Essential component of wellbeing :Sleep

“SLEEP IS THE GOLDEN CHAIN THAT TIES HEALTH AND OUR BODIES TOGETHER.”

-THOMAS DEKKER

Despite the fact that today’s culture seems to glorify lack of sleep, as if sleeping less were synonymous with the hard-working, disciplined individual, the reality is that just because you prioritize sleep doesn’t mean you’re lazy. In fact, sleep is extremely important.

It affects the functioning of almost every type of tissue and system in the body (the brain, heart, lungs, and others), and as such, nearly every physiological parameter, including metabolism and immune function.

An incredibly fascinating study demonstrating the connection between sleep and body re-composition was published in 2018 by Wang and colleagues (128). The results are simply mind blowing. subjects sleeping normally lost most of their weight as fat, while subjects sleeping poorly lost most of their weight as lean mass (including muscle). And all of this was from just one hour of sleep less per night, five days per week!

It’s worth mentioning that the participants in this study were not weight training. They were merely placed in a calorie deficit. Undoubtedly, lifting weights would have shifted the results to some degree, but could not possibly offset the massive difference between the groups. Another study compared subjects getting either 8.5 or 5.5 hours of sleep per night while in a caloric deficit. Once again the results were incredible. Even though both groups lost about 6.5 pounds of body weight on average, the sleep-restricted group only lost about 1.3 pounds of fat. This means that fully 80 percent of their weight loss came from fat-free mass

Partial sleep deprivation (PSD) also caused an increase in perception of effort with a given weight. This rings true to anyone who has tried lifting on low sleep: even if you can move the weight, it just feels heavier.

HOW MUCH SLEEP DO WE NEED

The National Sleep Foundation recommends seven to nine hours of sleep per night for young adults and adults seeking general health and well-being.

I am personally aiming for eight to nine hours per night in bed and recently read that Lebron James aims for 10-11 hours of sleep per night. Since this may not be a realistic standard for many readers, it is worth considering what to do if you fall short on sleep.

Let’s say you sleep poorly for a few nights during the week because of work or school. Researchers sometimes refer to this lack of optimal sleep as a “sleep debt.”

For people who simply cannot reach the ideal target of eight to nine hours per night, we offer a few consolations:

• Realize that any improvement in your nightly sleep duration is an improvement. Six hours is still better than five hours, and seven hours is still better than six. You don’t have to reach optimality to still get results,

• Naps are your friend. Research shows that napping has many benefits, especially for those who work night shifts or have sleep disorders .

• Make an effort to sleep extra on the weekends or whenever you can.

Stress

If you’re like us, you have probably noticed how stress negatively affects what would otherwise be routine endeavours. Exam time, tax audits, a death of a loved one, a major illness, a job loss or being the subject of a nasty rumor can all reign down on our well-being, including our muscle to fat ratios.

One 2008 study found that when subjects underwent a 12 week strength training program ,the subjects with higher levels of stress (as determined by a questionnaire that evaluates positive and negative life events experienced by each participant), gained significantly less strength in bench and squat. They also gained less size on their arms and thighs (the trend did not reach statistical significance, however).

SUGGESTIONS AND TIPS

In dealing with the stressors in my life, I often resort to two main forms of relief: Meditation and an activity that evokes a state of “flow” - being in the zone.

Meditation relaxes my fragmented mind, reduces stress, helps with my concentration, brings be back to the present and centers my state of thinking and being.

If you are a beginner or simply curious about meditating, I suggest giving one of the various popular mindfulness meditation apps available a try. I would further recommend that you begin with short, 10 -15 minute guided meditations to help keep you on track.

Then, there is my second go-to means of reducing stress.

The idea here is to find some activity that puts you in a state of “flow”. For me this is playing football . When I am playing football, I forget about everything else that is going on in the back of my mind and focus completely on my game. This is not an intentional process, it simply happens .