Here is all the information you need to know about sleep!
And if you dont want to read, you can just check out this video!
Are your workouts and nutrition perfectly setup, but you still wonder why you are not making any progress?
Not getting enough sleep might be the reason why, as its crucial for building and recovering your muscles.
In this article, im gonna tell you a couple of tips, to improve your sleep, so you can make more gains!
How long?
As you might already know, you should aim for atleast 8-9 hours of sleep per night.
(Some individuals might get away with just 7)
Altough it might not look like a big deal at the first glance, if you just sleep 5 hours per night, but trust me, the difference is huge.
Not only that you will feel weaker at the gym, but there are many more negatives.
For example reduced muscle recovery, muscle breakdown, decreased testosterone and impared cognitive functions.
Which goes hand in hand with increased risk of injury. Because if you are mentally checked out, there is a higher chance of you making a mistake and injuring yourself in the process.
When?
Now that you know how long you should sleep, its also important to talk about when you should go to sleep, because it also matters.
If you are working at night and sleeping during the day, that is for sure not ideal.
You should follow your circadian rhytm, which is something like your body's internal clock.
Only then you can reap all the muscle building benefits from sleep.
How to improve your sleep
As i said before, sticking to your circadian rhytm is crucial for a good night sleep.
Couple more things that you can do to improve your sleep is to get rid of all light sources in your room, so you can sleep in complete darkness.
Also you dont want to sleep in a hot room, so cooling down your room is also very important for high quality sleep.
And if you really wanna maximize your sleep, you can even invest in a high quality matress.
What to avoid
There are also some things that you should definitely avoid if you want a good night sleep.
First thing that comes into mind, is that you should NOT eat a heavy meal before going to bed, as it will be very hard to fall asleep afterwards.
On the other hand, having a light meal with good amount of protein before bed can be very beneficial.
You should also avoid stimulants at least 6 hours before bed, mainly caffeine, as it will be much harder for you to fall asleep.
And lasty, avoid blue light before bed, so all the screens like your phone or tv.
Conclusion
So that was it, now you have all the information you need, so you can grow as much as possible while asleep!