5 Tips to Sleep Better for Muscle Growth
5 Tips to Sleep Better for Muscle Growth
Enjoying quality sleep is paramount for good health. Regardless of the things you do during the day, you should make time to enjoy about 8 hours of sleep every day. Quality sleep is linked to a lot of health benefits, including a healthy heart and brain, improved concentration, lower risks of high blood pressure and diabetes, to mention a few. While most of those benefits are known to many, people are still in the dark when it comes to muscle growth and enhanced athletic performance.
Technically, quality sleep goes a long way to enhance the overall growth of the human body, but not enough is said about muscle growth. While in the journey of growing your muscles, you need to establish a healthy sleeping routine that will encourage your efforts. Here are several tips that will better your sleep and improve your muscle growth:
Change your mattress
The kind of mattress you sleep on greatly affects your sleep. Investing in the best latex mattress is not just to show off or to spend some extra dollars from your wallet. If your mattress is not comfortable and does not properly support your body weight, then it will prove problematic to enjoy quality sleep.
Ideally, your muscles need to relax through the night, just like the rest of your body. When your mattress is too firm, the pressure from the surface is exerted on your muscles. This way, instead of relaxing in the night, your muscles are busy adjusting differently to help support your weight and reduce the pressure from the mattress. On the other hand, a mattress that is too soft will sag at the center and cause an irregular sleeping position. A poor sleeping position will as well strain your body and muscles. Indeed, it is helpful to invest in a better quality mattress, so you can allow your body to repair, recharge, and regrow as you sleep.
Don’t Exercise too Close to Bedtime
Much as growing your muscles is your priority, it is a bad idea to exercise when you are going to bed. Ideally, physical exercise promotes wakefulness and gets you all worked up. Besides, your brain will be extremely active after a workout, not to mention, your body temperature will go up. This can hinder you from catching sleep. If you encourage this kind of behavior close to bedtime, then you are signing up for sleep disorders like insomnia.
Since quality sleep is a necessary part of muscle growth, consider working out 3 or four hours before bedtime. This will allow your body ample time to readjust and prepare for rest. However, it would be better to get your workout in the morning as you start your day if your schedule can allow.
Cut down on alcohol
After a long workday, you may want to hit the bar for p.m. booze. It is a great idea to keep your social connections going and help you wind up a long day. However, you may need to remind yourself that alcohol can mess up your sleep cycle a great deal. Alcohol works to stimulate your body and brain. Technically, it will affect the sleep and wake cycle. Instead of going to sleep at the required time, you may end up being up all night, and pushing your sleep to the day. It is also difficult to get quality sleep in the night after taking alcohol. You may need bathroom breaks every so often that you barely catch any sleep. Besides, alcohol has hangover effects that might limit your daily efforts to build your muscles.
Control Caffeine Intake at Night
Alcohol is not the only stimulant that will work against your healthy sleeping routines. Caffeinated drinks like coffee, teas, and sodas can also have the same effects. Some people love to take a cup of tea or coffee before bed. While this may be one of your favorite preferences, you may need to regulate the caffeine intake during the night. Ideally, try to avoid taking caffeinated drinks too close to bedtime. Ensure at least a 3 or 4-hour gap before bedtime.
Determine a Healthy Sleep Pattern
The brain is a powerful part of the body. You can train it to adapt to anything in just a short period. Ideally, the brain associates light with wakefulness and darkness with sleep. However, there is more you can do to help your brain shut down for a rest, other than put off the lights.
A healthy sleep routine should allow you to go to bed at around the same hour every day, and wake up around the same hour every morning. The benefit of this is that your body can prepare for proper rest when it is time for bed. This way, when morning comes, you will feel rejuvenated because your body and brain took time to rest. You can also include some other activities to help with your sleep routine, including reading a book before you go to bed.
Switch off electronics at Bedtime
The thing about technology is that it has changed everyday life. Things are easier and faster to do than ever before. However, it has also brought about several distractions that are hindering healthy lifestyles. Most people do not enjoy quality sleep because when it is bedtime, they still bring their electronics to bed. There will always be content to consume on electronic gadgets, which is why sleep will become a challenge.
Besides that, electronics have been proven to affect sleep patterns by affecting the melatonin levels in human beings. Melatonin is a chemical that is responsible for controlling sleep. The fact is that electronic devices have artificial light from them. Habitually, light works against sleep by inhibiting sufficient production of melatonin chemicals. For this reason, make sure you switch off your electronic devices and reserve bedtime for purely sleeping.
Pro tip: keep your bedroom as dark as possible. This will encourage healthier sleep patterns.
Conclusion
You cannot compromise on the quality of your sleep and still hope for muscle growth. Practice a healthy lifestyle all around and watch how quickly your muscle gain journey pays off.
