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3 Ways Sleep Makes You a Better Athlete

3 Ways Sleep Makes You a Better Athlete
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While sleep is constantly making headlines regarding our health, quality shut-eye can also help boost your lifestyle. Your daily work out or performance at a sport can be significantly improved with 7-9 hours of sleep every night, according to Tim Pinchin, a sleep expert at Octaspring. Here’s what we learned from his interview with The Huffington Post:

More sleep means….

You’ll heal faster: Exercising puts a lot of exertion and stress on your body. Proper sleep provides adequate time for muscles to recover so that that you can consistently perform at a high level. Not getting enough sleep will increase the level of cortisol, the stress hormone and therefore making you stressed and delaying the recovering of the body.

Your split second decisions will count: Since quality snooze also restores the brain, you’ll be protected from mental fatigue. In contact and coordination sports this benefit can give you much needed edge over the competition.

You’ll get an energy boost: Intense workouts combined with poor sleep overtime reduces your energy level, decreases your speed and stamina. However, the right amount of shut-eye helps your body store glycogen, which is converted in energy when you most need it, such as final seconds of a competition.

To help reach your maximum peak performance, consider going to bed an hour earlier than you usually would or embrace the joy of an afternoon nap into your schedule. While sleep experts recommend working out early in the day, exercise at any time can promote deeper sleep.

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