– We all need 7-9 hours of sleep every night, you can recover something by taking naps but that is not same than sleeping at night.
– Your physical performance is getting 20-30% better if you sleep 7-9 hours night after practice. Sleeping is the best legal drug you can take if you want to improve your performance.
– If you sleep less than 7-9 hours in night, your injury risk is 60% higher than you would get at least 7 hours of sleep. So if you are interested to perform better, I highly suggest that you sleep enough! Not only to optimize your development but also to avoid injuries that you can practice healthy.
– 1 of 25000 people can survive with 5 hours of sleep, so if you are one or maybe you know of those people who are saying that they don’t need more than 5 hours of sleep you might be wrong.. You might think that if you sleep only 5 hours you have more time to work or do some other things. Actually it is opposite, people who sleep less, are also living shorter life. Researchers have found that people who sleep more are more creative than those who sleep less, so actually you can perform more in shorter time when you are well rested.
– Fat loss and eating habits, It is also proven that people who are sleeping 5-6 hours are eating 200-300 kcal more per day. If that would be 200 Kcal every day for one year, that makes more than 70000 Kcal in year! That is around 10Kg of body fat! Not only eating more, people who sleep less are also eating unhealthier and more carbs and sugars. When we are tired, we make worse choices also with our food.
– Researchers have also found that risk of getting disease like Alzheimer, cancer or diabetes are a lot higher for those people who are sleeping less than 7 hours in night.
– Risk of heart attacks raises. That is proven with simple example. People are getting over 20% more heart attacks in summer time when we have more daylight and we sleep on average 1 hour less than in winter.
– 50% of people are sleeping too less. Average sleep time is now 6.5 hours when it was still in year 1942 7.9 hours. If you sleep less than 6 hours you will get most likely some side affects.
TIPS How to sleep better?
– Cooler air is better than hot air, so make sure that you try to sleep in cool air.
– Warm bath just before going to bed can help you to sleep better.
– Having good and comfortable bed and pillow is key for good sleep.
– If you are reading book with light versus iBook, there is 3 hours difference of Melatonin what your body is producing. So close your electrical devices before going to bed and not take them with you.
– High sugars and low in fiber is bad for sleep
I thought I knew something about how important sleeping is but actually I did not know much. If you are interested to learn more, I can highly recommend this podcast from Dr. Matt Walker ( it is long, 2 hours but worth of it to listen!) https://youtu.be/pwaWilO_Pig
If you have any questions about this article or any fitness related questions, I am more than happy to chat. Send me mail : turo.virta@hotmail.com or write me in Whatsapp +393406817039
Have a good sleep!
Talk to you soon,
Turo
