It’s somewhat ironic that I’m writing this minutes before I go to bed (9:00 almost every night), but I think that it is important to stress the importance of sleep. It helps our bodies to recharge, build muslce, and improve. There are so many people that I talk to who don’t get even 6 hours of sleep a night. Did you know that the average adult needs 7-9 hours of sleep? So…how do you figure out HOW MUCH sleep YOU need?
It’s actually pretty simple: you just experiment. I have found that on nights when I got to sleep (or bed, however you want to look at it) at 9pm and wake up at 5am, I feel best. That’s 8 hours. So I’m pretty average. There are people who actually need less, and some that need more. If I get less, I’m groggy, cranky and my muscles physically ache. If I get too much sleep, I want to crawl back in bed and sleep another 8 hours. It took me almost a month to figure this out. One week I stayed up until 10pm every night, another week, I slept in until 7am (going to bed at 9pm)…and all the variables inbetween. So, I want to wish everyone goodnight, sweet dreams and recouperative sleep tonight.
One last thought: not getting enough sleep can lead to poor dietary choices because you’re too tired to care, and injuries when you workout because you’re not paying attention, or your muscles are too stressed. So get enough sleep tonight, please.
