You’re not getting enough sleep
“I’ll give coffee a miss this morning, I had LOADS of sleep last night” – said no one. Ever.
As trainers and fitness nuts, we obsess about our training - volume, frequency, sets, weight, periodization, progressive overload. We drive ourselves insane thinking about our diet – protein per meal, macros, calories, meal frequency, supplements. One of the most under prioritized factors affecting our progress is the amount of sleep we get each night. And we neglect it at our peril.
Sleep is the number 1 most important thing for a better body.
Even if your diet is dialled in and your training is totally down, if you’re not getting enough sleep you’re toast. As we get older, life gets busier, we have responsibilities, stressful jobs, families, kids, stuff to do. One way to try and fit everything in is to compromise on sleep, just cut a few hours here and there, what’s the worst that can happen?
Sleep less – eat more.
Hunger is controlled by two hormones, ghrelin and leptin. Higher ghrelin levels stimulate feelings of hunger whilst simultaneously slowing your metabolism. Leptin is produced in your fat cells and lower levels makes you hungry. Research has showed that when you get less than six hours, leptin levels are reduced and ghrelin is stimulated.
It's worse than just that though. When you don't sleep enough, your cortisol levels rise. This is the stress hormone that is frequently associated with fat gain. High ghrelin and cortisol mean that you still feel hungry, even if you just ate.
Sleep less – exercise less
When you get insufficient sleep, it’s difficult to get in the mood for hard training. Studies have shown that after working out on no sleep, test subjects fatigued sooner and felt like they had to exert more energy to complete the same workout they did on a full night of sleep. In addition, being sleep-deprived causes the mind to simply “give up” when it would otherwise be physically capable of going on. If you want to complete that last set of heavy squats, make sure you’re well rested. Who knew?
Sleep less – lose less fat
After four days of insufficient sleep, your body's ability to efficiently use insulin is completely compromised, with insulin sensitivity reduced by up to 30%. Whilst you can make it through the day by hammering the coffee, the lipids are circulating in your blood and causing more insulin to be pumped out. The net effect is storing fat in all the wrong places, such as tissues like your liver.
Sleep less – recover slower
Not hitting the hay makes it harder for your body to recover from exercise by slowing down the production of growth hormone, one of your best tools for both fat burning and recovery. Growth hormone release peaks during slow wave sleep, which you’ll have less of. You’ll have more cortisol too, which further reduces growth hormone. Double whammy.
You’re not getting enough sleep – so what?
Sleep is as important as diet and exercise. Sleep deprivation is like being drunk. You just don't have the mental clarity to make good decisions about simple things like what to eat, how hard to train and on top of that, your hormones are all over the place, hampering your recovery. Elite athletes are known to sleep 10-12 hours a day, including naps, and whilst this just isn’t feasible for all of us, a good rule of thumb is 7 to 9 hours, and if you miss this amount one night, don’t make it a habit.
At the end of the day, if you want to make the most from your training, you need to prioritise your sleep hygiene. For some tips on how to get better sleep, see this article.