Sleep
Cat’s do it very well!… but why do we sometimes struggle?
Do you ever feel that your training is going well but not seeing the results you want?
Have you considered it may be because you are not getting enough sleep?
Sleep is a wonderful thing if you can sleep well without interruption. It is part of our natural circadian rhythm and is often overlooked as a key ingredient to achieving exercise and activity goals.
With regular training sessions completed weekly, we are putting the body through an increased intensity of activity that creates a stimulus in reward of achieving our goals over time.
It is vital the body has time to recover from high intensity and overloaded activity.
It is recommended that we get between 7-9 hours’ sleep each night to ensure our bodies are relaxed, recovered, and ready for the next day.
- What if I don’t get enough sleep?If our sleep volume is limited, the body may not recover fully from any micro trauma and inflammation caused by overload or high intensity exercise sessions. This can leave us prone to injury and hinder the progression made during the next training session.
- How much sleep?Sleep volume is important as is the quality of the sleep. Having 8 hours of sleep, which has continually broken patterns, can stop the body reaching REM (rapid-eye movement) sleep, which is associated with the stage of sleep where the body recovers. During the stage of NREM (non-rapid-eye movement), blood flow increases to the muscles, which will allow the muscle fibres to repair and the tissues to grow. The REM stage will see the muscles relax after the recover stage has passed.
- The volume of sleep required can vary from person-to-person and depends on many factors such as age, sex, medication, activity demands through the day as well as stress/anxiety, night shift work patterns and interruptions in sleep from young babies and poorly children.
- Fitness apps can help monitor the hours and rate the quality you get over a week, or a sleep diary might also be useful. If you find your sleep is not sufficient, small changes can be made and this may lead to an improved performance and reaching your results in a slighter quicker timeframe.
- Exercise and health diet can improve sleep quality, as can reducing external stressors, such as identifiable anxiety and stress.
To support your sleep we can help…
- Improve activity and exercise (and as an effect of that, your sleep), with a tailored exercise programme designed by Ben Durham
- Book a Nutrition assessment appointment with Robyn Cardy to address ways your diet can improve sleep quality at night time and energy levels through the day.
Speak to Ben, Robyn, or a member of our team to arrange an appointment
on 01284 748200
www.buryphysio.co.uk
E: admin@buryphysio.co.uk