A Personal Trainers' Guide to Sleep - Are You Getting Enough?

Are you getting enough sleep?

If I was to tell you that sleep is the most powerful tool you have to improve your state of function and performance, would you believe me? But I’m a Personal Trainer, health is my bag. Not convinced? Let me explain with some basic science, read on my friends... 

We’ve all been there right, a bad night’s sleep! Maybe your kids kept you up, you watched one too many Netflix or you woke up at 3 am and just couldn’t settle. Now think about how your body and brain responded over the next day. Any of these ring a bell? A little irritable and emotional, an uncontrollable urge to eat quick, easy food and drink caffeine, no energy for your personal training session, oh and you probably want a snack again already!

How does sleep affect your fitness goals?

As a personal trainer I’ve found that no matter the client and their goal, there can generally be links made between the quality of their sleep and their ability to achieve that goal. 

Sleep deprivation doesn’t have to occur over a year or month to affect our body’s ability to deal with its day to day challenges. A lack of sleep over 1 night can still affect our body and brains capacity to manage its many processes. The following are just a few of the reasons to prioritise your sleep.

Research has shown that when sleep is disrupted certain regions within the brain respond by changing the way they deal with sensory information. This change lessens our sense of proprioception, coordination and motor skills. Your Personal Trainer is asking you to stop arching your back in a deadlift and you just can’t control your body. It also affects our memory, attention span and our ability to be emotionally aware. So now you know why you feel a little sloppy, you can’t find your keys and your back is arching.

Now let’s talk about food craving, meet hormones Ghrelin and lepton. Sleep deprivation can cause havoc with these guys too. Ghrelin is known as the ‘hunger hormone’ lack of sleep can cause an increase in its production, making us hungrier. Lepton is secreted by fat cells, it regulates appetite and tells our body to be more active, lack of sleep causes a decrease in leptin production. So, if your goal is fat loss and/or gaining muscle mass you better believe 8 plus hours a night is paramount to achieving your target. Not just seeing your Personal Trainer twice a week.

 If that doesn’t sound worrying enough, let’s talk glucose. A lack of sleep (4 hours a night for 3 nights) can create a 40% reduction in the body’s ability to deal with glucose, in perspective, this is the equivalent of the sugar intolerance levels of a type 2 diabetic. Any type 2 diabetic will tell you, this is not a fun place to be, extreme tiredness, blurred vision, loss of muscle mass to name but a few of the symptoms.

When we sleep one of the body’s jobs is to get rid of inflammatory chemicals as waste. A lack of sleep increases inflammation in the body, as these chemicals remain in the bloodstream. If poor and inconsistent sleep continues, these chemicals build up, creating more inflammation. This continuous state of inflammation disrupts our ability to perform and recover, as it inhibits the ability of other chemicals to regenerate muscle tissue, DNA, brain cell and mitochondria.

If your goal is fat loss and/or gaining muscle mass you better believe 8 plus hours a night is paramount to achieving your target.

Don't ignore what your body is trying to tell you

 If you’re wondering why your hearts beating a little faster and you’re a little sweaty, you can thank your sympathetic system. This is the body’s fight or flight signalling system, lack of sleep will induce an increase in this system, so expect a rise in heart rate, blood pressure, cholesterol and metabolic issues. You can also expect to see a decrease in strength, endurance, power and aerobic capacity. 

Make no bones about it, all these issues are intrinsically and inherently linked to one another. Let’s take that increase in appetite and hunger alongside a decreased desire to be active, couple that with the brains impaired decision making, now we have far less ability to inhibit those pleasure-seeking behaviours.  At the same time, we have more insulin resistance and decreases in glucose intolerance, now if we slip up, any food we take in will fuel more fat gain. Lack of good bacteria in the gut will then cause further inflammation, which in turn will cause bigger disruption in sleep and so the cycle continues. 

Now do you believe me?

I’ll say again that sleep is the most powerful tool that you have to improve your state of function and performance. That may be at work, in the gym or in your relationships. So next time you think about a ridiculous diet, a new crazy fitness regime or some strange new fad, ask yourself this; am I sleeping enough?

About The Project PT

The Project PT uses fitness to empower people. Through our Oxford Personal Training Studio, we use 4 pathways to achieve our mission. Our first pathway started in August 2019 creating accessible and fun fitness events in unusual settings, making fitness enjoyable for all. Our second pathway offers free fitness classes for young children, helping them to build a positive relationship with exercise and sport. The 3rd pathway comes in the form of our Movement Studio, a nature-inspired space teaching people how to move their body's in a welcoming and non-judgmental environment. Our 4th pathway is still in the development stages, Youth Lift will engage with young people on the periphery of being excluded from school. Using the medium of lifting weights to empower them to make other positive changes in their lives.