Introduction
A great night of sleep is part of the foundation for good health. You should be able to go to bed, fall asleep rapidly, stay asleep all night without waking up and arise in the morning refreshed and energized.
Great sleep is also important for fitness as it is essential for proper recovery from exercise. You break down muscle while you are training, and you build it back up during sleep. The same goes for everything in your body and especially your brain.
Sleep Deprivation: A Silent Health Crisis
Poor sleep is more than just annoying, it is a public health problem. Sleep insufficiency has similar effects as excessive alcohol consumption or cannabis consumption, that’s why it’s linked to motor-vehicle crashes, industrial disasters, medical and occupational mistakes, and other forms of human error.
Also, those experiencing sleep insufficiency are also more likely to suffer from chronic diseases such as cardiovascular disease, hypertension, diabetes, depression, obesity, and cancer, as well as increased mortality and reduced quality of life.
Clearly, we don’t thrive as well without enough sleep, which would be between 7 and 9 hours for most people. Unfortunately, studies show that about 30 percent of adults report an average of six or less hours of sleep per night. That’s why, for me, sleep is one of the most neglected aspects of our lifestyle!
So why is sleep so important? Two main reasons:
The first one is that the most important function of sleep is the re-organization of neural networks in your brain.
During the day you are continuously learning new things, memorizing facts, acquiring skills, and setting new memories. After a long day of these activities, your brain is full of all these disorganized pieces of information that need to be reorganized and integrated. If this re-organization isn't allowed to occur, then your mind simply becomes a chaotic storehouse for cellular garbage. Once this happens, it will affect nearly all functions of your body that are governed by your central nervous system, and your body will begin to malfunction. The only fix for that is getting enough sleep, there are no shortcuts!
The second reason is because sleep is the primarily anabolic state of the human body.
During nighttime sleep, you experience an increase in growth hormone and testosterone which are the repairing hormones of your body. They are the reason why you feel so dang good and full of energy after a solid night of sleep. Sleep is also the time when your brain cleans itself and gets rid of the garbage, when restoration of your adrenal glands happens, when your liver detoxifies your body, and when the rebuilding of your immune system happens. So, when you don't sleep enough, your body is in a continuous, hormonally depleted catabolic state that gets sicker and sicker.
The ideal sleep duration
As to how much sleep you need, studies show that for most adults, sleeping fewer than 7 hours per night is associated with decreased alertness and increased risk for chronic disease, while sleeping more than 9 hours per night is also associated with a shorter life and higher risk of chronic disease.
So, 7 to 9 hours it is my friends! You need to prioritize your sleep more than our overachieving, productivity-obsessed pop culture would have you to believe.
Fun fact: for every 30min decrease of sleep under 8h, mortality increases by 16%!
Here are a few references and recommendations for further reading:
- Why we sleep, Dr Matthew Walker
- The power of when, Michaël Breus PhD
- Sleep smarter, Shawn Stevenson