Here’s why you need to prioritize your sleep!
DISCLAIMER
The information contained in this document is provided as an educational resource. It is
designed to help you understand the process of fat loss, and the associated dietary and
training strategies.
It should not act as a replacement for the relationship you have with your doctor or
healthcare professional. Any information provided within this document is not deemed
as medical advice or prescriptive.
If you have any concerns about your health prior to starting the programme, you must
contact your doctor or healthcare professional immediately.
Zac González
Copyright © Zac Gonzalez Coach 2022
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any
form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise,
without the prior permission of the copyright holder.
SLEEP
Every single time I meet my clients for the first time, I will have the chance to understand what’s the starting point in so many different areas due to a questionnaire that they’ve previously filled up.
One of the sections of it is Sleep and it contains a few questions I would like you to ask before we get any further:
- Do you sleep less than 7-8 hrs per night?
- Are you exhausted when you get home at the end of your day?
- Do you feel wired in the evening?
- Does it take you more than 10 minutes to go to sleep?
- Do you wake up in the middle of the night?
- Do you wake up feeling tired in the morning?
If you’ve answered YES to 4 or more questions you will need to address the quality and quantity of your sleep.
-Why is sleep so important?
Sleep quality not only affects the energy you have throughout the day, but main functions of your body and more importantly, hormonal balance.
Some of the most important hormones are growth hormone, melatonin, cortisol and insulin. All of them play a key role in your body composition.
Growth hormone:
It plays a key role in bone growth and muscle building and as a consequence: Very important for fat loss. We produce a large amount of growth hormone within the first 2 hrs of sleep.
If your natural levels of growth hormone are very low, the fat loss process becomes really difficult.
Paying more attention to your sleep quantity and quality is a very good way to rectify your levels of growth hormone.
Melatonin:
Promotes correct, healthy sleep cycles and is also involved in energy metabolism. You will need complete darkness to produce melatonin when you go to bed. Interrupted sleep also interrupts melatonin production and it will affect the quality of your sleep.
Cortisol:
You probably know Cortisol as the stress hormone, used in “fight or flight” situations. The problem nowadays is that most people have cortisol levels back to front. This means they are wide awake when they’re trying to go to bed but they struggle first thing in the morning to get going. In a correct cycle, cortisol should increase when we wake up till midday and then drop through the evening allowing us the wine down and have a correct sleep.
This cycle is called the circadian rhythm. The problem is that in modern society it is very common to be stressed all the time because of work, watching TV till late night, alcohol abuse, laptops and phones in bed, etc. We will see at the end of the section how we can rectify this.
Insulin:
I’m sure you’ve heard of insulin and its role regulating blood sugar levels. As you get less sleep, your blood sugar levels increase and so does insulin. It’s also responsible for fat storage which means, any excess of sugar that we haven’t used for energy, will be stored as body fat.
Below I’m going to give you the exact steps you need to follow to improve your sleep. Implement them week by week adding a couple in place. They’re listed in priority order
-How to fix your sleep.
- One of the ways you can wine down is by using supplements. Magnesium glycinate will help to relax you, your muscles and it will help to go to bed. Take 100mg at 6pm, 100mg 7.30p, and 100mg at 9pm.
- Avoid coffee and stimulants after 1 pm.
- Fill in a grateful log or notebook. Keep it next to your bed so you can use it every day. I want you to write 5 great things you’ve done for you or for someone else.
- There’s nothing better to improve your sleep than a good routine. Go to bed at the same time every night so you can get 7-8 hrs of sleep. This will provide you extra energy the following day due to being fully rested and recovered from the previous day.
- Take a warm bath 30 min before bed. Try and add 250 grams of Epsom salts and stay there for 20 minutes.
- Turn off flashing and television lights around the bedroom.
- Fit black blinds to avoid any light. Remember we need complete darkness for melatonin production.
Having issues with sleep is something very common. When we fix poor sleep patterns this has a direct impact on your mood, your energy levels, performance at the gym and obviously body fat decreases.
From now on, you need to prioritize your sleep.
