Please Scroll Down to See Forums Below
How to install the app on iOS

Follow along with the video below to see how to install our site as a web app on your home screen.

Note: This feature may not be available in some browsers.

napsgear
genezapharmateuticals
domestic-supply
puritysourcelabs
Research Chemical SciencesUGFREAKeudomestic
napsgeargenezapharmateuticals domestic-supplypuritysourcelabsResearch Chemical SciencesUGFREAKeudomestic

The Importance of Sleep for Muscle Growth

future

Freelance Writer
Platinum
Sleep Builds Strong Muscle Mass
By: Dr. Bill Misner Ph.D.


Sleep Is Important To Training Performance Gains

You and your training partner carefully measure the optimal protein intake for the "max" in muscle growth response. You both take the exact same anabolic state-of-the-art supplements and follow the same "perfect" workout dictated by your aggressive, but prominent personal trainer. Your partner's gains are what you'd hoped for...what went wrong? Deep sleep patterns may mean the difference between big anabolic gains and none at all! Both bodily repair and anabolic growth occur only during quality rest, and when deep sleep patterns become routine. How many of us have been able to resist that nodding, drowsy, insistent call to sleep?

If we give in, what are we going to miss? What could we be doing instead? Even the most mature, health-conscious adults may, at times, view sleep as an unwelcome intruder into their work, play, or leisure activities. Time spent sleeping accounts for 27 to 35% of a person's lifetime; assuming a person sleeps 6.5 to 9.0 hours per day, this slumber time accounts for 166,000 to 230,000 hours over an average 70-year life span!

How long can a person go without any sleep? Based on small animal studies in which the subjects have been exposed to extreme sleep deprivation, scientists have estimated that the average human may not live past 10 days without sleep. Not as clear, however, are the exact physiological mechanisms resulting from sleep deprivation that ultimately lead to death. It has been suggested by some that the hypothalamus, which regulates several of the body's metabolic activities, is not able to control body temperature after being deprived of sleep for many days.

While lack of sleep can have dire consequences, adequate sleep provides only positive, healthful benefits. In a typical day, a person's waking hours are consumed trying to meet the many mental and physical demands encountered at every turn, as well as replenishing vital nutrients as they are being used up during these daily activities. In the hours remaining--during sleep--the body takes time out to rebuild and recharge, preparing for the day ahead.

Recuperation During Sleep Is Related To A Sensitive Built-In Biological Clock

Electrical activity measured in the brain during sleep indicates that healthful physiological changes occur in 90-minute periods throughout the night, which means that the active biological clock in a person is set to operate in a circadian rhythm of 90-minute cycles that repeats every 25 to 28 hours. This clock is set and reset according to the amount of natural daylight available each day, thus evening sleep begins later in summer than in winter.1

Losing sleep during any 24- or 48-hour period interferes with the essential and healthful cycle of physiological changes that occur during sleep and is detrimental to both physical and mental recovery. Recovery in subjects deprived of sleep for 24 hours has been measured at 72%, while recovery after a 48-hour period without sleep further deteriorated to a level of only 42%.2

Other clock-like rhythms occur between 3:00 a.m. and 6:00 a.m. and from 3:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m., when our body temperature dips a degree or two and drowsiness results. We have all experienced this mid- or late-afternoon slump. In contrast, when body temperature peaks between 6:00 and 9:00p.m., we may become aware of a heightened sense of alertness. Then, as we tend to wind down from our daily activities sometime after 9:00 p.m., our body temperature falls again, and we are lulled into a state of drowsiness during which the brain converts low-voltage "beta" waves into higher voltage "alpha" waves. As these alpha waves are, in turn, converted to slower "theta" waves during what are known as sleep stages 1 and 2, the skeletal muscles relax, causing the "hypnic jerk" or "nodding" experience. When nodding off is not resisted or interrupted, the theta waves soon turn into even slower "delta" waves of the third and fourth stages of deeper sleep. During these stages, rapid-eye-movement {REM} sleep, dreams, and actual muscle paralysis take place. If, for some reason, muscle paralysis does not occur, the vividness of the dream state will physically draw the dreamer into an active state of sleepwalking or, worse yet, intense physical activity that will further break down exhausted muscle tissues already in need of repair.

Animal studies3 have shown that inhibiting the brain's ability to paralyze muscle during sleep results in the animals jumping around, growling, howling, and generally exhausting themselves while actively dreaming. During undisturbed sleep or slow-wave sleep, the plasma growth hormone (HGH) in humans is found to be at its highest levels.4

If the sleep stage process is interrupted, complete repair of soft tissues is impossible due to the resulting decrease or absence of HGH.

Quiet Please--Muscles are rebuilding!

Noise pollution has been shown to have a dramatic effect on a person's optimal sleep. Aircraft noise endured by those living in homes near airports can reach a level of 55 to 75 decibels inside the homes. Significant noise such as this has been observed to raise the adrenaline and noradrenaline levels of all those sampled during sleep, an effect which is detrimental to achieving normal, healthy, recuperative sleep.5

Exposure to high levels of noise during the day can also interfere with getting a sound night's sleep. Daytime noise pollution of 80 decibels or more tends to elevate both heart and respiration rates, which may further disrupt full-stage, recuperative sleep.6

Another enemy of a good night's sleep was found in a study in which the subjects received sleep in fragments. As discussed earlier, uninterrupted deep-sleep periods of at least 90 minutes are necessary for complete muscle recovery. When subjects were periodically aroused from sleep so as to prevent them from completing a full 90-minute period of sleep, muscle recovery was significantly hindered.7

When sleep is altered---reduced or extended---performance and mood are both affected. Two prominent researchers, Taub and Berger,8 observed altered sleep time by delaying, extending, or advancing each phase of slumber by a 3-hour time span. Their subjects suffered measurable declines in both performance and mood, in spite of getting enough total sleep. Achieving that elusive perfect night's sleep, then, would seem to depend upon enjoying a low-key day in a stress-free environment followed by seeking sleep at a routine time in a quiet, totally dark room. Another component of ensuring a good night's sleep is to maintain a balanced ratio of macro- and micronutrients.

Balancing Macronutrient Intake With A Precise Ratio of Micronutrients

What we eat and drink has a remarkable influence upon our sleep. Relatively small amounts of alcohol---as little as 0.8 grams per kilogram body weight---will suppress plasma growth hormone values as much as 75% when consumed just prior to sleep.
 
sleep = rest

your body grows when you rest. if you don't rest enough, you're not only overtraining, but you're seriously not getting any results
 
Sleep is the most essential aspects of our well being and health. Almost all cell regeneration and growth happens when we sleep. In other words we rest and repair when we sleep. When we don't get enough rest we don't get enough repair. When we don't get enough repair it takes its tole on our health.



A lack of regular healthy sleep slows down everything from brain function to muscle growth and its effects can be felt after just one night. When we don't get a good night sleep we feel sluggish,run down, and generally out of it untill we get the rest our bodies so desperately needs.



Not only is it important to get sleep but its equally important to get GOOD SLEEP . Uninterpreted healthy deep sleep. Often we may sleep 8-12 hours and still wake up feeling like we got no rest at all. This is because we did not fall into a deep restful sleep and stay there long enough.



Ever sleep 12 hours and feel like you didn't sleep a wink? this is because you did not reach a deep sleep or did not stay in a deep sleep long enough.



There are 2 basic stages in the sleep process. REM (Rapid Eye Movement) sleep and NREM (non-REM) sleep. NREM sleep is divided further into four sleep stages, numbered 1, 2, 3 and 4. Normal sleep begins with stage 1 and progresses into 2, 3 and 4, getting more and more deep with each stage. The deeper sleep is achieved at stages 3 and 4. (This is also the stage during which HGH and melatonin is released by the pineal gland). The fifth stage, which is actually lighter, is REM sleep, during which dreaming occurs.



The different sleep stages are also referred to as S-sleep (synchronized EEG pattern sleep) and D-sleep (desynchronized EEG pattern sleep). D-sleep is the same as REM or dream sleep; S-sleep is another name for NREM, ( also known as orthodox or quiet sleep).



The five stages of sleep:



Stage 1: As we fall asleep, we enter the transition state called stage 1 and begin our first "sleep cycle". This very light sleep stage usually lasts 2-5 minutes. If sleep remains undisturbed it will progress to stage 2 sleep. Stage 1 contributes 2-5 % of normal sleep, (but increases hugely in cases of insomnia and disorders that produce frequent arousal such as apnea) .



Stage 2: This is a much deeper sleep than stage 1. The brain waves go into theta mode, and lead into stages 3 and 4 in around 10-20 minutes. Stage 2 sleep occupies approximately 50-65% of our sleep time, lasting 15-30 minutes in each cycle.. During the latter part of the night we spend more and more time alternating between stages 2 & REM sleep.



Stage 3: A deeper sleep than stage 2. The muscles are relaxed, heart rate slows down, blood pressure falls, breathing is steady and even. Brain activity slows down dramatically from the theta pattern of stage 2 to a much slower rhythm of 1 to 2 cycles per second called 'delta', and the height, or amplitude, of the waves increases.



Stage 4: The deepest sleep of all, during which a sleeping person is 'dead to the world'. Blood pressure and heart rate fluctuate and the sleeper's brain heats up. Delta sleep is characterized by very high voltage slow brain waves. It is similar to being in a coma, but unlike a coma, it's reversible. As we transverse these first four stages of sleep our respiration and heart rate slow and the body is almost immobile.



Stage 5: REM (rapid eye movement). All of a sudden, after 20-30 minutes of slow wave sleep, we transfer back into stage 2, and almost immediately change gears into very active brain wave pattern known as REM sleep. Simultaneous with this transfer into REM, our respiration and heart rate increases substantially and we lose our ability to use our postural or skeletal muscles.
The first REM period lasts only about ten minutes. After that, the sleeper goes back into a deep stage 4 sleep. Again, the sleeper returns into a REM stage after a short period, and cycles through REM and stage 4 continue until the sleeper awakens. Along with this, our brain becomes so activated that we start to hallucinate and dream. Our eyes move as in wakefulness, and in relation to what we are dreaming. In effect, we are, at this stage ,a highly activated brain in a paralyzed body. This paradoxical state will last 10-20 minutes and then we "fall" back down into stage 2 again.



Needtobuildmuscle's Need 2 sleep is a 3 punch combo of ingredients designed to

1. promote relaxation

2. promote deep restful sleep

3. keep you in a deep restful stage of sleep longer

4. Have you waking up feeling better then ever with no groggy unnatural side effects.



The first ingredient in need 2 sleep is Valerian root. A full 400 powerful mg of it.



The major constituents of Valerian root include sesquterpenoids, valepotriates, bornyl acetate and valerenic acid. Multiple compounds in valerian root have pharmacologic activity. Valerenic acid has been shown to inhibit enzyme-induced breakdown and the inhibition of reuptake of the inhibitory neurotransmitter gamma-aminobutyric acid (gaba) in the brain. Basically this means that the brain chemical GABA can last longer and lead to sedation. Valerenic acid, an active constituent of valerian root extract, stimulates chloride currents through GABA( A) receptors. Valerenic acid is a subunit specific allosteric modulator of GABA (A) receptors that most likely interacts with the loreclezole binding pocket.



Clinical research shows that valerian root improves overall sleep quality, shortening the length of time it takes to fall asleep and helping people sleep more soundly. Overall, valerian root seems to help poor sleepers the most. In one double blind study on sleep disorders, 44 percent of the test group reported "perfect" sleep and 89 percent noted significant improvement after taking valerian root, in comparison with placebo



Lindahl O, Lindwall L. Double blind study of a valerian preparation. Pharmacology, Biochemistry & Behavior 1989; 32: 1065-1066.



The second ingredient in need 2 sleep is 6mg of Melatonin



Melatonin is a hormone produced naturally by the body in the pineal gland of the brain. The release of melatonin correlates with the body's cycle of day and night. As light inhibits its production, and darkness stimulates it, melatonin regulates the body's internal clock. Double blind research shows that this hormone helps people sleep, shortens the number of awakenings in the night, and improves the quality of sleep. melatonin exhibits positive psychological benefits on a person's mood, while a lack of melatonin corresponds to anxiety, fatigue, and hostility. In short it helps put you to sleep and bring you into a deep sleep faster.



The 3rd and final ingredient in need 2 sleep is is 5-htp 50mg



5-htp is the immediate precursor to serotonin a neurotransmitter. 5-hpt also increases endorphins our bodies natural pain killers.


5-HTP bypasses the brain's light-regulation system that controls the secretion of melatonin. 5-HTP results in the increased the production of neurotransmitters such as serotonin and norepinephrine that stimulate the noradrenergic receptors in the brain. This stimulation directly triggers the production and release of melatonin, helps relax the body,and prevents iritating pain from keeping you awake.


Combined, the ingredients in need 2 sleep are a proven powerful sleep aid. Need 2 sleep will put you to sleep fast and give you the good nights rest your body needs.



Needtosleep
 
I wake up at least once a night for a toilet visit, sometimes two or three times, but it's usually once and nornally if I wake 2 or 3 times it's usually 3-4 hours after I've got into bed... if I wake up once it's usually 4-5 hours after getting into bed. I'd love to be able to sleep right the way through but I don't see that happening. How will waking up so often affect my sleep?
 
I wake up at least once a night for a toilet visit, sometimes two or three times, but it's usually once and nornally if I wake 2 or 3 times it's usually 3-4 hours after I've got into bed... if I wake up once it's usually 4-5 hours after getting into bed. I'd love to be able to sleep right the way through but I don't see that happening. How will waking up so often affect my sleep?

Waking up once our twice and then going right back to bed is fine. Do you feel well rested when you wake up? What is important is how fast it takes you to go threw the sleep cycle.
 
Top Bottom