5 things to know about sleep and exercise

Sleep is critical for good health, but how does sleep affect your workouts? Here are 5 things to consider when you skimp on sleep or want to work out after a restless night.

You need 7-9 hours of sleep to function optimally. Anything less will increase levels of cortisol, the stress hormone, which also leads to an accumulation of belly fat. If you get too little sleep is it better to skip the workout or do it anyway?

1. Exercise after one restless night won’t really affect your ability to work out, but it does reduce insulin sensitivity which means you aren’t able to use fuel efficiently.
2. Less sleep increases the risk of injury. When we don’t get enough sleep we make more mistakes and our autonomic nervous system suffers, leading to increased soreness and feeling more fatigued.
3. One sleepless night makes exercise feel harder. Even if it is not. While a sleepless night doesn’t affect our physiological performance it does make it feel like we are working harder.
4. Exercise and sleep go both ways. When we exercise we improve sleep quality and quantity. When we don’t sleep we exercise less. Improving sleep increases activity and increasing activity levels improves sleep.
5. To recover from an injury, sleep. Growth hormone, which is only released when we sleep is necessary for repair and muscle growth. Growth hormone is critical for recovery, including muscle recovery, a properly functioning immune system and regulation of the inflammatory response.

Not only does lack of sleep change your ability to exercise and recover it also is associated with reduced bone density. In a study of 11,000 post-menopausal women those who slept less than 5 hours a night had higher rates of osteoporosis.

Losing sleep occasionally happens to everyone, the key to staying fit and healthy is to not make it a habit.

Change your mind, change your health,

Shayla