Why you need to “Relax” at night!
Muscles grow when we sleep
When we sleep our bodies naturally relax, due to the lack of tension the muscles have an increased flow of blood. Increased blood flow equals increase in recovery and nutrient delivery. Protein synthesis (rebuilding of muscle tissue) happens while we sleep at a higher rate than other time. This is why babies sleep so much, Alijah is crushing it right now by the way! (haha). If you want gains you must immolate them as much as possible and get quality sleep when you can how you can. Aim for 8 hours of sleep every night. The more deep sleep you get, the more you can grow! Not everyone has 8 hours so quality of sleep also matters, this is where a supplement like Relax can help influence a natural, more calm and relaxed slumber for ALL THE GAINS!
Building muscle is a process associated with anabolism (being anabolic), which is regulated by hormones such as the growth hormone and testosterone. We literally peak our growth hormone production during sleep, this is an easy take away for the value we should put on our “night night” time.
Less sleep, less muscle.
It’s only logic right? If when we sleep we produce hormones that make us anabolic, when we don’t’ sleep we produce hormones or block the production of the “growth hormones”. When we don’t’ sleep we turn the opposite of anabolic which is catabolic. Where our body is now only breaking down energy and muscle tissue vs. repairing and growing it. When we don’t sleep, we essential stop using fat as energy and we start literally using our muscle as energy, taking away the GAINS!
SLEEP LESS, STORE FAT.
When you don’t sleep, you are awake using energy. Guess what you naturally crave all day long when you don’t sleep? Sugar, carbs, anything packed with energy to help fuel your brain activity and lack of rest. Aside from you then eating more, you are also creating stress on the body. A stress on the body the tells it to hold onto fat and store it! Why? Simple, you store stress because your body will need it later if you never sleep, one day it has to prepare to be used when there is no sleep and no food.
Leptin and ghrelin are hormones that regulate our sleep but also influence our appetite. The lack of sleep tells those things we need more sugar. Add to that, as we lack sleep we become more “poor” at insulin resistance, which means we become LESS sensitive to the sugars we are taking in, spiking blood sugar left and right, but still needing more to satisfy our body. For optimal health we want steady blood sugar levels both short term and long term. Cortisol is the guilty culprit that increases with lack of sleep that forces us to store the fat, it literally tells our body we are under attack and will need that fat in the future!
The lesson here is that we can’t just train hard and expect gains! Less sleep means less muscle, less recovery, more fat, and more bad food cravings! We need to rest properly. And quality matters folks. Have a nightly routine, set an alarm for when you must start it, put your phone away 30 minutes to an hour before laying down. Sleep in a cold temperature room that is blacked out from light and get as much quality sleep as you can!
If you struggle with this, like many do! Look into our natural sleep enhancer “Relax” and get some quality deep sleep without any grogginess when the alarm chimes in the morning!