How Sleep Can Make You A Better Runner - Sleep is part of training

 How Sleep Can Make You A Better Runner

1. Sleep releases growth hormones
2. Sleep allows your heart to rest
3. Sleep can strengthen the immune system
4. Repair Tissue and Build Muscle
5. Sleep may improve endurance

Research from Stanford published in SLEEP reported that increased sleeping time can improve athletic performance.

Everybody knows how important sleep is even though our culture of hyper-busy people discourages it. You probably know someone who brags how he only needs five hours of sleep a night and another who insists on eight hours — and it’s true, sleep needs vary.

At the same time, over sleeping also causes health risks. Sleep needs depend mostly on age.Over sleeping by an adult over nine hours out of 24hours, also leads to many health conditions.

As an athlete, getting enough sleep is as important as your food and exercise choices. Cheating on sleep makes it hard to concentrate at work, may impair your appetite and cause irritability. A sleep debt can negatively affect your running.You might be able to get by with one or two lousy nights of sleep,
but your best performance is when you’ve had a good night’s sleep.

Besides making you feel better, sleep is when your body repairs and regenerates damaged tissue from the day’s workout and builds bone and muscle to be ready for the next workout. Distance runners especially need that sleep/repair time to make sure that muscles recover from training.

Science says, During the deeper stages of sleep, human growth hormone, (HGH) is released during slow wave sleep. HGH is a natural hormone produced by the pituitary gland and released into the bloodstream. HGH rebuilds damaged tissue while building stronger muscles. It also helps convert fat to fuel, and keeps our bones strong.

“If you don’t get enough sleep, you produce less HGH and it becomes harder for your body to recover from workouts. Too little sleep also leads to an increase in cortisol, which often comes out during times of stress. An increase in cortisol contributes to slower recovery times,

One of the most important ways sleep can help your running is water re absorption — especially during the summer months when you sweat more and dehydration is more of a concern. During sleep, the kidney balances water, sodium and other electrolytes. Without enough water the kidneys can’t balance electrolytes properly.

“Dehydration leads to muscle pain while running and poor performance,”

After a good night of sleep, a well-hydrated runner should urinate.
“If you don’t go to the bathroom within an hour of getting up, you are likely not well-hydrated. “Another clue would be severe muscle pain.”

By now runners who are training for Comrades 2023, must have experienced the importance of sleep 😉

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