When you’ve had a long and tiring workout, you just want to go home and sleep. You feel satisfied knowing that when you wake up, you’re ready to take on another day at the gym for successful growth.

How do we fall asleep?

In a simple manner, your internal body clock recognizes your environment. When it is bright, your brain signals to your body that it is daytime. When it is dark or night time, your body automatically releases a chemical called melatonin. You will start to feel drowsy as your melatonin level increases.

If you’re a bodybuilder and you’re aiming for a more muscular size, don’t disregard the importance of sleeping. There are certain hormones released for muscle reconstruction during sleep. You will recharge your mind and mentally recuperate to prepare for your next day’s workout during your sleep.

Benefits and the importance of sleeping

How many hours?

How long do we have to sleep? If we lack sleep, we feel weak and don’t want to get up from bed. If you give in and oversleep though, all you get is feeling even sleepier and a throbbing headache.

According to National Sleep Foundation, there is a specific number of hours we should be sleeping depending on which age group we belong to.

AGE GROUP AND HOURS OF SLEEP
0-3 Months —> 12-18
4-11 Months —> 14-15
1-2 Years —> 12-14
3-5 Years —> 11-13
6-13 Years —> 10-11
14-17 Years —> 8.5-9.5
18-25 Years —> 7-9
26-64 Years —> 7-9
65+ —> 7-8

What are the benefits to my body?

It’s a win-win situation when you get enough sleep every day. Here is what happens when you don’t lack sleep:

• Your body regulates insulin to control your blood sugar thus lowering your risk for diabetes.
• During sleep, your body recovers. It repairs damaged cells. Your muscles grow and heal themselves during your sleep.
• Natural growth hormones are released. It is important for children, teens, and adults.
• Your immune system strengthens during your sleep. It helps you fend off common sicknesses that you may otherwise catch from the people around you and your environment.

Enhanced Performance and Senses

When you’ve only had a few hours of sleep, the tendency is that you feel uncomfortable throughout your day. You will only disappoint yourself by not performing well in your activities. Sufficient sleep improves your performance in a significant way.

• You’ll have a lower chance of getting into car accidents because you will be aware of the hazards around you. If you drive and you still feel a little bit sleepy, your life is already at risk.
• You won’t feel lazy in your line of work because you are well rested. You wouldn’t want to get fired just because you are caught sleeping on the job, do you?
• As a student, listening to lectures won’t be hard because you can focus more on lessons.

See Also: Personality & Sleep: How To Be More Productive At Work

Importance of Sleeping for My Muscles

I have been lifting for around six years now and I have experienced the importance of discipline in my workouts, maintaining a proper diet, and getting all the sleep I can get. I have been working hard for it because I wanted to improve my body and see what I can do with it.

I started lifting when I was in 3rd-year high school because it was a fad amongst my friends. I would always stay up late because of my school works and my social life. I never saw the importance of sleeping to grow muscle. One day, I realized that I wasn’t getting any bigger, and I always looked tired. My performance in lifting was getting poorer and poorer every single day. I didn’t think it was my diet though because I was eating clean.

It wasn’t until the summer break when I was finally getting enough rest and sleep that I noticed an improvement in my lifting performance. My lifts increased. I was burning excess fat and gaining leaner muscle.

That’s when I realized that I should never take the amount of time to rest for granted. Lifting weights is just a part of the process, and the diet is just another. Rest and sleep is just as essential for muscle growth.

Sleeping Advice for Muscle Growth

No more lifting near bedtime

• Even after your workout, your adrenaline is still pumping. You’ll likely toss and turn if you lift too near before your sleeping time.

Turn off your electronic devices

• Your senses reactivate themselves under the influence of light. Make sure to turn off your gadgets. Using your mobile phone or tablet disrupts the production of melatonin thus making you wide awake.

Keep to your sleeping schedule

• Keep track of your sleeping schedule. If your sleeping schedule gets disrupted, you will have difficulties sleeping and waking up on time.

Control your caffeine intake

• For the coffee lovers out there, coffee makes you more hyperactive and will keep you from falling asleep easily. I suggest that you only take caffeine in the morning, and the latest would be in the afternoon.

See Also: Are You Sleep Deprived? 8 Health Risks Of Poor Sleep 

Conclusion

Sleep deficiency, in general, is harmful to us. It can do a lot of damage and in an instant, it can take away one’s life. The importance of sleeping is bliss. With our fast-paced culture today, we need to find time to get enough sleep as much as we can.

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Sitting alone for a few hours is very detrimental to health. The less you move, the less activity you do, the less fuel you burn in your body which means you burn fewer calories that lead to obesity and other weight-related risks.

Fortunately, it is a good thing to know now that even in sitting alone, you can burn calories! You may actually lose weight and achieve your body goals even if your priorities require you to sit for a very a long time. These are some ways you could while sitting and burn those calories:

Laugh A Lot

As what they always say – laughter is the best medicine – it is very true in this case because laughing makes you sweat no matter what you do or in what position you are. Laughing a lot throughout your day will make lose significant amounts of calories. In addition, it creates a very positive mood.

Replace Your Chair

If you intend to lose some of those fats and calories, you may want to change and replace your current chair. Invest in an adequate chair that can help you shed those extra pounds. You may actually check a new stability ball and use it as a chair. In fact, these exercise balls can help you lose an extra 100 pounds a day. Moreover, it will help you to strengthen your core, legs, and back for a more toned-looking appearance.

Keep Cool

Turn down the heat and keep it cool – little did everyone knows that cold temperature can help you lose weight effectively. Your body naturally adjusts itself to maintain a balanced temperature. The cooler your environment, the harder your body produces sweat so it will require you more activity to do which results in higher amount of fats to be burn.

Dance In Your Seat

It is not prohibited for you exert those extra moves. You may want to increase those volumes and dance off to the beat. It will also allow you to stretch few parts of your body which are a very good thing for your joints and muscles. It can burn calories too!

Snack Often

People who are in fitness and weight-loss programs know this rule very well. To keep you off from eating way heavier meals, try to eat small and healthy snacks every now and then. It will make you feel full and hinders you from eating unhealthy and inappropriate meals.

See Also: How to Lose Weight… By Snacking

Stay Hydrated

It is always important to keep your water besides you especially when you are trying to lose some weight. In actuality, it is the most effective thing to intake when you are on a diet and weight loss program. Water, in general, is essential to a lot of metabolic processes in your body causing you to burn more.

Squeeze In Tiny Tone-Ups

Sitting doesn’t require you to be just in a dormant state. You have to move even a slight stretch every now and then to keep your blood in proper circulation. Apparently, these few stretching activities throughout the can relax your muscles and burn a few calories.

Breathe Deeply

Know that in breathing properly and deeply, you calm yourself. Aside from that, it has a very beneficial effect on your body generally. One is that breathing deeply causes you to relax and reduce stress. Stress hormones are the ones always responsible for your sweet and unhealthy cravings. So, when you reduce the risks of this, you reduce as well the possibility of gaining more calories, and instead you burn them.

Sneak In A Nap

Naps are as important as your 8-hour sleep. These are actually barriers from your hunger-regulating hormones. The more naps you take every now and then, the more your hormones get satisfied. As a matter of fact, researches today show that people could less 55% of their extra calories just by taking naps.

See Also: 7 Easy Tips on How to Get the Perfect Nap 

These few exercises while sitting could really change a lot. However, if you intend to lose more weight, you may want to alter some things as well with your lifestyle and eating habits. Nevertheless, these are effective tips for you to try.

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