Problems derived from sleep are one of the main problems today. In the sports field, these insomnia problems can hinder our goal and worsen our performance. In this article, we are going to explain how insomnia affects our sports performance.
Insomnia
Insomnia is a sleep disorder that basically consists of the inability to sleep. This insomnia may be due to the alteration of Cardiac rhtyms, or to a more serious sleep disorder.
Cardiac rhtyms
Circadian rhythms are basically our biological clock. Circadian rhythms will cause physical, mental, and behavioral changes to occur that follow a daily cycle, responding primarily to light and dark in an organism's environment. In the case of sleep, when night comes (lack of light), if our circadian rhythms are well regulated, melatonin will be produced, which will help to fall asleep.
However, these circadian rhythms can be affected for different reasons:
- Presence of artificial light before sleeping (electronic devices)
- Changes in time, geographical area, etc.
For this, one of the most general recommendations to improve sleep conciliation is not to use electronic devices close to going to sleep.
On the other hand, if we suffer from jet lack or time changes, perhaps it would be interesting to use melatonin. To read more about this natural substance, you can visit this article.
Sleep disorders
Insomnia can be divided according to its duration (acute or chronic), according to its severity (mild or light). However, the most outstanding classification is according to the schedules:
- initial insomnia. It is the difficulty of reaching sleep, taking a long time to get to sleep. This type of insomnia occurs mainly in young people
- morning insomnia. These are people who wake up earlier than planned, making it difficult to get back to sleep. This type of insomnia occurs especially in older people.
Insomnia and testosterone
Currently, we sleep fewer hours than we should, and, furthermore, a high percentage of the population has sleep-related problems.
Rest is a very important factor in the life of any person, and especially, of an athlete. Lack of sleep has been related in certain studies, with some lower testosterone levels.
Lower testosterone levels will make it harder for you to build lean tissue. In addition, it will have effects on the state of mind and on the regulation of metabolism.
Insomnia and other hormones (cortisol and leptin)
Sleep deficiency, in addition to affecting testosterone levels, will also affect other hormones such as cortisol and leptin.
On the one hand, it has been related to deficiency of proper sleep with elevated cortisol values. cortisol is the call “stress hormone”. This hormone is produced by the body in situations of stress, and puts the body in a defense situation. This hormone will cause tissue destruction in the body. Therefore, if we do not want to have a greater loss of muscle mass, it will be advisable to keep the levels of this hormone at bay.
On the other hand, it has also been related to a decreased leptin. Low leptin levels will lead to a reduced metabolism and therefore a lower ability to lose fat.