At first glance, sleep and exercise might seem to be opposite activities... one relaxing, the other strenuous. However, sleep actually plays a great role in your health, workouts and overall fitness.
Sleep Impacts How You Eat
Sleeping and eating are linked. What you eat can impact your sleep, and how many hours you sleep can impact your eating habits.
Did you know that sleeping more could mean eating less?
Sleep deprivation affects two hormones that are related to appetite, ghrelin and leptin. Ghrelin helps the body know when to eat and leptin helps the body know when to stop eating. Sleep deprivation can lead to higher ghrelin levels and lower leptin, which can compromise the body’s ability to properly measure food intake. This can lead to a sleep deprived person not feeling satisfied when they’ve eaten, and therefore eating more.
Studies have reinforced this concept. The New York Times shared the results of a study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition in which a group of men were observed over a 48-hour span, one night sleeping 8 hours, the next night, only four. After only sleeping four hours, the men consumed an extra 500 calories. The Washington Post cited findings from a study by the New York Obesity Nutrition Research Center at St. Luke’s-Roosevelt Hospital that showed sleep-deprived participants consuming roughly 300 more calories per day than their rested counterparts.
Sleep Impacts How You Workout
Lack of sleep can translate to a lower energy level at the gym, which could mean skipped reps, less time on a machine, etc. Lack of sleep also can mean a lower immunity to germs, resulting in time spent overcoming sickness and not exercising. Also, it’s important for any athlete to have muscle recovery time between workouts, which is beneficial in injury prevention.
Putting in long hours on your pillow is almost as important as putting in long hours at the gym. The CDC recommends that adults sleep 7-9 hours. To learn more, visit the National Sleep Foundation website.