Sleep? Who Has Time for That? at He's Fit

Click here for the Lead Stories

Sleep? Who Has Time for That?

Posted May 16, 2008 at 12:00 PM by Donnell Peavy

Section: His Fitness, Strength Training, Injuries & Rehab, His Health, Physical Health

man sleeping I tend to stay on the move. I have four jobs. I have a social life. I have kids. Unfortunately, there are only 24 hours in a day. As you can imagine, I don’t sleep much. I probably average about three hours of sleep per night. I am used to this, however, as I have never been a big sleeper. I have always heard that you need eight hours of sleep per night, but found that odd, as I never get that much and I seem to be fine. No over training, no exhaustion, no falling asleep at work, I continually show gains in my weight training, etc.

Earlier this week, I found this article that mentioned something I hadn’t heard before - getting less than seven hours of sleep each night can cause an increase in ghrelin levels. For those of you who don’t know, ghrelin is the hormone responsible for the craving of sugary, salty and fatty foods – pretty much everything bad. Personally, I don’t have those cravings, but quite obviously many people do, or else most fast food chains would not be on their late night kicks.

One remedy that the article gives to combat lack of sleep is taking power naps – 30 minute sleeping sessions which are taken to revitalize you. The key to taking these naps, however, is that you must not sleep any longer than 30 minutes. Apparently, once you cross the 30 minute mark, you venture into deeper levels of sleep and disrupting said levels can make you feel even drowsier when you wake. Ever notice how when you sleep for an hour or so after having an otherwise sleepless night you feel like you got hit by a truck when you wake up? That is because you were roused prematurely during a time of deep sleep. A few years ago, my gym even had a group “class” called PowerNap, where you stretched, then napped.

The jury may still be out about exactly how much sleep we need, but the benefits of sleep are well documented. The body needs to be worked, but it also needs to be rested.

Research sources and for more information: [That’s Fit]