We all know "Rest and Recovery" is where the magic happens with our fitness and getting a good nights kip should be high up the priority list if you want to get fit, lose weight or simply just feel good every damn day.
Below is an article I was sent from my friends at Precision Nutrition and I think its worth a quick read if you struggle with sleep yourself. Click through to further reading at the bottom if you want to get geeky too...
“You’ll feel better after a good night’s sleep.”
Ever say that to a friend after a bad breakup? (Perhaps followed by: “I never liked that loser anyway!”) It’s really good advice. So good, in fact, it’s something more people ought to hear (and heed) on a regular basis. That’s because the restorative benefit of a good night’s sleep does indeed make you feel better. Specifically, it helps you:
More effectively manage your stress and emotions
Have more physical and mental energy for exercise and work
Make better food choices
(Plus, lots more.) And in turn, each of those factors can contribute to better sleep. So instead of a vicious cycle that makes progress harder…
… adequate shuteye sparks a virtuous cycle that makes progress easier (and life, in general, better). There’s a big problem, though. Many folks struggle with sleep. Enter Jennifer Martin, PhD, a professor of medicine and sleep scientist at UCLA.... She is quite literally one of the world’s foremost experts on sleep. (As a point of emphasis, Dr. Martin co-wrote the American Academy of Sleep Medicine’s position statement on sleep health.) We asked her: “Where would you start?” The short answer: A smarter sleep schedule. One that matches both your lifestyle and your biological requirements for sleep. The first step: Figure out how many hours you (or your clients) personally need. “Consider the routine you tend to settle into after a few days of vacation,” says Dr. Martin. “How many hours do you usually get when you don’t bother to set an alarm clock—and when you wake feeling rested? That’s the number of hours you’ll want to shoot for every night.” Now count backward from the time you want to wake up. That’s your bedtime, and yes, it’s THAT simple (to calculate). Only for many people, this comes with tradeoffs they don’t like—such as going to bed earlier and not sleeping in so much on the weekends. So what do you do?
Check out Dr. Martin’s full article: Transform Your Sleep: A 14-Day Plan for a Better Night’s Rest.
10-Second Takeaways
After a good night’s sleep, most people need to be awake around 16 hours before they feel sleepy.
If you sleep in until 10 am on Sunday morning, and try to go to bed at 10 pm on Sunday night, you’ll likely struggle to fall asleep. (Because you haven’t been awake 16 hours.)
Unless it’s purposely built into your sleep routine, most people are better off avoiding naps as they’ll make it harder to fall asleep—or stay asleep—later.
One hour before bed, avoid activities that get you “amped up.” (It’s a bad time to pay bills or doom scroll.)
Create a sleep schedule you can stick to 6 out of 7 nightsa week. On a scale of 0 (no way!) to 10 (too easy), rank your confidence you’ll follow through—and only proceed when you get to a 9 or 10.
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