Everyone is searching for that magical supplement or drug to increase their athletic performance, speed up recovery, or help them live longer and/or healthier. People pay hundreds of dollars each month for supplements and powders to help them jump higher, clean heavier, workout harder, look better, be healthier, and grow older. But what most people don’t realize is they have a revolutionary treatment available to them that will help them improve their athletic performance, speed up recovery, and help them live a longer and healthier life.
Some added benefits of this treatment, beyond increased athletic performance and recovery, include:
– enhanced memory
– increased creativity
– increased vitality and attractiveness
– lowers food cravings
– protection from cancer and dementia
– wards off colds and the flu
– lowers risk of heart attacks, stroke, and diabetes
– helps decrease anxiousness, depression, and happiness
– increases motor skills
– decreases beta amyloid (toxic protein)
– positively impacts reproductive system
Best of all, it comes at NO COST! So what is this revolutionary treatment? SLEEP.
In people’s busy lives the first thing to get cut from their hectic schedule is usually sleep. There is the age old adage that you can sleep when you’re dead. What people don’t realize is the less sleep they get, the sooner they will be sleeping for eternity.
So you want to increase your aerobic capacity? Maybe you have been stagnant in losing weight, but have been eating really well and sticking to your diet. Are you having a problem plateauing in your workouts? Just can’t seem to get that 5 pound personal record on one of your Olympic lifts? The answer may be that you are simply not getting enough sleep.
What are some of the negative effects of not getting enough sleep when it comes to athletic performance?
– time to physical exhaustion decreases by 10-30%
– aerobic output is reduced
– decrease in limb extension force and vertical jump height
– decrease in peak and sustained muscle strength
– the cardiovascular, metabolic, and respiratory capabilities are impaired
– faster rates of lactic acid build up
– reduction in blood oxygen saturation
– increase in blood carbon dioxide (due partially to reduction in amount of air that lungs can expire)
– decrease in ability of body to cool itself during exertion (aka sweating)
– increased risk of injury
– increase in common inflamation
– inhibits muscle repair
– halts the restocking of cellular energy (glucose and glycogen)
– decreases natural human growth hormone produced by your body
This list is not inclusive of all the negative side effects that are the result of a lack of sleep, just those related to athletic performance and recovery. Imagine how lack of sleep negatively affects other areas of your body and mind!
If you are truly looking to enhance your life in all areas, the answer is you need to be getting 7-8+ hours of sleep a night. There is a reason mother nature spent millions of years perfecting sleep in living organisms. We have turned our back on our biologically mandated need for adequate sleep, which comes with steep consequences to our lives.
This epidemic of sleep loss has created a dire impact on our health, safety, life expectancy, productivity, athletic performance, and mental capacity. Lack of sleep has become one of the biggest public health challenges of the 21st century, especially in industrialized nations.
As one of the oldest, most powerful and potent performance enhancers, we encourage you to make time for a regular sleep schedule, get a full nights rest, and sleep comfortably knowing you are taking your health and athletic performance into your own hands. Sleep tight and sleep right my friends!
If you are interested in learning more about sleep and how it affects humans, the book “Why We Sleep” by Matthew Walker, PhD is a great resource. Much of the information found in this blog post was borrowed from “Why We Sleep”. You can find the book HERE.
