We all agree on the fact that sleep is important. But, do you know that not sleeping enough can affect your performance as an athlete? We all know that we feel sluggish when we don’t sleep enough, or that we might need one more cup of coffee to get through the day.
But what are the effects of taking care of your sleep health when it comes to exercising? If you are not taking care of your sleep cycle, we hope you will pay more attention to it after reading just how much it can help you!

Why Is Sleep Important in Training?
All of us are aware of the fact that sleep is how our body and brain recharge. This is true for everybody, regardless of how active they are. We all feel the effects of lack of sleep the next day: our reactions are slower, we feel sluggish, and sometimes we can even experience headaches or bodily pains.
UK Sleep specialist Kally Sleep https://www.kallysleep.com says that all of this is true for people who exercise, as well, with the added factor of having to replenish the energy they used up during training. Experts theorize that deep sleep improves athletic performance as this is when growth hormone is released.

What is growth hormone? It is a hormone that regulated body fluids, bone growth, mental function, body composition, and muscle growth. So, quite important, right? For athletes, this is important because it helps with repairing muscles that have been stressed during training.

How Does Lack of Sleep Affect Athletes?
There have been several studies on the effects of sleep deprivation on athletes. They have mainly focused on how sleeping less than the recommended hours has affected an athlete’s performance.

The results show that sleep deprivation causes mood changes, slows muscly recovery, and increases the levels of stress hormones. It can also affect reaction time, and focus. A body that is not well-rested will deviate resources towards staying awake and alert. An athlete who has gotten enough sleep will dedicate that energy towards their performance.

Reaction time is also slowed significantly by fatigue. Studies have shown that not sleeping for one whole night can have the same effect as drinking alcohol on reaction time. You can decrease your reaction time by half in that situation.

Sleep’s Influence on Muscle Building
Like we said before, it is during sleep when your muscles recover from athletic activity. This is when most of the growth hormones are released, and we know that they are essential for the building of muscle mass.

How do muscles grow? If you do any sort of strength training, you know that what you are essentially doing during training is breaking down your muscle tissues in order to have them built back together stronger than before.
This rebuilding takes place during your active recovery periods and during sleep. Active recovery is the cool-down you do after a tough workout, and the rest days where you do low-intensity training, like low-intensity cardio or yoga.

So, in order to achieve your goals in strength training and muscle building, allowing our body to rest is just as important as the actual exercise you do. Growth hormone also stimulates fat burning, so getting a good night’s sleep every day will make a huge difference in your training.


How Sleep Helps with Injury Recovery
We know now that sleep is a key element when it comes to muscle growth. But the process of growing muscle mass is actually very similar to what happens when we damage our muscle tissue.

Tissue gets broken or damaged, and it needs rest, nutrients and energy to be healed. A good sleep cycle will provide the body with the energy it needs for the cells to repair the damage as they should. As we discussed before, sleep is where we release the most growth hormones, and this is an integral part of the healing process.

Lack of sleep will make the recovery time longer. It has also been proved that athletes with irregular sleeping habits are less likely to have a long carrier playing sports.

Sleep Helps Prevent Injuries
Athletes or people who exercise are less prone to injury if maintain healthy sleep routines https://www.kallysleep.com/product-category/athlete-recovery-pillows/. Besides the increased fatigue and longer recovery time associated with lack of sleep, we should also factor in slower reaction times.
A high reaction time will allow an athlete to respond quickly. Being more alert makes someone less prone to suffering from an injury. Being fatigued can lead to being injured.

Furthermore, it is known that fatigue can also affect your immune system, and leave you open to contracting several illnesses. This is not ideal for any active person, as it cuts down on the time they can devote to sports or training.

Sleep Also Lead to Low Energy
Having sufficient energy to perform during training or when playing a sport is key to any athlete. Not sleeping enough leads to less production of carbohydrates and glycogen, which are an important source of energy for high-intensity exercise.
Having less natural energy means that the athlete’s endurance is compromised and they might have to rely on supplements.

Should Athletes Sleep More?
Athletes who train heavily can benefit from increasing their sleep time. An average adult should sleep between seven and nine hours a night. Someone doing strength training uses up a lot more energy than someone who does not exercise, so it is only logical for them to need more sleep in order to keep their performance up.
However, how much sleep you need is entirely up to you. Different people have different needs, but you should always listen to your body.

Conclusion
Whether you are a professional athlete or you want to build up your muscle mass, you should take care to provide your body with everything it needs to work properly.
Sleep is when our body rests and heals itself and thus sleep is an integral part of any training and recovery regime.