A quicker sprint time and a 9% improved free-throw accuracy were recorded following the prolonged sleep period. Researchers instructed six basketball players to obtain as much extra sleep as possible following two weeks of normal sleep habits. This is perhaps best illustrated by a study conducted at the Stanford Sleep Disorders Clinic and Research Laboratory at Stanford University, USA which examined the effect prolonged sleep had on elite basketball players’ performance. If you use this time guide as an aim each night, your body should have sufficient time to help heal injuries. However, the recommended amount of sleep for an adult every night is around 7-9 hours. You may be wondering how many hours of sleep should you be getting at night? As each individual is different, there is no specific amount of time. Without adequate sleep, you get behind in your healing and problems build up. Sleep and rest play a vital role in the recovery after injury and is key to helping your body heal.ĭuring sleep, your body is very intelligent and heals any minor tears which occur in the muscles during the day. Injury and inflammation can be extremely painful and uncomfortable causing fatigue. You may find healing makes you tired and that you’re sleeping a lot after injury. Quite simply, more time spent in this zone will lead to greater hormone secretion and greater levels of recovery for injured muscles, tendons and tissues. For example, growth hormones are released in the deep sleep phase of the sleep cycle, occurring roughly every 90 minutes. This is because many of the repair and restore bodily functions occur during sleep. Obviously the worse the pain, the more severe the injury, and if the pain is unbearable you should consult a GP as soon as possible. Pain when resting or moving the affected muscle or joint.
And, if your body does suffer a physical shock, signs of an injury include: Needless to say, none of these is pleasant and any shock to the body is a risk. The causes of minor muscle injury include anything from: Unfortunately, these injuries can easily occur during any form of physical activity such as sudden heavy lifting, gym sessions, and strenuous tasks within employment. This causes local bleeding, bruising and irritating pain to nerve endings in the damaged area. This occurs in the muscle fibres or in tendons and can damage small blood vessels. Exercising at a later time, therefore, will begin to push back your body clock meaning you may struggle to get to sleep at your normal bed time.Īs it’s such an important topic, we gave it the Dr Pixie treatment and used how exercise affects sleep as a subject for our Sleep Matters podcast.Ī minor muscle injury usually consists of a muscle pull, strain or tear. This study found that exercising at 7 am or between 1 and 4 pm advanced the body clock to an earlier time, and exercising between 7 and 10 pm delayed the body clock to a later time. Whilst light is often cited as the most tangible regulator of our circadian rhythms, the internal body clock, exercise has also been found to have circadian shifting effects.
This means the body stays hyped even after the race is over! Resultingly, after exercise, you may need to allow some time to reset and relax before jumping straight into trying to get your forty winks. During exercise, we produce the stress hormone cortisol and fight-or-flight hormone adrenaline. Dopamine, another neurotransmitter, that helps in the regulation of sleep cycles is also impacted by exercise. For example, exercise increases our endorphin levels responsible for blocking pain and increasing pleasure. Many studies show how exercise affects the brain through neurotransmitters and hormones. Hence, why we recommend rehydrating thoroughly before bed to get a good night’s sleep. Dehydration also raises your heart rate, meaning no sleep for you. It’s difficult to lower your core temperature when you’re dehydrated from endurance exercises.
The immediate drop in body temperature post-workout may actually mimic the body temperature changes before sleep and indicate to your brain that it’s time to sleep. A decline in core body temperature increases the likelihood of sleep onset and may help you enter deeper stages of sleep.