Sleep: The Secret Weapon
Daily Tip #4
Sleep, one of the most vital components to any training program, can be one of the most undervalued. Racing well and maintaining a steady commitment to running requires a clean bill of health, and allowing for adequate recovery time from workouts is one of the keys to preventing injuries. Consider sleep as a component that fuels your training. You wouldn’t habitually skip meals or forget to hydrate after a workout, so don’t presume you can cut corners when it comes to sleep. One of the best habits a runner can adopt for proper recovery is to strive for a consistent quantity of quality rest.
Balancing the rigors of daily life with a training program doesn’t leave enough time for the generally recommended eight hours of sleep. The advised amount of daily sleep for endurance athletes is even higher: 8-12 hours. Not only can a lack of proper rest affect your mental focus (and increase feelings of irritability, anxiety, and lack of concentration)—which is vital come race day—but it can also compromise your immune system. Recent findings show that those who average six hours of sleep or less each night have 50 percent less immunity protection than those who clock eight hours. Sleep deprivation has even been linked to weight gain. Recent research has shown that leptin, a hormone that regulates appetite, isn’t secreted in adequate quantities in an individual who averages less than six hours of sleep per day.
Human Growth Hormone (hGH), which repairs the soft tissues that are broken down during exercise, are released at the highest levels during undisturbed sleep, or what experts refer to as the deep-sleep state. This state typically occurs during the first third of our daily sleep cycles, which is why it is important to establish sleep habits that include going to bed around the same time each night and trying to rest with as few interruptions as possible.
Suffering from a case of nerves the night before the big race? Don’t worry—experts agree that it is the sleep you get two nights before a race that matters most. A study in The Journal of Sports Medicine and Physical Fitness found that runners’ VO² max (a measure of aerobic fitness) was not impacted negatively after one sleepless night.
