posted on March 12, 2025
At Union fitness we all have goals that we wish to achieve through optimal training. When people think about optimal training they usually look at factors like their programming, nutrition, and recovery. These are all important factors to consider but I would like to focus on a specific part of recovery which is sleep. Everyone by now knows that sleep is important to optimal training but is something that commonly isn’t prioritized. In this blog I will list some benefits of sleep and their relation to training along with some tips for better sleep.
Benefits of proper sleep
Recovery:
Training hard is required to make progress, but also needs to be followed by proper recovery. Part of this recovery process is done in our sleep as our bodies release hormones to repair damaged tissues or muscles, reduce inflammation (if any), and induce muscle growth. Improper sleep rushes this process and can increase the amount of time you need to recover between training sessions. Training without proper recovery can lead to injuries or less progress.
Cognitive function:
Improper sleep can result in less focus and higher cortisol (stress) levels. Both of these have an impact as it takes our attention away from training. When programming training sessions, each part is designed with a specific purpose to meet your overall goal. As a result, any attention taken away from that training is impeding your progress towards that goal. Stress and feeling unfocused are also common reasons for people to skip training sessions.
Immune system:
Improper sleep can also lead to a weakened immune system making you more susceptible to sickness. Being sick impacts how well you perform in training and can even prevent it all together.
Energy:
During training we use different energy stores in our body to fuel the work being done. Sleep is a time where our body can restore these energy storages to allow us to come right back at it the next day. Without proper sleep these energy storages might not replenish as effectively. In some studies it has been shown that no sleep leads to no additional energy stored and ⅓ more energy used. I’m hoping none of us go without sleep but this gives you an idea of its impact.
Tips for better sleep
Sleep plays a huge role in our overall health and can have a huge impact on training. In order to live our best lives and progress towards our goals we need to properly sleep!
Josh
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