Sleep Healthy: An occasional series on urban lifestyle choices and sleep
It’s no secret that January is unofficially “Gym Month.” This is the time that regular gym members might feel a smidge of contempt when they walk into their Place of Workout to find their favorite treadmill occupied, and every other inch of the building besides.
Ahh, the annual return of the Resolutionaries. Perhaps they’ll stick it out; perhaps they’ll have disappeared by February, when things start to shift back to normal. Either way, they’re clogging up the ellipticals. I suppose we can forgive them since they do provide some entertainment.
Whether you’re an established fitness guru or a Resolutionary (more power to ya), we can all agree that exercise is beneficial.
And either way, sleep is an integral part of your fitness routine.
Recent research indicates that good sleep improves speed, accuracy and reaction times. Even one extra hour of sleep each night can improve athletic performance—even if athletes sometimes skip practice to sleep. (Key word is “sometimes”—we’re not trying to discourage your workout regimen.) Researchers found that sleep seems to impact muscle memory like it does cognitive memory so “you can be a better athlete overnight.”
A study at Stanford University found that basketball players had faster sprint times and better shooting accuracy when they slept 10 hours instead of their usual 6-9 hours.
It’s not just a physical but also a psychological connection. Dutch researchers in 2013 found that lack of sleep can make you feel less fit than you actually are, so that you feel like a loser even if you’ve performed well.
So that’s the impact of sleep on fitness. What about the impact of fitness on sleep?
For one thing, strenuous training means you need more sleep, according to this article in Runner’s World. Indeed, even the Department of Defense makes a point to debunk the notion that exercise helps rid us of that tired dragging that comes from not sleeping enough. We can’t train ourselves, ever, to need less sleep.
For another thing, exercise apparently helps us sleep better. A 2011 study in the International SportMed Journal found that high-intensity strength and endurance workouts improved nighttime sleep quality.
A 2013 study published in the journal Gerontology found that young adults who expend more energy during the day tend to be more efficient sleepers, but that being fit, in and of itself, doesn’t necessarily mean you sleep better.
The study also found that the relationship between energy expenditure and sleep efficiency shrank in older adults—begging the conclusion that we should all get our kicks in—and our Zzzzs—while we still can.
Happy 2014 Urbanites!