From time to time I meet people who routinely sleep 4 to 6 hours a day and they report they feel great with just so much sleep. I sleep 8 to 9 hours. They say that I am wasting a lot of time sleeping while I could be more productive. But I cannot sleep less than 8 hours. I feel very grumpy if I sleep less than 7 hours. And I feel great after a good night's sleep and perform well in my daily duties and also my workouts. I feel strong and motivated when I am rested. Big weights don't scare me as much in this motivated state. But when I don't sleep my 8 hours I feel a kind of fear that I may not be able to lift heavy. And without the motivation the weights feel heavier.
It is not just a psychological factor it is really a physical problem. When you are in deep sleep your body and mind have little to worry about the worldly things. Your eyes are not picking up huge amount of data for the brain to process, you body is not moving, so no reason to stabilize various muscles or send signals to contract them, no need to convert so much glucose/fat/proteins to energy (well there is some conversion necessary to keep you alive, but not as much).
Your brain does not have a lot of work to do and it is good time for it to organize everything that happened through out the day, improve memory and generally keep you sane. And similarly your body is primed to repair torn tissues and replace cells that need replacing. I don't mean that the brain and body don't do this during the rest of the day. All I am saying is that they have more time and less distracting things to worry about when you are not active. This is also probably the reason why your body secretes the most amount of Growth Hormone during deep sleep. Typically a couple of hours after sleep and continues to spike several times during the night. The amount secreted is a lot more than what gets secreted during any other time.
This brings us to the question about how the Human Growth Hormone (HGH) is related to body building. Many athletes have been getting injections of HGH to improve their performance. Whether HGH really helps improve performance is up for debate and there are several conflicting studies about their role. HGHs are also attributed to reducing fat and thus increasing the lean mass. But in general it is an accepted fact that HGH helps in repair of damaged muscle, makes strong bones and converts fat into energy. All good things.
So folks if you are planning on building muscle stop late night parties and sleep up. Don't bother what people say. They are loser of course. You should at least aim for 8 hours of good uninterrupted sleep everyday. More if possible all the way up to 10 hours. Any more will not help much and will make you lazy too.
It is not just a psychological factor it is really a physical problem. When you are in deep sleep your body and mind have little to worry about the worldly things. Your eyes are not picking up huge amount of data for the brain to process, you body is not moving, so no reason to stabilize various muscles or send signals to contract them, no need to convert so much glucose/fat/proteins to energy (well there is some conversion necessary to keep you alive, but not as much).
Your brain does not have a lot of work to do and it is good time for it to organize everything that happened through out the day, improve memory and generally keep you sane. And similarly your body is primed to repair torn tissues and replace cells that need replacing. I don't mean that the brain and body don't do this during the rest of the day. All I am saying is that they have more time and less distracting things to worry about when you are not active. This is also probably the reason why your body secretes the most amount of Growth Hormone during deep sleep. Typically a couple of hours after sleep and continues to spike several times during the night. The amount secreted is a lot more than what gets secreted during any other time.
This brings us to the question about how the Human Growth Hormone (HGH) is related to body building. Many athletes have been getting injections of HGH to improve their performance. Whether HGH really helps improve performance is up for debate and there are several conflicting studies about their role. HGHs are also attributed to reducing fat and thus increasing the lean mass. But in general it is an accepted fact that HGH helps in repair of damaged muscle, makes strong bones and converts fat into energy. All good things.
So folks if you are planning on building muscle stop late night parties and sleep up. Don't bother what people say. They are loser of course. You should at least aim for 8 hours of good uninterrupted sleep everyday. More if possible all the way up to 10 hours. Any more will not help much and will make you lazy too.
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