CANADIAN PHYSIQUE ALLIANCE MAY || ISSUE 34 | Page 58

One of the worst debts to pay is sleep debt
and the majority of society lives in a
constant state of stimulation and stress.
Once it comes time to unwind and recover,
it is extremely difficult to be able to put the
body in a state of rest. If you are constantly
depriving your body of sleep, not only will
you mentally feel terrible, but your physical
health can be put at risk. You will also not be
progressing to your full potential in the gym.
When we sleep, we release a great amount
of crucial hormones for good health
including testosterone and growth
hormone. Oftentimes, individuals who may
be training hard and have their nutrition on
point come to a halt because they’re
lacking sleep. This stalls fat burning and/or
muscle building because the body cannot
prioritize optimal body composition when it
is not getting the required rest.
Now, let’s say you were getting 4-6 hours of
sleep a night and now you’ve increased it to
6-8 hours of sleep.
Does this automatically mean that you are
going to be getting better results, feel
more alert, and be healthier? Not
necessarily. Just being in bed or even
having restless sleep, even if it’s more
than 8 hours, will not be sufficient enough
to improve your quality of life. There are
different stages of sleep and the most
important one for recovery is the stage of
REM. For anybody with average healthy
sleep, REM sleep accounts for about 20-
25% of your nightly sleep. REM is one of
the most important stages of our sleep;
many studies show that greatly
contributes to improving brain
function. Although REM sleep only
accounts for a small amount of your time
sleeping, it is only fully achieved when we
are able to get continuous long sleep. If we
are restless sleepers or are constantly
waking up, we are not be maximizing our
REM sleep. 6 hours of deep uninterrupted
sleep a night would be much more
productive than 8 hours of sleep where
you are constantly tossing and turning.