#27 - Sleep Is for the Strong: How to Improve Your Sleep Habits

There's a saying that goes "I'll sleep when I'm dead." Well if you don't sleep, you might be dead sooner than you like! We all know intuitively that sleep is very important, and this intuition has been reinforced by the volumes of data coming out of the science community emphasizing the importance of good quantity and quality of sleep. Yet so many of us struggle to sleep well, especially as we age. Coach D offers some tips for improving your sleep habits.

 

Here's a few interesting statistics according to the NIH:

• At least 40 million Americans have a chronic sleep disorder
• 20 million more have trouble sleeping

Additionally, people with chronic sleep disorders have a:

• 15% decrease in testosterone
• 20% increase in driving accidents
• 30% increased risk of obesity
• 45% increased risk of heart attacks
• 2.5x increased risk of diabetes and metabolic syndrome

The exact numbers vary by study, but in general humans should get:

• Adults: 7-9hrs sleep/day
• Teens: 9-11hrs
• Children: 11-15hrs
• Darin's French Bulldog Dozer: 20+ hrs

 

Sleep is a critical process of human physiology. A number of important processes happen during sleep. Firstly, our blood pressure and body temperature drops significantly during the dormant phase of sleep. Growth hormones release and reach their maximum levels, promoting muscle repair, muscle protein synthesis, and other cellular repair. Our memories consolidate and brain's nerve cells rewire. The immune system ramps up to deal with the foreign bacteria encountered during the day. Simply put, without sleep, we could not recover and deal with stresses encountered during life, and we would die. It goes without saying that if you aren't adequately sleeping, you're missing one of the biggest components in a training program.

 

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