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Rob Wilkins - Recovery & Sleep: Keys To Your Athletic Success
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FACTORS EFFECTING SLEEP:
Medications - Insomnia is a side effect of many common medications, including over-the-counter preparations that contain caffeine. People who suspect their medications are causing them to lose sleep should check with their physician. (9).

Alcohol - Alcohol suppresses deep sleep, produces sleep fragmentation, and relaxes the upper airway muscles, which worsens snoring and severity of obstructive sleep apnea. Apart from its negative impact on sleep, alcohol reduces your intellectual performance, and should be avoided at times of highly creative effort! To a highly creative individual, alcohol poses a major health-vs-brain dilemma. Certainly, it should be avoided 3-5 hours before sleep and should be avoided before intellectual work.
If you drink yourself to sleep (e.g. after a stressful day), you should remember that alcohol is quickly metabolized, and will produce an acetaldehyde rebound effect that will greatly increase chances of waking up during the night. This effect keeps alcoholics up at nights, depriving them of REM sleep (6).

Caffeine - 90% of Americans use some form of caffeine to fight the feeling of drowsiness. Caffeine has a profound effect on the central nervous system by blocking adenosine receptors (5), which holds drowsiness at bay. Besides coffee, caffeine is found in soda as well as in chocolate and tea. It is addictive and acts, via similar channels, as amphetamines and cocaine.
As an arousal drug, caffeine may cause insomnia. Caffeine will suppress REM sleep and this is why it should never be taken 6-7 hours before sleep (caffeine's half-life is about 6 hours). Caffeine tends to drive many people into a vicious circle. You drink it, you get a boost in adrenaline, you feel more energetic, you get a boost in dopamine, you feel better, you feel you can stay up late, you sleep less, you are more sleepy on the next day. Shortly afterwards you will need more caffeine, due to down-regulation, to get the same energetic feeling and you will continue to increase the dosage.

CAN SLEEP INCREASE GROWTH HORMONE RELEASE?

Researchers at the University of Chicago found that the quality of men's sleep decreases with age along with the body's production of growth hormone. A lack of quality sleep may contribute to love handles and double chins. The drop in growth hormone, in turn, is thought to lead to flab, although the researchers did not specifically measure the effect on body composition. "We actually know that if we increase deep sleep, we can increase growth hormone," said Eve Van Cauter, a professor of medicine who led the study, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (13).

The study was limited to healthy men, and it is unclear whether the findings apply to women. Dr. Van Cauter and her team looked at sleep studies conducted on 149 men from 1985 to 1999. They found that by the time men reach age 45; they have nearly lost the ability to fall into deep sleep, which is when men primarily produce growth hormone. In studies of the elderly, growth hormone deficiency has been connected to obesity and the loss of muscle mass. The men involved in the sleep studies were of normal weight and ranged in age from 16 to 83. Researchers found that as the men moved into middle age, from 35 to 50, their total amount of sleep remained fairly constant. The study also found that after age 50, men's total amount of sleep declined by about 27 minutes a decade, with them waking more frequently throughout the night and staying awake for longer periods of time. REM sleep, associated with dreaming, also declined after age 50 to about 50 percent of a young man's level.

RECOVERY TIME NECESSARY AFTER EXERCISE:

How long does it take for the muscles to fully recover after an exhausting workout? Fatigued muscles do a poor job of protecting their associated connective tissues, increasing the risk of damage to bones, cartilage, tendons, and ligaments. Tired muscles provide inadequate support for tendons, ligaments, and bones, increasing the risk of strains, sprains, and stress fractures.

Recently, researchers at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, and the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis conducted a study to determine how long muscle recovery takes. In their study, six healthy young men who regularly engaged in weight training, carried out four sets each of biceps, concentration, and preacher curls (12 sets in all), with three to four minutes of rest between sets. Resistance was set at 80 percent of maximum and each set consisted of as many reps as a subject could handle.

Based on this study and a previous investigation, the scientists determined that the rate of protein synthesis in muscles stressed by a hard workout increases by about 50 per cent four hours after the rugged workout is over, while the rate of synthesis in muscles not used during training remains unchanged. This is evidence that muscles are repairing damage accrued from the workout and perhaps building new structures to make themselves stronger and more fatigue-resistant in the future.

This repair process seems to peak about 24 hours after a workout, when muscle protein synthetic rate was up by a hefty 109 per cent in the McMaster-Washington research. However, the McMaster-Washington scientists found that about 36 hours after a rough workout, the building process is pretty much over, and the muscles are back to routine housekeeping. It's important to point out that this study was carried out with experienced weight trainers; novice lifters might have required a longer recovery process. Finally, there is undoubtedly variation between athletes. For example, although the average recovery time was 36 hours in the McMaster study, some individuals might be finished recovering just 30 hours after a similar workout, while others could take 40 to 48 hours. As you can see, lots of factors can interact to determine recovery time.

Recovery time reduces injury rates by providing muscles and connective tissues the necessary amount of time to rebuild and repair themselves between workouts. You should also remember that increases in training demand increases in resting too. Anytime your training volume increases by more than 2-3 per cent, you need to make sure that you're getting more sleep and taking more time to rest during the day. Without this rest your workouts will suffer and your body will never truly recover (7). It cannot be stressed enough, especially to the natural athlete--when you feel mentally or physically tired, take the day off.