Sleep
The average person gets between 6 or 8 hours per night of sleep obviously this changes for a lot people, hence this blog as it could be one of the main reasons your maybe not seeing the results you want. The duration of your sleep is to a certain extent less important than the quality of sleep you get. Our natural sleep cycle a long time ago would have been to sleep when it gets dark, and to rise again with the sun, this is no longer the reality.
Sleep deprivation can have a massive impact on your health and fitness goals, and it is often something that is generally over looked. Lots of studies have shown the connection between sleep deprived people and the over consumption of calories they eat from sleep deprivation. They found that one of the main reasons for it is the part of our brains called the pre frontal cortex ( big word) which helps us make our choices, this is greatly impacted when under stress, stress thats caused from not enough sleep. So the ability to stay on track with your nutrition automatically becomes that bit harder, now if this is rare thing then its not a big issue, but over prolonged periods of time it does become a problem.
To help you sleep better we need our bodies to produce melatonin, its a hormone thats produced by our bodies to help us head into the land of nod, we do this better when we are relaxed and in darkness as it gets inhibited by light.
So here is 5 of our top tips to help you get a better nights sleep…
- Turn off your phone, laptops and tv at least 60 minutes before bedtime.
- Relax and unwind and help your body slow down, read a book or take a bath.
- Keep your phone out of your room and definitely don’t go flicking through Facebook in bed.
- Keep your room as dark as possible as we said melatonin is better released when its dark.
- Limit caffeine to before 5pm and also anything high in sugar before bed has been shown to cause some people problems.
A good sleep will help improve mood, and performance in the gym and help you stay on track with your health and fitness goals.
