Want to make the most of your bodybuilding progress? Carefully study the sleep patterns of professional athletes, which will help you gain 5 kg of clean muscle. Very often, insufficient sleep time is the reason for the lack of constant progress of athletes. So, with the right exercise and nutrition, you need to get enough sleep. Only then will you be able to constantly grow. Today you will learn how to improve sleep in bodybuilding.
The importance of sleep for humans
Each of us is familiar with lack of sleep, but rarely does anyone realize what he has lost in this case. Moreover, sleep is often considered an unnecessary element of life that interferes with work or rest. Scientists have found that the average person can go without sleep for about 10 days.
In the future, even a lethal outcome is possible, however, the causes and mechanisms of this phenomenon are not yet known to science. Perhaps it's all about the hypothalamus, whose main task is to regulate metabolism. If a person does not sleep for a long time, then the hypothalamus can lose control over body temperature, which will lead to death.
Lack of sleep has a very negative effect on the work of the whole organism. Throughout the day, people do various jobs and satisfy their needs. During sleep, the body rests to restore its own resources. During studies of the electrical activity of the brain during sleep, scientists found that positive changes occur in the body every hour and a half. Thus, we can say that the human bioclock works in a circadian rhythm, the duration of each cycle is about 90 minutes.
This clock is directly related to daylight hours, and for this reason, you want more sleep in winter. If you don't get enough sleep, you can seriously damage your body.
Scientists have proven that in the absence of sleep during the day, the body is able to recover only 70 percent. If you have not slept for 48 hours, then this figure does not exceed 45 percent. After about nine o'clock in the evening, the body temperature begins to drop, which causes a state of drowsiness. At this point, low-voltage beta waves in the brain are replaced by high-voltage alpha waves.
Then alpha waves give way to theta waves, corresponding to the first and second phases of sleep. During this period of time, the skeletal muscles relax. The third and fourth phases of sleep (REM sleep) owe their appearance to delta waves. According to scientists, it is during this period of time that people begin to dream. Also, the phase of REM sleep is characterized by complete relaxation of all the muscles of the body and if this does not happen, then sleepwalking is possible. During experiments with animals, when the phase of REM sleep was disturbed, the subjects jumped, growled and, as a result, became very tired, although in fact they were in a state of sleep.
One of the main factors that can disrupt sleep is the sound pollution of the space around us. At a certain level, this factor can disrupt each of the sleep phases. It also negatively affects the quality of sleep and its fragmented nature. In one study, subjects did not sleep for long periods of time, but in small pieces. As a result, their muscles were unable to recover completely.
Providing the body with all nutrients is equally important for quality sleep. At the same time, it is important to maintain a balance between macro- and micronutrients. For example, a study found that an imbalance between magnesium and calcium in the body can cause sleep disturbances. A symptom of this imbalance may be a sudden awakening a couple of hours after falling asleep. Of course, there are a lot of reasons that can disrupt sleep and it is difficult to mention all of them in one article.
Some scientists recommend that athletes who spend two intense workouts during the day sleep in between. We also note that almost all scientists agree with the opinion that the more energy we spent during the day. The stronger and calmer our sleep will be.
Sleep Tips
Here are some tips to help you improve your sleep quality.
- It is necessary to try to smoothly transition from active daily activities to less active ones no later than 180 minutes before going to bed.
- Do not eat foods high in carbohydrates and the amine tryptophan less than 120 minutes before bedtime.
- Avoid caffeine and alcohol in the evening no later than six hours before bed.
- Try to maintain a 1 to 2 calcium / magnesium balance in your evening meals.
- Do not stimulate the work of the nervous system with stress, the use of medications and physical activity.
- Synchronize your sleep with daylight and try to go to sleep at sunset, getting up accordingly at dawn.
- When conducting two intensive trainings during the day, you should find half an hour between them for a daytime sleep.
How to establish a sleep schedule and what should it be like? Watch this video:
