This post sounds ridiculous but think back. Did anyone teach you "how to sleep"? They taught you how to use a spoon or how to wipe your butt but they never taught you how to sleep. Yea you close your eyes and pretend to go to sleep but do you know what time?In this thread, I am giving you the basics of sleeping right.This is HUGE.

The more/better you sleep, the more efficient your metabolism will become and the more muscle you will build, fat you will burn and stronger you will get.

Lack of sleep slows the metabolism, increases blood pressure, increases ghrelin (hunger hormone), causes insulin resistance and increases cortisol. Sleep is also a cognitive enhancer.

Ideally, a short 20 min nap during the day is also a big help. Usually 2 hours post workout after a meal if possible is particularly beneficial when training twice or more daily. Taking a nap too late in the day however, can disrupt circadian rhythms and make it more difficult to get to sleep at night.

“If you religiously take Creatine and only sleep 5 hours a night, you’re a f*cking idiot” -Stan Efferding.

If you wake up early after inadequate sleep in order to do cardio, you’re stepping over $100 bills to pick up nickels. It’s a zero sum game.

Ideally, sleeping more than 8 hours is optimal and 9-10 hours for athletes has been shown to improve strength and performance even more!!

Greg Nuckols (Strongerbyscience.com) recent Meta-Analysis on sleep states that: “The biggest takeaway from all of these studies is that nothing beats making sure your head is on your pillow for enough hours each night. Both studies examining the effects of sleep extension (increasing time in bed to 9-10+ hours per night) found marked performance improvements in high-level athletes in a short period of time, while all other interventions had mixed results.” -Greg Nuckols

Sleep loss limits fat loss

:

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/10/101004211637.htm

Sleep is also CRITICAL for learning

physical and mental patterns and skills for sports and education:

https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2014/04/forbetterperformanceathletesneedsleep/361042/

• Practicing good sleep hygiene:

● Sleep according to your circadian rhythms. 10pm-6am or 11pm-7am.

● Every hour you get to sleep before midnight is like 2 hours in the sleep bank!

● 7-10 hours of sleep plus a 20 min nap is optimal depending on your age and workload. (More than 20-30 minutes and you may begin Deep or REM sleep which will make you groggy when you wake up).

● Wake up at the same time every day, 7 days a week, this helps set the clock making it easier to get to sleep at night.