Lack of Sleep: the problems.
Okay you know sleep is ‘important’ but how exactly does it affect you?
Sleeping less than you need over a few days has a huge ripple effect on a variety of different things that influence fat loss:
- Kills Your Willpower– We only have a certain amount of mental energy to fuel us through the day. It gets us to focus on the various tasks we encounter: from work stressors, to driving, to worrying about what’s for dinner, problems with your wife/ husband etc. We all know what it’s like when we’ve used up this daily mental energy and our brain feels fried. We end up slacking off and doing the ‘easiest option’ even if it’s not the best for us.
- Our training is less productive and effective– When sleep deprived we can’t train as hard or to the same quality so we burn less calories & stimulate the muscles less.
- Increased risk of injury– Many research papers document the increased risk of injury from lack of sleep. This means having to take more time off training; once again affecting fat loss.
- Increased appetite– Because of this lack of energy, from being under recovered and our body processes not producing energy optimally any more, we become hungrier than normal and start to have all these wild cravings that we feel we must satisfy.
So get your sleep kids! 🙂
How much should I sleep?
We sleep in approx 90 minutes cycles and should be aiming for 4-6 cycles; this translates into 6-9 hours per night. For most people is 7.5 hours (5 cycles) is great and you shouldn’t be getting less than 6 hours for more than 2 nights in a row.
Next blog I’ll give you some practical tips to actually help you get to sleep easier!
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