THE ESSENTIALS OF REM SLEEP

Do you think diet and exercise are the key components of your active lifestyle and results? Think again! It is your sleep and recovery that will determine the success of your gains. The most important component is REM Sleep.

It is your sleep and recovery that play a crucial role in your active lifestyle efforts, and that’s the pivotal time when your body rebuilds and rejuvenates itself. Yes, workout and sleep are interlinked, so you won’t get results without one component of the equation.

REM sleep (Rapid Eye Movement) is crucial for several reasons, impacting mental and physical well-being:

• Memory Consolidation: REM sleep helps process and store information, strengthening learning and memory formation. It’s when your brain sorts daily experiences, aiding long-term recall.
• Emotional Regulation: It supports emotional processing, reducing stress and stabilizing mood. Lack of REM sleep can increase anxiety or irritability.
• Cognitive Function: REM sleep enhances problem-solving, creativity, and decision-making by fostering neural connections.
• Brain Restoration: It promotes neural repair and growth, critical for mental clarity and focus.
• Physical Recovery: Though less restorative than deep sleep, REM supports overall recovery by balancing energy use.

Adults typically need 20-25% of sleep (1.5-2 hours) in REM. Disruptions, like those from sleep apnea or stress, impair these benefits, leading to cognitive fog, mood swings, or weakened performance. Prioritizing sleep hygiene and consistent schedules maximizes REM sleep’s impact.

REM SLEEP AND RECOVERY TIMING

Before we get into the specifics between your active lifestyle and the importance of REM sleep and recovery, everyone must get enough sleep and recover. It's equally important to get rhythm and timing down to create consistency with your sleep.

When you sleep, the body synthesizes cell structures, and the breakdown of cell structures is reduced. This means sleeping time determines how quickly you can rejuvenate and repair yourself after a strenuous workout.

REM SLEEP AND RECOVERY REQUIREMENTS

When it comes to sleep and recovery, it's not a once sleep style fits for everyone. It's much more complicated and varies from person to person. Not all of us get REM sleep alike or have similar sleeping requirements. Do you know scientists classify sleep into 4 - 5 different stages?

In fact, growth hormone, rehabilitation, and rejuvenation only happen during the deep sleep stage. This shows the close link between sleep and recovery, and performance is optimal only when the body has adequately rested, rejuvenated, and repaired.

While growth hormones are released throughout the day, maximum release happens when you sleep. Not just for muscle repair and rejuvenation, even for muscle growth, this hormone is important. Don't you want more of that?

WHAT’S ENOUGH REM SLEEP?

Are you getting enough REM sleep? Do you know what happens when you don’t sleep enough? You become irritable, get frustrated easily, and most importantly, the body's immune system becomes weaker.

This means the body can’t fight off infections efficiently, weight gain is inevitable due to increased blood pressure, and muscle rejuvenation and repair take longer, which reason why aging progresses with lack of REM sleep.

DON'T LET CORTISOL WIN

Also, when you don’t get enough sleep, cortisol secretion increases. Do you know cortisol promotes cell breakdown? This means muscle-building efforts are getting hampered. You want to promote cell synthesis, for which sleep has a key role to play.

Reduce your stress levels and improve your adrenal function any way you can. It’s essential to a happier life, and your body will thank you! We plan to dive into this topic in-depth.

A great way to reduce stress is to incorporate daily meditation and breathing exercises. It’s also vital for your body to have a mineral balance of copper, zinc, potassium, and sodium. There is a convenient and painless at-home hair testing kit from our friends at Upgraded Formulas to identify imbalances and understand your current levels.

GLUCOSE REGULATION

Lack of sleep promotes disruption in our glucose regulation and ability to maintain the healthy function of our metabolism. This directly correlates with your ability to efficiently burn fat and can suppress thyroid hormone secretion.

One of the functions of the thyroid hormone is regulating calorie burning. Glucose regulation and calorie burning are very important for burning fat and building muscle. We recommend our BCAA to help with superior recovery and all 9 essential amino acids vital to REM sleep.

For these reasons, sleep and recovery are extremely important for your active lifestyle. If you don't sleep and recovery enough, your results will be limited.

REM SLEEP FOR THE LONG-TERM

Though short-term sleep issues won’t affect results as much. It's the long-term sleep issues that can have significant effects on your results and overall health. On average, according to the sleep foundation, you’ll need 7-9 hours of sleep to burn fat and build muscle effectively.

BETTER SLEEP AND RECOVERY

Create consistency with your sleep schedule for sleeping and waking up. This will help you regulate your sleep cycles and set you up for success in hitting the dream rem state for optimized sleep and recovery.

Better REM Sleep And Recovery Tips:

• If you have trouble sleeping within 20 minutes from the time you hit the bed, look for measures to get some sleep.
• Don’t take daily naps for more than 20 – 30 minutes if you want to sleep at night.
• Stay away from stimulants close to bedtime and try a hot shower about 90 minutes before your sleep time.
• Studies show that a hot shower a few minutes before bedtime promotes restful sleep.
• Last but not least, keep your bedroom ambiance sleep-friendly. Examples: darkroom, cooler temperatures, relaxing fragrance, listening to a meditation, avoiding noisy sleeping areas, and a comfortable sleeping arrangement.

CONCLUSION