Sleep as the foundation of health

“Amazing breakthrough! Scientists have discovered a revolutionary new treatment that will help you live longer. It boosts your memory and makes you more creative. It makes you look better, keeps you slim and reduces food cravings: it protects against cancer and dementia. It wards off colds and flu. It lowers the risk of heart attacks and strokes, not to mention diabetes, and even makes you happier, less depressed and less anxious. Are you interested?”

At first glance, the claims made in this advertisement for an imaginary study seem too good to be true. However, they are actually true. There is no area of our health on which sleep does not have a repairing effect. It is precisely this extremely important repairing effect that is considerably reduced by just one night of six hours’ sleep. Ten nights of sleep with only six hours per night is equivalent to a full night’s sleep, and a weekend is not enough to recover from this. Many of you will now be thinking that you have been sleeping only six hours a night for what feels like an eternity and are getting by just fine. The deceptive thing about this, which is also logical for humans as creatures of habit, is that we also get used to the chronic lack of sleep and the associated lack of energy. Objectively speaking, we often don’t realize that we are lacking sleep. So the next time you have a mental breakdown even though you feel physically well rested, ask yourself how many hours of sleep you have had on average in the last week. However, this article is not intended to be all doom and gloom and discourage you from having a busy social life, but to show you how sleep, or lack of it, affects your training and eating habits, and to give you a guide to more restful sleep.

In the sweaty and endorphin-rich world of fitness, you are often confronted with the same questions: What’s the fastest way to build muscle and lose fat? Which exercises are most effective? How many sets and repetitions should I do? What and how much of what should I eat and when? Or can I allow myself something sweet at the weekend? If customers do not notice any significant progress despite following the plans and suggestions, they often ask for a new training plan and for information about additional supplements in addition to the protein shake they are already familiar with after training. Before considering a new training plan, however, the client’s recovery should always be addressed first and, if necessary, the consequences of a lack of sleep should be pointed out. Terms such as supercompensation and overtraining are now on everyone’s lips, but most people are unaware of what happens between these two terms. So what happens to our bodies, weakened by training, if we don’t allow ourselves enough sleep?

Logically, we get tired earlier the next day. Lactic acid is produced more quickly, the oxygen saturation of the blood drops faster and the vital factor of perspiration for cooling the body during sport, and also otherwise, is inhibited. As the body cannot optimally take care of simple, training-related inflammation during the night, the risk of injury also increases. Energy in the form of glucose and glycogen can no longer be optimally stored. As a result, in people who have not slept well, 70 percent of this weight comes from lean body mass, i.e. the muscles, despite weight reduction. On the other hand, in well-rested people, fat accounts for over 50 percent of the weight loss. In an optimally trained person, all these processes suffer equally.

In terms of nutrition, the consequences are somewhat better known. Everyone has experienced cravings, which are wrongly attributed to the fact that the body needs more energy in the form of calories due to a lack of rest. This is actually (1) the braking of the prefrontal cortex, which ensures considered and controlled decisions, and (2) the hormones leptin (signaling satiety) and ghrelin (signaling hunger), which are out of balance and, together with increased levels of endocannabinoids in the blood, make for a dangerous mix for our eating behavior. It is as if our brain reverts to a “primitive pattern of uncontrolled response” and we are at the mercy of our urges.

However, so that you are not completely at the mercy of your urges and can avoid the increasing diseases of civilization such as burn-out, here is some final advice that we hope you will take to heart:

1. Stick to fixed bedtimes and wake-up times, even at weekends (this is also the most important point).

2. Give your eyes sunlight within 30-60 minutes of getting up. If it is still dark in the morning, bridge the gap with artificial light until the sun has risen.

3. Do not drink coffee or caffeinated drinks until 90-120 minutes after getting up. Give your body time to wake itself up so that the waking process does not become dependent on caffeine.

4. Remember that caffeine has a half-life of 5-7 hours. So if you consume an energy drink in the afternoon that contains 180 mg of caffeine, this can prevent you from falling asleep and your quality of sleep may also suffer.

5. Do not exercise too late in the day, at least 2-3 hours before you go to sleep.

6. Avoid alcoholic drinks before going to sleep.

7. Eating too much reduces the quality of sleep. Try not to eat for 2-3 hours before going to sleep. Don’t drink large quantities either.

8. No more power naps after 3 p.m., otherwise you may have difficulty falling asleep.

9. Take time to wind down at the end of the day. Do not use any electronic devices for an hour before going to sleep.

10. Dim your lights after sunset and position your light sources below eye level. This signals the beginning of sunset to your brain.

11. Your bedroom should be cool, dark and free of appliances. Place clocks out of sight.

12. If you wake up during the night and can no longer fall asleep, do not toss and turn in bed, but get up and do a quiet activity (such as reading or knitting) until you get tired again.

References:

– Walker. The big book of sleep. S. 151.
– Fietze. About good and restful sleep. S. 84.