Achieve Your Best Exercise, Eat Healthy, and Sleep Well

Many people are health-conscious these days and know the link between working out, nutrition, and becoming healthy. But have you heard about the connection between exercise, eating, and sleep? Sleep is often overlooked or minimized. “Diet, exercise, and sleep are three pillars of a healthy life. Improving just one of these lifestyle factors can help people lead longer lives,” Dr. Rehman wrote in the article, “The Connection Between Diet, Exercise, and Sleep.” While working out can give us more energy, it can also expend energy, which means your body needs a good night’s sleep. Sleep helps your body recover after a hard workout. It also replenishes your energy so you can get ahead the next day. Not to mention, working out and moving your body helps you feel better, and when you feel better, you will be the best version of yourself. Here’s an ideal healthy-living lifestyle cycle:  

Sleep = restoration + more energy = ability to work out harder and more efficiently = improved health = benefits to every system in your body 

In short, sleep isn’t just important, it’s vital to keep your body healthy. The CDC article “FastStats: Sleep in Adults” states that the percentage of adults not getting enough sleep in the United States is anywhere from 30% to 45%. How much sleep is enough? The science recommends seven to eight hours a night. By not getting the necessary sleep, you will not only wake up feeling drowsy, but a lack of sleep will also negatively affect your fitness goals.  

How Sleep Affects Fitness 

The article “How Sleep Affects Fitness,” says that “You must sleep in order for exercise to actually work.” The article reiterates that “Without sleep, exercise does not deliver the benefits of cardiovascular health or increase lean muscle mass.” Sleep and fitness expert Dr. Winter further explains that “If you don’t sleep, you undermine your body.” 

Which should come first, sleep or exercise? Some might assume that good sleep is the result of a nice, hard workout, and you would not be wrong. But did you ever stop to consider that sleep might be essential for helping you get the best results from your workout? For those of us who have lifestyle goals to change the shape of our body, you might be interested in this list of ways sleep maximizes the benefits of exercise: 

How Fitness Affects Sleep 

Exercise can positively affect our brains. According to “How Sleep Affects Fitness” from Everyday Health, “‘Physical activity creates more adenosine in the brain, and adenosine makes us feel sleepy,’ says Dr. Winter. (Fun fact: Adenosine is the chemical that caffeine blocks to make you feel more alert.) ‘The harder we workout, the more driven we are by this chemical to sleep.’” In order to be effective and get the best results, you need all three elements: exercise, healthy diet, and sleep.  

In our busy society, sleep is one of the things that often gets compromised in our need to be productive. You might feel you are too busy to stop for the night. Or you might think, If I can just spend one more hour on this project before bed, I’ll get everything done. Productivity is admirable but so is prioritizing your self-care. In case you have any doubt about how exercise affects sleep in a healthy lifestyle, here’s a list of ways exercise maximizes your ability to sleep: 

Here’s a quote from Hopkins Medical’s article “Exercising for Better Sleep:” “Exercise can also help to stabilize your mood and decompress the mind, ‘a cognitive process that is important for naturally transitioning to sleep,’ says Dr. Charlene Gamaldo.” If you still aren’t convinced to give your body enough time to sleep, here’s something else to consider. Exercise can also minimize your risk for the following sleep-related issues: 

“You can work out like an Energizer Bunny and sleep like a princess (or prince),” says Ursula James, Owner of Beautyrest Sleep Gallery in Springfield, Missouri.  

Healthy Diet Affects Sleep 

Some studies show that how we eat and what we eat can affect how well we sleep. According to 

“Nutrition and Sleep: Diet’s Effect on Sleep,” the following dietary choices are less restorative: 

Also, keeping your body in a deficit with fats, carbs, and protein can give you worse quality of sleep. When we are short on sleep, our bodies tend to be hungrier and crave more sugar and fatty foods. It’s sort of like the tired version of you is looking for comfort foods.  

Your Mattress Plays a Role 

Exercise and healthy diet aren’t the only things that can affect your sleep. Sometimes, when you are doing everything right, you find you still can’t sleep. If this is the case, it might be time to check your mattress. While there is an exact, right fit for you when it comes to a mattress, your best bet in finding it might be to go into your local sleep store and have a conversation with a sleep expert. Mattresses come in all shapes and sizes. A person who is extremely active and spends most of their time in the gym might need a different mattress than someone who is just now starting his or her healthy lifestyle journey. Regardless of where you fall on the active scale, your body needs a restorative night’s sleep to recover and produce more energy for the next day. If your mattress is keeping you up at night, it might be time to start shopping.   

Be Healthy, Sleep Well, Wake Up and Be Happy 

If you want to sleep like a prince or princess, stop by any Beautyrest Sleep Gallery showroom in Springfield or Hollister, Missouri. And if you need a great place to go for a good workout, healthy lifestyle coaching, or nutrition guidance, check out Achieve Your Best (AYB) in Springfield, Missouri.