The pillars of health won't stand without their foundation A good nights sleep!!

The Health and fitness industry has talked for years in sound bites about how "you can't out train a bad diet" or "just move more and then you'll burn more and then you'll weigh less" 

Very few trainers will say?? WHY are you eating more? WHY are you moving less?? WHY are you so damn tired every time I see you?? Why should they ask that..... right? 

They are just there to bark motivational mantra’s demanding good form, protein is king, cardio is for girls and all other kinds of platitudes that serve to accomplish a few things and I for one have serious doubts for their deep value over time. Monday, I met someone that had trained for a full 12 months and lost no weight, not a single loss stuck, just a full year of floating around the same number. This individual was 130Kg’s frustration.

There is no doubt that nutrition and exercise are pillars of health but they are not alone & what platform do those pillars stand on??

I would argue it is - Sleep

If the foundation that is sleep is corroded those pillars will tilt wobble and eventually fall over the physiology of a loss of just a couple of hours is staggering. Killer cells switch off suppressing the immune system, cognitive function declines, inflammation management declines, your DNA literally alters and not for the better.

Let's take an example of how a pillar can suffer, in this case fitness. Fitness training relies on peak cognitive function, immune and inflammatory response to be optimised. In the absence of this training is less effective in the act and the recovery less efficient after the act. Over the years these diminished returns could really add up. The brain requires sleep for learning and performance and resistance training is essentially the taxing and stressing of the Central Nervous System which is governed by the brain. So, if the brain is tired going in, it makes sense that your workout suffers in terms of intensity and output or performance. It can even lead to a degradation in synergists and stabilizing muscle contraction resulting in heightened injury risk due to a lack of essential stability. When you combine poor training with poor recovery it doesn't take a genius to workout the results will be well.....poor.

Then consider the behavioural changes, the chances of you hitting the gym the next day after an interrupted sleep go down significantly and although this is often observed with judgement, as just another excuse not to train, when you actually consider the above it indicates that it may often be a damn good call to take that rest and focus on good food at the right time and follow that up with a really good sleep.

Another major consideration for body composition goals is dietary adherence and it has been shown in studies that there is definitive correlation between adherence to ANY protocol, success and sleep.

https://www.bda.uk.com/resource/the-influence-of-sleep-duration-on-the-effectiveness-of-weight-management-intervention.html

I.e. if you sleep right you more likely to eat right (whatever that 'right' is for you at the time)

“From a metabolic-perspective, the sleep-restricted participants had lost their hunger control. By limiting these individuals to what some in our society would think of as ‘sufficient’ amount of sleep (five hours of sleep a night), Van Cauter had caused a profound imbalance in the scales of hormonal food desire. By muting the chemical message that says, ‘stop eating’ (leptin), yet increasing the hormonal voice that shouts ‘please, keep eating’ (ghrelin), your appetite remains unsatisfied when your sleep is anything less than plentiful, even after a kingly meal.” Matt Walker 

Sleep is your super power

Physiological cues for this altered behaviour manifest for several reasons. Two well studied hormones that influence such behaviours are the hormones Ghrelin and Leptin. Two key hormones in your endocrine system that regulate hunger and fullness respectively. Ghrelin is released prior to a meal and is designed to prime the body for calorie absorption but in the absence of quality substantial sleep its function becomes irregular and it is released in larger amounts that ultimately increase our appetite. Conversely leptin the feel full hormone is subsequently failing to be produced in the usual levels our body is used to and as result we don’t even feel as full when we attempt to satisfy that deep hunger. So many hormones are adversely affected by sleep and when you consider hormones govern the daily activities of each cell in our body you realise this is not to be taken lightly.

So we’ve had some awesome long words and some light Biology chat but what practical tools can I give you to help ward off the sleep demons.

1. Light exposure - screen time blue light and the emergence of electricity some 200 years ago are now getting their recognition as huge influencers on the state of human health. Invest in some blue light filter glasses and set your iPhone on to natural light mode. Also ensure you wind down from false light source exposure as much as possible as early as possible. Get a daylight peak at 12pm and at 9pm chill in low light and get off your phone.

2. Eating pattern - Whaaaaaaat??!! Yes it's true eating affects your sleep? How many people do you know eat a big meal at night and then the say that curry kept me up last night or damn I was hot last night after that meal and my sleep was really average. I had the meat sweats you may have even done it yourself. Well some cutting-edge science has shown a link between early eating and weight loss and has then go on to show a correlation between circadian rhythm interruption and major health implications. (The info on this is vast and complex I have included a webinar at my education page at www.risefitness.co.nz ) to explain the complexities further click here to investigate. But eating early enough in the day and finishing early enough can have a profound effect on restfulness.

3. Regularity - this one is simple, use regularity of schedule to prepare your body for all aspects of your life and day a body that sleeps at the same time and eats at the same times sleeps at the same time and eats at the same time. It's chicken and egg but commit to a schedule that’s appropriate to you as an individual and then stick to it 80% its not about perfection here its about awareness and improving where you can.

4. Room temperature - make sure your room is cool as the body requires a drop-in core temp of around 3 degrees Fahrenheit to get into REM sleep (factors like food consumption have a strong indirect link here think about thermogenic food effect) REM is the only state of sleep we can stack so importance to health cannot be underestimated. Bear in mind sedatives do not allow REM to take place another key fact to self-optimisation. So cool but not cold, the adverse affects on muscle tissue of cold air in your sleeping quarters is also to be avoided. This is one thing no one talks about with the legalisation of Marijuana I see this having a long term social impact as Mary Jane is a soporific preventing adequate overnight brain activity performed in sleep. The effects of this can be dire.

I hopes that acts as a starter guide for you on sleep hygiene. 

There is one overarching theme that occurs in health that sometimes people underestimate the need to observe the natural rhythm of the human body, the need to establish one and use it as a tool to create habits or reflexes that allow us to stay productive or on point. The rhythm is individual, and it is possible to find out through simple testing what’s unique about your rhythm. This is controlled by genetics and recent scientific pioneering has discovered the Clock and Bmal genes. These genes provide the blueprint for our internal clocks and how they are ordered. They tell us what optimal means for us. The body has several clocks at play and if we ignore factors like the ones listed above, we ignore some powerful players in our wellness and even superhuman potentialities like flow. To find out more about these clocks go to the education page at www.risefitness.co.nz to find more in-depth discussion of how unique genes determine our optimal sleeping, eating and activity patterns or what we refer to as Chronobiology.

Chris is the Business Support Officer for SHAE and an educator of health professionals throughout Australasia while simultaneously coaching at New Zealand’s number one independent gym (2 times winner and 2020 finalist as of November 2020.). His mission is to unlock as much human potential as possible using cutting edge technology and ancient wisdom in synchroneity. Please reach out to him in the comments his team truly has a message to spread and believes human progress relies on the optimal balancing of every unique individual. He will be back till then be the change you want to see but more importantly be yourself……