You already know how important rest and recovery are to maximising your body's muscles. You can bust a gut in the gym, eat right, and get your sports supplementation on point, but none of it matters without the ultimate recovery: good sleep.
Think about it this way: sleep is the single biggest stretch of recovery time your body gets. So you absolutely must make the most of your sleep time. Whilst you're slumbering, your body, muscles, digestion and energy systems get a break. They rest, recover, repair and rebuild. And, for muscle mass, this means growth. It's a mistake to think that sleep is a passive state. Your body is going through a series of important actions.
REM vs NREM sleep for muscle gain
Non-REM sleep (non-rapid eye movement) will make up the largest percentage of your sleep cycles. REM sleep (rapid eye movement) is the deepest stage, and the one during which your brain and body recover best. You are most likely to dream during REM sleep.
It's during non-REM sleep that muscle repair and regeneration happens. So it's crucial that bodybuilders and athletes get enough quality sleep to pass through the REM cycles to reach the holy grail of non-REM sleep. Too little sleep, or bad quality interrupted and inconsistent sleep will result in muscles which just don't get a chance to rebuild.
Understanding sleep cycles
1: You transition from wakefulness to sleep during stage 1 non-REM sleep. You can be woken up very easily at this stage.
2: Non-REM sleep stage 2 is the baseline of your entire night's sleep. Your heart rate slows and your muscles begin to relax.
3 and 4: Delta-sleep, a deep stage of sleep which is very restful and restorative. If you're woken up during these stages, you're likely to feel woozy.
REM sleep: Finally you enter REM sleep, the most useful stage of sleep during which brain activity is fastest. The neurotransmitter acetylcholine is partly responsible for the body being almost paralysed during this stage, with the body's motor neurons immobilised.
Natural growth hormone and sleep
If the idea of sleeping more isn't appealing enough, here's something to tempt you: more human growth hormone (HGH). Every time you enter into REM sleep, your body pushes out HGH, which is used to build muscle, reproduce cells, and encourage fat lipolosys (loss of body fat). In fact, up to 70% of daily HGH is secreted during our deepest sleep cycles. So, if your goal is muscle gain, muscle size, fat loss or getting a bigger, harder, leaner physique, it's simple. Sleep more, and sleep better.
7 top tips for more REM sleep
1 Prioritise sleep as much as diet, training and supplements
2 Wind down slowly before bed, switching off TV and electronics
3 Sleep in a dark, cool room with no digital devices or distracting lights
4 Make a habit of sleep, going to bed at the same time every night
5 Avoid caffeine and other stimulants for at least 6 hours prior to going to bed
6 Stop taking your phone, tablet or laptop to bed. Leave them outside the bedroom
7 Get 8-10 hours of uninterrupted sleep every night
You need to start taking sleep seriously if you want to pack on muscle mass and reach your physique goals.
Start your new sleep regime tonight and see how it transforms the results of your training and diet!
