So many different aspects of our health are interconnected, and really none more so than sleep. Getting a good night’s sleep is the foundation for supporting your holistic health. If you’re on a health or weight loss journey, you might be wondering why exactly it’s so important, or if there’s anything you can do to support your sleep.

Let’s dive in.

5 Ways Sleep Supports Optimal Fitness

As previously mentioned, sleep is connected to basically every other aspect of your health. Here are five specific ways that a healthy sleep schedule can help support other areas of fitness.

1. Improved Workouts

The better you’re sleeping, and the more rested you are, the better your mind and body will function – which means your gym sessions will be that much more effective. Not only will you feel like you have more strength to really push yourself in your workout, but getting a good night’s sleep will likely help you feel more energized and motivated to get to the gym in the first place and complete your exercise program.

Not getting enough sleep can certainly make exercise feel harder. On less sleep, you’ll feel yourself fatiguing faster, which will make it tougher to work out at your maximum capacity.

2. Muscle Growth & Recovery

If a core piece of your health and fitness journey is building muscle, then sleep is more important than ever. In order for muscles to grow, new proteins must be added to the muscle structure. This process is stimulated by exercise and protein intake (eat your protein!), but getting insufficient sleep can negatively impact this process.

When working out for muscle growth, you create tiny little tears in your muscles that must be repaired. Getting enough sleep allows for that recovery time to rebuild and strengthen your muscles.

3. More Regulated Appetite

If you’re not sleeping enough, it could be contributing to an increased appetite and feeling like you’re always hungry. When we don’t get enough sleep, it impacts how our body releases two hormones, ghrelin and leptin. Ghrelin tells your body when it’s time to eat, and leptin tells your body when it’s full. 

Shorter sleep durations are linked to higher levels of ghrelin and lower levels of leptin, meaning we’re more likely to feel hungry more often and be more drawn to immediately satisfying or high-calorie foods.

If you’re not getting enough sleep, you may find yourself snacking more and reaching for food choices that are going to give you energy, fast. 

When we do get enough sleep, our appetite tends to be more regulated and we’re able to make considerate choices about our diet and nutrition, rather than operating on pure instinct to find something to eat as soon as possible.

4. Hormone & Weight Regulation

Sleep plays a vital role in regulating hormone levels in the body, which, in turn, can affect how your body stores and regulates additional fat. Most importantly, sleep helps our bodies regulate cortisol, which is also known as the stress hormone. When cortisol levels are off, it can subsequently impact our metabolisms and our immune systems.

Additionally, higher levels of cortisol can signal to your body that this is a time of stress. When under stress, your body is likely to store more fat in case you need it to get through a period of low resource availability. Think of it in terms of how our bodies have evolved: centuries ago, our main stressors were lack of food and escaping predators. Those were times when our bodies would have benefited from having some extra fat stored. Today, our stressors look very different, but our bodies react the same.

Chronic sleep deprivation can disrupt the body’s overall hormone balance, which can have a range of negative effects, whereas regularly getting enough sleep can promote balanced hormones, help improve mood, and increase overall resilience to daily stressors.

5. Regulated Metabolism

Digging a little deeper into sleep and hormone regulation, consistently getting enough sleep can help keep your metabolism on track and working the way it’s supposed to: converting what you eat and drink into the energy you need to go about your day.

Not sleeping enough can lead to metabolic dysregulation because it can disrupt your circadian rhythms, your body’s internal clock.

Prioritize Sleep More Often

If you’re just starting out on a health and fitness journey, you might be trying to best understand how to take care of all of the different pieces that make up your holistic health: your nutrition, your workouts, your sleep, your mental health, etc. If you’re shuffling some of your routines to ensure you can make it to the gym around all of your other responsibilities and obligations, just remember this: don’t sacrifice your sleep.

If you’re clocking the recommended amount of sleep (somewhere in the 7-9 hours range), then absolutely get up early and hit the gym. But if your sleep is consistently coming in under 6 hours, it’s time to find another time to crush your workout. Or, get to bed earlier so you can fit in a morning workout after you’ve gotten your 7+ hours.

It’s important to figure out a way to fit in your regular workouts without sacrificing your sleep. Otherwise, you run the risk of pushing yourself too hard. You need both sleep and regular exercise to operate at full capacity.

How to Improve Your Sleep

We’ve clearly covered all the reasons that sleep is so important, so what should you do if you feel like you’re not getting enough sleep? Or you’re not getting enough restful sleep? Here are some practical tips you can consider implementing to promote high-quality sleep:

• Build a consistent bedtime routine. Find activities that you can do around bedtime that help you relax and signal to your body that it’s time to wind down. This can look different for everyone but could include taking a hot bath or shower, reading a book, listening to relaxing music, or even meditating.
• Create the optimal sleeping environment. Some people have different preferences about their sleeping environments, but there are scientifically proven ways to create a good sleeping environment. Ensure it’s as dark as possible in your room (light exposure can negatively impact sleep quality), and try to keep the room cool but not cold, somewhere around 65 degrees.
• Keep your sleep schedule consistent. Your body operates by its own internal clock, so keeping your sleep schedule as consistent as possible can help your body also understand when it’s time to go to sleep and when it’s time to wake up. Try to go to bed and wake up at the same time every day to regulate that internal clock.
• Prioritize physical activity during the day. Generally, the more physical activity you get, the better you’ll sleep that night. Incorporating regular exercise into your daily routine can help you get that restful night’s sleep you’ve been after. In some cases, it may be a good idea to avoid high-intensity workouts too close to bedtime since they could have a stimulating effect, but this can vary from person to person.
• Limit screen time. Most of our electronics emit blue light, which can interfere with the body’s production of melatonin, the hormone that tells us that it’s time to go to sleep. Try to limit the use of these screens as your winding down for bed. If it’s completely impossible to avoid, see if your electronics have a feature to shift the tone of the screen to a warmer hue and decrease exposure to blue light.

Take Charge of Your Health: Work With a Coach

Your health and well-being are influenced by so many different factors – your activity levels, your mental health, your sleep, and your diet. And, of course, all of these things are interconnected. Maybe you feel like you need help or support in one area, or multiple areas, but it’s overwhelming to figure out where to start.

Working with an online fitness and nutrition coach could be the support that you need to build a schedule and routine that can help you account for all of these factors and support your health, holistically. If you want to learn more about working with an online coach, read the comprehensive guide. And if you think online coaching is for you, head to the inquiry form so that we can connect one-on-one.

Written by Emily Greffenius. Reviewed by Meghan Farrell, CPT, BSN