your workout. Forcing yourself to work out when your body isn’t up for it can cause more damage than good.
6. The Human Body Can Be Incredibly Strong But It Also Has Limits
There are two kinds of tired. Tired but pumped from an intense exercise and the kind of tired that means your body can’t take it anymore. You should know the signs of the latter or else you might end up with an injury by pushing your body’s limits.
7. Don't Be Afraid Of Getting Fatigued
While definitely shouldn’t overdo training, it is also when your body is being challenged that you become stronger, faster, and better. Even if you’re already a veteran at working out, sometimes you just don’t feel great and the workouts will crush you. That doesn’t mean you’re doing it wrong. But you want to make sure you’re stressing the right system at the right time. You just have to find the balance and know when to push it and when to back off.
8. Sleep Rituals Are Important
Do you often find yourself having a hard time falling asleep? That’s because you rely on feeling sleepy instead of making your body recognize that it’s time to sleep. You can do that by creating a sleep ritual. This means preparing not just your body but your brain to sleep so that you don’t toss and turn all night. The first thing is to sleep at the same time every day before the allotted sleeping time, make sure you don’t eat anything heavy or drink anything caffeinated. Block out light from outside your window, set your bedroom temperature to a maximum of 69 degrees F and don’t watch TV or browse through your phone. It also helps if you invest in a good mattress, sheets, and pillows to create the optimal sleeping environment.