Your sleep: the missing link to good health?

Many of us are keen to become healthy – but what exactly is good health?

One of the most fundamental models are ‘The Three Pillars’. These are exercise, nutrition and sleep.

Exercise - Nutrition - Sleep

The first two pillars get good air time – we know the importance of regular cardiovascular and resistance exercise. We are aware of the need for a balanced diet covering adequate protein, carbs and vitamins. But what about sleep? Sleep has as much of an essential role in the foundations of health, but often gets overlooked.

Sleep affecting fitness

Broadly speaking there are two kinds of sleep – Rapid Eye Movement (or REM) which is where we do our most vivid dreaming, and Non-Rapid Eye Movement (NREM) which is a quieter and much more restful state of sleep. During the deepest phases of NREM sleep is when our bodies carry out most growth and repair. The majority of our growth hormone is released during this phase.

Not only has muscle been shown to carry out most growth during this stage, but it also replenishes it’s glycogen stores, leading to brisker recovery and more developed stamina.

Research has also shown that good quantity and quality of sleep improves your athletic performance on the day - which is important for anyone needing to achieve peak competition performance, or even just wanting to hit consistently high activity levels in the gym every day.

Fitness affecting sleep

We all know how frustrating it can be when you can’t get to sleep. When this happens night after night it can leave you feeling physically and emotionally exhausted. Sleep itself is controlled through an internal body clock system called your circadian rhythm. This decides when your body should be in a wake-phase and when it should be in a sleep-phase.

Regular exercise is an extremely effective way to reinforce the wake-phase of your circadian rhythm, and when this phase is locked in, it means that the sleep-phase arrives more naturally at night, meaning it’s easier to drop off to sleep.

Better sleep is shown to improve physical and mental health, which are often the reasons we choose to do hit the gym and eat a healthy diet in the first place. Sleep really is an essential pillar of health and fitness.

If you want to find out more on improving your health through better sleep, then visit: www.thebettersleepclinic.co.uk

By Dr David Garley