From A to Zzzzzz

Before starting, if you're looking for a routine on sleep and just want to know what to do prior to understanding SOME aspects of why & what is important around sleep, then there is a blog already up just for you. Click HERE to read our blog on Sleep Routine. This is going to be a little deeper dive into some specific key factors around Sleep Hygiene that might be a little more unknown.

Stress:

There is a feedback loop between stress and lack of sleep.  You are stressed so you cannot sleep well. You don’t sleep well so you are tired and not allowing cortisol to normalize throughout the day. Then you are stressed some more before bed and cannot go to sleep, and so on. Then you have no sleep schedule and you have no clue why you are wide awake at some random hour.  It is important to manage daily stress in order to help facilitate quality sleep - belly breathing/meditation, timely workouts and limiting screen time are a few places to start here.

Routine:

Well I had to touch on it.  Going to sleep and rising at the same time everyday allows the natural ebb and flow of our body’s systems to work the way they are designed to. The circadian rhythm can change based on age and time of year.  Keeping with sun exposure and allowing time for decompressing walks can give your body time to relax and get optimal Vitamin D. Our bodies are made to work in rhythm and it is important to honor that.

Vitamin D:

Vitamin D is important. Especially if you live in the Cloudiest City in the country (Pittsburgh).  More than likely the further away from the equator you are the more important it will be, and the chances you have a deficiency will be greater. Lack of vitamin D can inhibit the ability for quality sleep and lead to more night time disruptions. On the other hand Vitamin D supplementation can do the same thing if you take it too close to your bedtime. 

Everyone should know where their vitamin D levels sit.  Vitamin D plays a role in approximately 5 percent of all metabolic functions, so it is probably a good idea to consult your doctor or physician to make sure your levels are sufficient. 

Zinc:

Also not to be  forgotten when it comes to vitamins and minerals would be Zinc.  It comes in many forms but one of the most popular would be a ZMA (Zinc, Magnesium, Vitamin B-6). It has been shown to improve the quality of sleep for some. Zinc is also something that is very important for immune function, so making sure you are getting the proper amount through your nutrition will benefit you in many ways.

Dinner:

Let us take this one course by course. IF you are having issues with sleep and your protein is low consider increasing it in this meal.  This would also be the time to avoid too much fat in your meal because that has shown to take away from the quality of sleep.  Going for a nice lean protein source with fruits and vegetables - maybe some grains - would be the best way to go about your dinner.

Now that adult beverage that many people have with dinner. We will get into a deeper dive on this one at a later date, but if you care about your sleep, ability to maintain muscle, and hydration there should be little to none of this consumed. IF you really need a drink then try not to consume more than one drink 90 minutes before sleep. But coach…I have some of the best sleep when I catch a buzz. 

If that’s the case, run an experiment. N=1. You are the only subject.  Try one night with and one night without a week apart from one another. Then try and do a crossword puzzle and a workout each following day.  See how your mental and physical performance are.  Take some notes on mood, energy, bowel movements, hunger, physical appearance. 

Just remember alcohol is a drug for a reason. It’s not sleep, it's sedation.

Performance and Body Composition:

The more you exercise the more time you need to recover.  Makes complete since.  The younger you are, the more sleep you will need. Combine those two things you can see that child and adolescent athletes need tons of sleep.  

Using age and activity level is a great indicator of how much you should be sleeping at a minimum.  Injury risk and performance have a strong connection with lack of sleep. So making sure these young athletes are getting adequate sleep should be important for proper recovery and performance.

As it pertains to body composition the amount of sleep can effect that drastically either way. Even 1 hour of sleep loss per night can lead to muscle loss and fat retention compared to those who got a full night of sleep.  This was shown in a hypocaloric state for both groups which means if you are losing weight but you aren’t sleeping enough it’s more than likely is mostly muscle.

Caffeine:

Caffeine blocks adenosine from binding to the neuromodulator receptor that helps promote tiredness and that sleepy feeling. Caffeine not only helps us stay alert and awake but also keeps our bodies from letting us know we are tired.

When being used for athletic performance and exercise it has been shown to have an ergogenic effect in some specific cases. AKA increased performance - physically & mentally.

The use of caffeine is frequent and habitual for most. The best thing you can do for this is to limit the intake at least 6 hours before sleep. The half life of caffeine is between 5 and 9 hours depending on the individual. That means if you have 400mg in your Large coffee from your favorite green mermaid at 7am it could be up until 4pm that 200mg of caffeine is still in your bloodstream.

Sleep is one of the most important things you can do for longevity, performance and overall health, yet so many people neglect it.  A lot of it stems from lack of awareness or understanding on what you can do and need to do for yourself.  It will start and end with the individual, but you need to have the information and a plan specific to you in order to make the changes.