The Wellness Edit: the role of sleep in fitness

When thinking about fitness, it can be all too easy to focus on the exercise you’re doing or the food you’re consuming. However, for a well-rounded healthy lifestyle and to optimise your fitness, it is also really important to take note of sleep, both quality and quantity. Today’s article will explore the importance of sleep and what it can do for fitness recovery while offering some top tips for optimising your own sleep patterns.

The main function of sleep is to give our bodies time to recover both in terms of energy levels and in repairing muscle tissue. For athletes and anybody else doing physical activity, sleep is essential for rebuilding and strengthening muscle fibres, enhancing endurance, and reducing the risk of injury. As well as the physical importance, sleep also means that you will mentally recover as well as physically, offering you a chance at better reaction times, memory, and mental capability throughout the day. All of these things are important in fitness as they allow you to focus on your actions and engage your mind as well as your body.

Allowing our bodies the chance to rest, especially when we are aware of growing tiredness, is the best way to be kind to ourselves

For many of us who engage in physical activity, we have some level of goals, whether that’s to be stronger, run further, be quicker, or another form of aesthetic goal. For any of these goals to be achieved our bodies need to be functioning at optimal conditions where we have both the energy to work on our targets and the physical ability. Sleep is a bodily function that is required for this to happen and cannot be replaced by a supplement or through implementing other lifestyle changes. To fully allow your body to recover and complete the bodily processes like muscle repair, other cell restoration, and clearing waste from the central nervous system, sleep is crucial.

Often it can seem obvious when we don’t get enough sleep: we feel fatigued throughout the day, struggle to focus on any activity, and might get agitated more frequently. To understand the impact on our fitness levels, we have to look at sleep in a similar light and consider how our muscles are going to be functioning if they can’t focus on one exercise or haven’t had a chance to rest properly before being forced to go again. Allowing our bodies the chance to rest, especially when we are aware of growing tiredness, is the best way to be kind to ourselves whilst also supporting the achievement of goals.

By having consistency, you can ensure that you are recovering wholly each night and in turn, see benefits in both your mental and physical fitness

Every individual is different, some of us may need more sleep than others whilst sometimes too much sleep can also have a negative impact and also make us feel groggy or unfocused. The recommended amount of sleep is over seven hours for over 18-year-olds and this sleep should include both REM (deep) sleep, where the body processes information and dreaming may occur, and also non-REM (lighter) sleep where the muscles relax fully.

The best way to achieve your optimum sleep is by creating a space where you can fully relax, and your body knows it can fall asleep safely. Make sure your room is dark and disturbances like noise or phones are limited. Perhaps try using earplugs if you know you have housemates who come home at 3am each day. Set a routine that you can stick to each day by having a set time when you turn out the lights and a standard alarm for each morning, so you aren’t confusing your body with when it needs to be awake. By having consistency, you can ensure that you are recovering wholly each night and in turn, see benefits in both your mental and physical fitness.