Improve Your Quality of Sleep = Improving the Quality of Your Training

It’s simple! Better Sleep, Better Health, Better Gains….. Period!

One of the most overlooked, yet most important factors for improving health, performance, and in getting the physique you want is Sleep.

NOT rest; SLEEP.

Your workout performance gets compromised due to poor sleep habits. Various studies have linked high quality sleep to faster reaction times, faster sprints, better skill acquisition, greater endurance, and stronger lifts.

Below are 8 Tips for Improving your Sleep Hygiene…

• Avoid caffeine at least 6-7 hours before bed. “As we get older, our ability to metabolize caffeine and get it out of our system slows down,” says Dr. Ronit Levy, a psychologist and clinical director at Bucks County Anxiety Center. “If it’s still in your system at bedtime, you’ll be exhausted but have a hard time falling asleep.”
• Consider supplementing with Zinc (9.5 mg for men; 7mg for women), Magnesium (300mg for men; 270mg for women), and/or Melatonin (5mg) up to one hour before bed. These have proven to be very effective for increasing the quality of sleep.
• Dim the lights in your house or apartment an hour before bed. Bright lights may interfere with the secretion of hormones that help you sleep.
• Only use your bed for sleep or sex. Don’t spend time scrolling on your phone. With a large percentage of the population working form home its important to note that you absolutely should not work in bed. Maintaining these habits helps your mind to associate getting into bed with sleep and relaxation.
• Consider spending five or ten minutes stretching before bed.
• Consider reading before bed. According to Dr. David Rabin, a psychiatrist, neuroscientist, and co-founder of Apollo Neuroscience. “Read something enjoyable like fiction or something interesting and educational before bed. It can be great for helping the mind to wind down.”
• Dr. Rabin also believes that focusing on your breath can help sleep to come when you’re lying in bed. “Engaging in the breath pattern of a person who is asleep — roughly two to four breaths per minute, so one breath in and out every fifteen seconds — will put you to sleep in five to ten minutes almost every time,” he says. “It’s a technique to help control anxiety and get you into a more deescalated state, and it can radically improve your sleep.”
• Go to sleep the same time every night and stick to the same routine as your day comes to a close. This helps to ingrain sleep as a habit.

One last thing. I strongly encourage you to work towards getting a minimum of 8 hours of sleep every night! It will be a small sacrifice to your night life but in the long run you will be thankful you made that decision.

I will end this like it started. Improve your sleep, improve your physique, improve your health!

“If you wake up at 4am to do cardio after only getting 5 hours of sleep, you are stepping over $100 bills to pick up nickels…” Stan Effering