Does Sleep Affect Our Performance?

ARTICLE AND PHOTOS BY RACHEL DOELL

“I’ll sleep when I’m dead.” This was something you would hear come out of my mouth often if you followed me in the early stages of motherhood, starting a business, and teaching multiple classes each week at 6am.

While seven to nine hours of sleep is the recommended amount for our bodies, somehow I felt I could run on low amounts of sleep and heavy caffeine consumption, and not have it affect my body.

Fast forward two years after having my first baby and I found myself in adrenal fatigue, my cortisol levels shooting through the roof, and unable to sleep even when the babies would sleep. I feel like this lifestyle is common not only for young mothers, but also for others in different ages and stages of life.

RACHEL DOELL is an instructor, personal trainer, mother, and wife who loves health and fitness. Her fitness company, Daily Routine Fitness, features simple ways to fit living a healthy life into your everyday routine.

Why is sleep so important for our daily performance and why can’t we run on fumes? To start, lack of sleep has been shown to reduce our alertness, reaction times, and motor skills. This can work into everything from sports performance, reaction time to a child falling, or even catching our own falls. It affects our focus and ability to apply new information, or even use existing information, which can limit our creativity and affect our mood.

I remember saying to my husband many times “I don’t feel like I’m enjoying Motherhood.” At times I felt like I couldn’t even breathe from the amount of pressure that the lack of sleep was putting on my body physically, but also the mental pressure. When our bodies suffer physically, our mood drops, stress hormones rise, and our lack of motivation to take on new adventures or even a walk with a friend can seem overwhelming. What was once enjoyable suddenly seems like an unbearable task.

How much should you sleep? This is still up for debate, but studies show the average person needs 7 to 9 hours of sleep a night. But often it’s not just the hours we are investing into our sleep tank, but also the quality.

Growth hormone, sometimes known as HGH, is an important part of the body’s endocrine system. It is essential for muscle repair, muscle building, bone growth, and promoting the oxidization of fats. This is critical for maintaining a certain standard of performance not only when you work out, but also when you are trying to juggle kids, work, and the countless daily tasks life may be throwing at you. Cortisol, also known as the stress hormone, is regulated in deep sleep. Cortisol levels directly impact the body’s ability to digest glucose. Since endurance is based on our body’s ability to metabolize and synthesize glucose for later use, quality of sleep becomes even more important for things like endurance sports, chasing three kids, or being on our feet all day at work.

How do I get more sleep? Many of you reading this may be juggling many different types of lifestyles affecting your sleep, and you feel you have no control over these interruptions. Parenting, the demands of school, and job stress are just a few. Although you may not be able to change some factors, remember oftentimes it’s not so much about the number of hours you sleep, but the quality of sleep.

Here are a couple of methods that have really made a difference in my sleep patterns and the quality of my sleep.

Magnesium Magnesium plays a role in supporting deep, restorative sleep by maintaining healthy levels of GABA, a neurotransmitter that promotes sleep. Magnesium is important for the sleep function of not only adults but also children. Along with helping us to sleep, it also helps to reduce stress and calm us before bed.

Blue Light Protection At the same time blue light inhibits melatonin (which helps our body rest), it also stimulates the production of cortisol, a major stress and alerting hormone that interferes with sleep. Exposure to blue light shortens sleep time and leads to more awakenings throughout the night, resulting in less refreshing sleep and more fatigue the next day.

Something as simple as adding a blue light protection to your laptop screen or investing in blue light glasses makes a huge difference for many people! For me, any type of screen before bed without blue light protection affects my sleep patterns and how deeply my body goes into a state of sleep.

Essential Oils Stress and anxiety are frequent obstacles to sound, restful sleep. People who experience stress and anxiety symptoms often have trouble falling asleep and sleep restlessly throughout the night, leaving them tired and fatigued the next day. Some research indicates that aromatherapy using essential oils can help to relieve stress and anxiety symptoms, which may help improve sleep indirectly. Some of my favourites are lavender and clary sage.

For more information on sleep, check out Sleepdoctor.com. I have found this site to be filled with easy and digestible tips for bettering sleep.

I think many of us are often searching for answers to our physical and mental health when the reality is our health is often found in prioritizing the gift of sleep. Maybe this is the season for you to set healthy boundaries around your night patterns, turn off the screens, and allow yourself some time to re-set your inner super-power.