Sleep is essential for building and maintaining our physical fitness. If you exercise, want to build muscle or improve your stamina, you should make sure you get enough sleep. Despite the enormous importance of a good night’s sleep for health and exercise success, I think that many people neglect the subject of sleep. In addition, our modern lifestyle is largely toxic to healthy and restful sleep. This makes it all the more important that we pay more attention to our nightly rest.
Why is Sleep So Important?
During sleep, our body recovers, repairs damage, regenerates its defences and renews its cells. Harmful metabolic products are removed and hormones are released. Getting enough sleep is therefore particularly important when we are doing more exercise and intensive sports. Most muscle regeneration and the building of additional muscle mass takes place during the night’s rest. So if you are doing something to improve your fitness, you should make sure you get enough sleep, and even more if you are doing a lot of exercise. This is the only way to maximise the benefits of physical activity.
The Role of Sleep in Physical Recovery
Deep sleep is particularly important for physical recovery. It is only when you reach this state of deepest relaxation that your body is able to regenerate, remove harmful metabolic products and build muscle. Sleep requirements vary from person to person and with age. For adults, however, it is usually between seven and eight hours.
Our sleep is divided into sleep cycles that repeat several times during the night. The different sleep stages alternate: falling asleep, light sleep, deep sleep and REM sleep occur repeatedly. REM and deep sleep account for about 40% of our sleep time. Both the amount of sleep you need and the type of sleep you get (i.e. whether you are an early or late riser) appear to be genetically determined. So there’s no point in trying to fight it; it’s more important to know your own needs and try to adapt your personal sleep patterns accordingly.
The Overtired Society
When we look at the many functions of sleep, it quickly becomes clear how harmful sleep deprivation is for us humans. Everyone has a bad night’s sleep from time to time; this is normal and can be compensated for by getting enough rest in the following nights. Generally speaking, sleep disorders occur when people sleep poorly – that is, less or more irregularly – over a long period of time and feel that their physical and mental performance during the day is noticeably impaired.
When we look at the many functions of sleep, it quickly becomes clear how harmful sleep deprivation is for us humans. Everyone has a bad night’s sleep from time to time; this is normal and can be compensated for by getting enough rest in the following nights. Generally speaking, sleep disorders occur when people sleep poorly – that is, less or more irregularly – over a long period of time and feel that their physical and mental performance during the day is noticeably impaired.
Sleep disorders appear to be widespread in our society. For example, according to a survey conducted by Statista in Germany in 2021, a quarter of respondents said they suffered from sleep disorders. Nearly forty percent said they slept only 4-6 hours a night. The main problems were difficulty falling asleep and staying asleep. A study by the German health insurance company KKH also showed a nationwide increase in non-organic sleep disorders from 77 per cent in 2011 to 86 per cent in 2021. The statistics in other western countries are similar. So we are living in an overtired society.
This is not really surprising. Our modern lifestyle is extremely detrimental to restful sleep. On the one hand, in our society, sleeping as little as possible is still often associated with high performance and professional success. This is an extremely misguided attitude, given the fatal effects of sleep deprivation on performance. On the other hand, professional and social stress, the blurring of work and leisure, our extreme lack of exercise, poor diet, noise and light pollution, alcohol consumption and our excessive use of media, especially social media, all lead to sleep disorders. The fact that our modern leisure behaviour has shifted to late nights, especially at weekends, has fatal consequences for our nightly rest.
If you want to do something for your health in general and for your exercise in particular, you should try to counteract these negative influences on your night’s rest. Here are some tips to help you sleep better.
Tips for Better Sleep
Know your needs: both our need for sleep and our type of sleep are genetically determined and cannot be changed. It is therefore pointless to fight against our body’s needs. Instead, we should observe ourselves to find out what our sleep needs are and then adjust our behaviour accordingly. To do this, you should monitor your sleep over time: when do you feel tired, when do you find your sleep particularly restful, and how long do you sleep when you have no time pressure, such as when you are on holiday? The better you know your needs, the more likely you are to adapt your lifestyle and daily routine accordingly.
Develop a sleep routine: go to bed at similar times and follow a set routine. Develop small rituals to help you relax and prepare for sleep. Avoid heavy meals and late night snacks before bed, especially alcohol. You should also avoid strenuous exercise just before bed, but a healthy amount of regular exercise and movement is good for our sleep. Ideally, sleep and fitness are mutually beneficial. Relaxation techniques such as progressive muscle relaxation and autogenic training can also help you fall asleep more easily.
Make sure you have a good sleeping environment: make sure your bedroom is well ventilated, darkened and not too warm. Banish smartphones and screens from your bedroom and avoid spending time online or watching TV in bed. Instead, read a good book before you go to sleep. The bedroom should primarily be a place to sleep, so avoid taking work with you to bed. If you find yourself worrying and thinking in the evening or at night, it often helps to write down the thoughts that are bothering you. This will help you to distance yourself from them and put them out of your mind. It’s best to keep a pen and paper by your bed.
If you don’t get a better night’s sleep right away, don’t put yourself under pressure. It’s better to take your time to find out what the problems are for you, and then try.
However, as with all health issues, if you are experiencing regular sleep problems, and especially if you feel that your health is being seriously affected, you should seek professional medical advice and have the possible causes investigated.
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