The benefits and proper sleep patterns. How many hours do you need to sleep?
In any sport, there are three main factors that are responsible for your progress:
- Training
- Proper nutrition
- Recovery
Now we want to talk about the important part of recovery – it is a night of healthy and sound sleep. We will figure out how many hours you need to sleep, how to get rid of a lack of sleep, and why quality sleep is so important to us.
If you have previously worked on the issue of sleep from personal experience, then share your results with beginners:
And if you still cannot answer the question, because you haven’t been getting enough sleep for a long time, then be sure to read on 😴
Sleep rate
Of course, for each person, the required duration of sleep will be different and you should always listen to your body. But on average, you need to sleep 8-9 hours a day for a full recovery. If you regularly exercise and want to achieve positive results, then your sleep should be at least 8 hours.
Most likely, you sleepless, and once again after reading about 8 hours – be outraged: I don’t have that much time.
What to do? Give it a try! Arrange an experiment and provide yourself with 8 hours of sleep for at least 1 month.
Then you will see the result, which will be that due to a better recovery, you will begin to do more in the remaining 16 hours of wakefulness. Progress will be felt not only in the construction of the body but also in the emotional state and work.
How to start your experiment and put your sleep in order
You will be psychologically more comfortable if you agree on a date with yourself. So, ahead of 1 month, during which you will force yourself to sleep, you will allocate resources for this, taking time from something important (family, work) or maybe even pleasant (social networks, TV shows). If you don’t like it, then in a month you will be able to give it all up and scold us in the comments. But, most likely, in a month you will already develop a good habit.
At the start of the experiment, you will have to allocate time not only for sleep but also for falling asleep. With today’s pace of life, frequent stresses, anxieties, sleep disturbances and lack of sleep, about 70% of the world’s inhabitants suffer.
If you fall asleep quickly in any situation, then you are in luck. Then all that is required of you is to choose the time for the lift, count it off 8 hours ago and go to bed every day at the appointed hour (for example, if you are going up for work at 7 in the morning, go to bed at 23 hours). It’s better not to break the regime even on weekends, it will be easier to normalize sleep.
But if you have problems falling asleep, then you need to add another 30-50 minutes to this process, at least during the first week of the experiment. Also, drugs containing melatonin (a hormone that regulates circadian rhythms) will help you fall asleep, you need to take a couple of hours before bedtime.
What exactly is the lack of sleep dangerous?
- Tissue repair slows down. After all, their recovery occurs during sleep.
- Muscle depletion is observed. If a person does not get enough sleep regularly, muscle tone decreases, and training does not bring the expected result.
- Emotional fatigue appears. From a lack of sleep all the processes of the nervous system slow down, mental activity and reaction suffer. A person’s desire to do something decreases and his usual work seem like overwhelming work.
- Metabolism slows down. Lack of sleep slows down metabolism by 30%. The necessary substances cease to be absorbed in the body, and this provokes the accumulation of fat.
And a few more tips about sleeping:
- Go to bed no later than 23:00. There is such a statement: every hour of sleep until midnight equals two hours after. At this time, metabolic processes proceed intensively, and the level of hormones returns to normal.
- Make the light in the apartment less bright in the evening – this contributes to a quick fall asleep (increased production of melatonin). If in the evenings you spend a lot of time looking at your smartphone, then use the Night Shift function there (as it is called in Apple smartphones, in others it may be called a “blue filter” or something else). The bottom line is to make the color rendering warmer and reduce the number of blue tones on the screen. Blue shades and cold white color – inhibit the production of melatonin, which prevents sleep.
- It’s easier to fall asleep in cool. But do it without fanaticism – no need to turn a room into a refrigerator. In summer it is very comfortable to use the “sleep mode” on the air conditioner. In this mode, the air conditioner automatically increases the temperature by a couple of degrees every hour, and by morning it may turn off altogether (but this depends on the model). As a result, you will fall asleep in cool, comfortably wrapped in a blanket, and wake up in a comfortable temperature.
- Heavy food at night will not let anyone sleep, because The digestion process takes energy and does not allow you to plunge into a deep sleep. Try not to eat anything heavy a few hours before bedtime, but curd, kefir or fruit will be just right.