When Amanda Price-Salazar, certified personal trainer, nutritionist, and owner of Edge Fitness trains for an event, it’s not just her workouts that are important, but what she does in her down time as well.
Price-Salazar shares that when training hard daily, weekly, and monthly, sleep becomes even more important. Exercise increases the body’s need for sleep and recovery. The average adult should aim for seven to eight hours of sleep a night.
“Sleep is crucial. Lack of sleep creates chaos with your hormones and your body will begin to crave sugar, fats, salts and refined carbs. Your body wants everything that is not healthy for it, ” she explains.
To make matters worse, energy drinks and coffee can interrupt sleep patterns and cause increased fatigue over time. It’s easy to get into a cycle of sleep deprivation followed by drinking energy drinks or extra caffeine to compensate. Eventually, your fitness goals are sabotaged by overwhelming fatigue.
Getting enough sleep, however, will help you reach your goals more quickly.
“Sleep is one of the key elements to having a successful weight loss program. If your body can’t function or recover properly, it is maintaining a constant state of ‘fight or flight’ and eventually you will see negative changes in your body,” she explains.
“A lot people work long hours and don’t get enough sleep,” Price-Salazar says. “Lack of sleep makes it difficult for your body to function and it struggles with pushing toxins out. This can lead to increased illness, fatigue, weight gain, and more.”
Additionally, when you don’t get enough sleep, your body tends to produce an increase of cortisol in the liver that in turn can make it more difficult to lose weight.
Finally, sleep has a huge impact on performance. Whether in the gym, at work, or at home, it is difficult to perform your duties with 100% efficiency and enough energy when sleep-deprived.
She offered a few tips to ensure good sleep:
- Eat a balanced, healthy diet including whole foods.
- Exercise daily.
- Manage stress.
- Turn off all electronic devices at least an hour before sleeping.
