Good Sleep Promotes Muscle Growth

Exercise can be a great stress reliever, good for overall health, and good for self-esteem. Seeing results of things we work hard for feels good, but what happens when someone puts in long hours and doesn’t get the results they’re expecting? It’s frustrating. Of course, there are a few reasons why someone might not be seeing results at the gym: not eating right, not doing the right exercises, and not getting enough sleep. Good sleep promotes muscle growth.

Not Getting Enough Sleep

Of the various reasons someone might not be getting the results they’re looking for, we’ll focus on sleep. What is enough sleep and how does someone know when they’re not getting enough? Typically, it’s suggested that the average adult gets between seven to nine hours of sleep a night. Well what if you get to sleep on time every night and wake up at a reasonable time every morning?

If sleep is the reason that person’s not seeing the results they’re expecting at the gym, they might not be sleeping through the night. It could be that they’re waking up consistently throughout the night and one of the more common causes of this is sleep apnea.

How Does Sleep Impact Muscle Growth?

In a study published in the Journal of Musculoskeletal and Neuronal Interactions, the researchers’ experiments strongly suggest that poor sleep quality and shorter sleep times are directly associated with an increased risk for a reduction in muscle mass. 

Sleep can affect muscle mass in other ways too. For example, a lack of sleep can reduce:

• Muscle tissue repair
• The production of muscle-building proteins
• Production of hormones such as human growth hormone
• Blood flow to the muscles
• Delivery of oxygen and nutrients to damaged muscle tissue

Science of Sleep and Muscle Growth

When someone isn’t reaching the deeper sleep cycles, their body isn’t able to recover enough for things like muscle growth or other regenerative processes to reach their potential. Specifically, when someone can’t reach or stay in the N3 stage of NREM (non-rapid eye movement) sleep, their body can’t produce the necessary amount of Human Growth Hormone to see the results they want. Without this sleep stage, the body can’t efficiently produce proteins and muscle-building hormones. 

Decreased blood flow, oxygen, and other nutrients also contribute to reduced muscle repair and growth.

Why Might Someone Not Get the Sleep They Need?

One of the hardest variables to measure in cases like these is the quality of their sleep. A typical sleep cycle takes 90 – 110 minutes, and if someone’s sleep is interrupted because of a partial or complete airway blockage, the brain has to trigger the body to wake up to open the airway. Events like this are common among patients with sleep apnea.

If you think you’re not getting enough sleep, and you live near Lynnwood, WA, and would like to learn more about sleep apnea and its side effects, contact Dr. Buck by calling our office at (425) 329-4682 or fill out our contact form.