Build Muscle and Shred Fat with One Simple Task... Sleep
What’s poppin’ folks? First blog post, so we’re just going to pick a topic and go with it, but if you have any questions or topics you’d like us to address shoot us an email at aktivhealth@gmail.com. This post is going to address something that is often overlooked, but can increase testosterone, growth factors, and reduce fat gain. It’s something we all do, but to varying degrees of efficiency. SLEEP.
We live in a society where many people are sleep deprived as a result of their work schedules and overall poor habits. It’s easy to fall in to a cycle of staying up late and getting up early for work, then running to Starbucks to grab grande loco choco cocoa mocha with whip cream just to stay awake. Not only are you starting your day off poorly in terms of diet, but it has been shown that by limiting your sleep you increase cortisol and other catabolic molecule levels, while decreasing testosterone. To break this down, cortisol is a naturally occurring hormone that is secreted when we are stressed, but when it is produced in excess it has been shown to increase fat storage (1). No bueno. This occurs as the cortisol increases insulin, another hormone, which facilitates glucose entry into fat tissue while preventing the breakdown of adipose. Individuals who had impaired sleep were shown to have higher levels of cortisol present, which can result in major health complications. If you’re trying to get fat, impair brain function and reduce sleep quality then go wild and stay up all night chief.
As for testosterone, a study showed that poor sleep quality as a result of multiple awakenings had a negative impact on rhythmic secretion of testosterone in healthy men (2). The study found that individuals only exhibited a nocturnal rise in testosterone when they entered into a full REM cycle during the night. This means that if you aren’t getting enough sleep, or if the quality of your sleep is low you likely won’t be producing as much testosterone as you would otherwise. For anyone who doesn’t know, testosterone is one of your greatest friends when it comes to not only building lean muscle, but also remaining lean while doing such. For men, testosterone also plays a role in sex drive, sperm production, and blood flow. So if you’re getting 7-9 hours of sleep you might be able to get your little soldier to not only stand at attention, but deliver some serious payload, you feel me? The list of benefits from getting the recommended amount of sleep has been both well studied and well documented, so why not use this as an excuse to sleep more, guilt-free?
One of these aforementioned benefits is increased leptin and lower ghrelin levels. Leptin is a hormone that suppresses appetite while ghrelin stimulates a ‘hungry sensation’. A study done in Wisconsin (shout-out to the motherland) found a 15.5% decrease in leptin and a 14.9% decrease in ghrelin in subjects who slept for 5 hours when compared to individuals who slept for 8 hours. These changes in hormonal levels have been shown to result in increased body mass, most often as a result of fat gain (3). Sleep highkey slaps. Get your Z’s if you’re trying to get cut.
If these three reasons aren’t enough to convince you the importance of a good night's sleep, check out the Joe Rogan Experience podcast with Matthew Walker, Professor of Neuroscience and Psychology at Cal and Founder/Director of the Center for Human Sleep Science. Walker does an excellent job explaining how sleep impacts a multitude of biological processes, in a manner that any listener can digest. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pwaWilO_Pig) Joe Rogan is a great mediator too, even though he asks every guest if they’ve done DMT.
To finish this post up, we’re going to offer a couple tips to ensure you’re getting the sleep that your body needs to remain healthy and perform optimally.
Tips For Getting Great Sleep:
Go to bed and wake-up at the same time daily
Avoid taking naps and consume less caffeine later in the day
Exercise during the day, but not too close to the time you go to bed
Keep your bedroom dark and at a cool temperature
Don’t use alcohol to fall asleep
Sources:
1) Spencer SJ, Tilbrook A. The glucocorticoid contribution to obesity. Stress.
2011 May;14(3):233-46. doi: 10.3109/10253890.2010.534831. Epub 2011 Feb 6.
Review. PubMed PMID: 21294656.
2) Luboshitzky R, Zabari Z, Shen-Orr Z, Herer P, Lavie P. Disruption of the nocturnal testosterone rhythm by sleep fragmentation in normal men. J Clin Endocrinol Metab. 2001 Mar;86(3):1134-9. PubMed PMID: 11238497.
3) Taheri S, Lin L, Austin D, Young T, Mignot E. Short sleep duration is
associated with reduced leptin, elevated ghrelin, and increased body mass index.
PLoS Med. 2004 Dec;1(3):e62. Epub 2004 Dec 7. PubMed PMID: 15602591; PubMed
Central PMCID: PMC535701.
4)Dattilo, M., Antunes, H. K. M., Medeiros, A., Neto, M. M., Souza, H. S. D., Tufik, S., & De Mello, M. T. (2011). Sleep and muscle recovery: endocrinological and molecular basis for a new and promising hypothesis. Medical hypotheses, 77(2), 220-222.