Alongside exercise and eating correctly, rest is very important to achieving optimal health and a good physique, and allowing the body to recover and rebuild.

The consensus among medical professionals is approximately 8.1 hours sleep per night. Sleeping at nights flows well with the body's natural cycle referred to as the circadian rhythm.

The body has two different process cycles, anabolic and catabolic. Catabolic refers to the breakdown, a great example is when the body goes through exercise.

The opposite of this is the anabolic process, a good example of this is sleep, and one of the best recovery process you can treat your body to.

During sleep, the body produces the most growth hormones. This hormone is responsible for fat loss and reducing fat storage as well as building new muscles.

There are five different stages of sleep that the body can reach, 1,2,3,4 and REM (rapid eye movement). At stage one, we can be easily awaked, drifting in and out of sleep. In stage two, eye movement stops and the brain waves slow down. Stages three and four are at the point where brain waves interchange, these two stages are also referred to as deep sleep. At REM the blood pressure and heart rate rises. A complete sleep cycle takes an average 90-110 minutes.

The benefits of sleep are great. These include:

Boost athletic performance

More resilient to daily stress

Helps memory performance and problem solving skills.

I challenge you this week to get at least six nights with at least eight hours or more sleep.

Done by

Jae Edwards

MA, UKSCA

Contact: jae@sprytraining.com