Sleep to Stay on Top of Your Life
The overall health of the nation would improve dramatically if everybody would do one simple thing: sleep! Most adults need 7-8 hours each night. One recent report found that nearly 1/3 of adults don’t get that much sleep.
When you sleep, you give your body a chance to hit its reset button. Consider the brain, from the time you wake up until you close your eyes, it takes in EVERYTHING. Sleep allows the brain to consolidate, that is to say, it takes all of the memories and skills and puts them in order. This improves your memory and can also help improve any skills that you may have learned!
Many people strength train to get bigger and stronger muscles. What most people don’t know is that muscles don’t get bigger and stronger while you are at the gym (in fact, they get weaker while you are working out), they get bigger and stronger when you are asleep!
The benefits of sleep also include keeping your mood elevated, your stress levels down, and your heart healthy.
Here are some simple tips to help you improve the quality and duration of your sleep.
Don’t watch TV from bed or read in bed. Anything that associates your bed with something other than sleep is not advisable.
Establish a clear bedtime and wakeup time and stick to them!
Make sure the room is completely dark. Speaking of dark, avoid bright lights a couple of hours before bedtime and also television/computers/cell phones.
No caffeine/alcohol.
Exercise vigorously 3-4 hours before bedtime.
Finally, if you happen to be lying in bed, don’t try to fall asleep. Instead focus on relaxing!
Exercise, specifically strength training, is the magic pill that everyone is looking for to add years to their life and life to their years. However, if you aren’t getting enough sleep, you won’t get the most out of your training or your life!
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gerald smith
January 22, 2016 2:59 pmRest and recovery is so important to avoid over training and a lack of I places stress on the body. Great article, not enough people tall about the benefit of sleep 🙂
Dwayne Wimmer
March 28, 2016 9:03 amGerald,
Thanks for your comment.
Dwayne
Travis Owen
January 16, 2017 10:01 amYou say “no caffeiene/alcohol.” Can you specify that recommendation? Is that only after a certain time in the day? Also I’d be interested in seeing any research behind (or at least the theory) exercising vigorously 3-4 hours before bedtime. It appeared to be linked but that did not work when I clicked.