sleep, Sleep, SLEEP! We all need it. We all know we need it. So why do we get it?

Work, family, kids, homework, friends, social life, T.V, internet, etc…All the stresses of LIFE!

For most of us CrossFitters we have or are putting our Health way up high on our priority list.

Now within the health list of priorities SLEEP is at the TOP! Yep, the TOP!

“Sleep deprivation mimics many elements of the aging process. One could make the argument that how you feel when you are sleep deprived is likely how you will feel if you are both diabetic and old (sleep deprivation dramatically impacts insulin sensitivity). Improved sleep time and quality will help you: Lean out, avoid depression, autoimmunity, heart disease…it might even help you be a better athlete. This is a very interesting article for me in that coaches simply tried a schedule more conducive to better sleep and they saw immediate performance improvements in their players. They also dumped the AM shootaround session and saw improvements. More down time, less junk “mileage”.” Taken from Robb Wolf site.

Sleep is an integral part of living a healthy life and I am going to recommit myself to this task! I’ve read a bunch of sleep advice and the common threads are as follows:

1.Make a regular sleep schedule, including weekends.
2.Use your bed for sleep and sex only, use your laptop, watch tv and do your homework someplace else.
3.Avoid eating large meals, caffeine and alcohol at least 3 hours before bedtime. Alcohol may make you sleepy at first but it fragments your sleeping stages and a small snack is ok if you have an empty stomach.
4.Create a bedtime ritual, reading a book or taking a hot bath are both good recommendations. The bath will raise your body temperature and as you cool down your body will fall into a sleep state more naturally.
5.Make sure your sleep environment is dark, quiet and cool. Make sure you have good blankets though!
6.Exercise regularly. This is best performed during the daytime or no more than 3 hours before bedtime.
7.Go to sleep when you’re tired. Sounds obvious, but if you are in bed with the lights out for more than 15-20 minutes, get up and do something else until you get tired.

This List is taken from:
http://paradisocrossfit.com/index.php?mact=News,cntnt01,detail,0&cntnt01articleid=250&cntnt01returnid=15

So hit the sack! And take the same responsible approach you do about your job/career and get some zzz’s

This entry was posted on March 16, 2010 at 7:51 pm and is filed under Nutrition. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.