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The Importance Of Sleep: Are You Getting Enough? | Nutritionist Explains | Myprotein
Jan 30, 2025
Nutritionist explains the importance of sleep and how sleep can play a key role in your progress with training goals.
You're probably no stranger to the idea that you need to get enough sleep to tackle the day's activities to the best of your ability — but do you know just how important sleep is to your success? Or how big a role it can play in your performance or training progress?
Expert nutritionist and PhD researcher, Richie Kirwan, is back to explain all the benefits that come with a good night's sleep and steps you can take to try and improve sleep quality.
Find Richie on Instagram: @be_more_nutrition
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Chapters:
00:00 — Intro
00:29 — Why is sleep important?
00:54 — How sleep effects body fat
02:36 — How sleep effects muscle-building
03:59 — How much sleep should we be getting?
04:49 — What can we do to improve sleep quality?
07:45 — Supplements to help sleep
08:34 — Any questions?
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0:02
you know you're supposed to get plenty
0:03
of sleep but do you know why
0:06
and do you realize just how important it
0:07
is for your body fat and muscle levels
0:09
let's talk about that
0:13
how's it going guys my name is richie
0:14
kerwin and today we're going to talk all
0:15
about people's favorite thing to avoid
0:17
and least favorite thing to leave sleep
0:20
there's a good chance you don't realize
0:22
how important it really is to every
0:25
aspect of health and even to your body
0:27
composition so let's get started sleep
0:29
is a chance for our body to reset after
0:31
the day enough restful sleep is
0:33
essential for all of our bodily systems
0:35
to recover and work to their optimal
0:37
capacity and that means everything our
0:40
hormonal systems appetite regulation
0:42
blood glucose control muscle growth and
0:44
repair to name just a few not getting
0:46
enough sleep can screw up all of these
0:48
systems and i'm going to explain how
0:49
that makes it a lot harder for you to
0:51
achieve the body compensation goals that
0:53
you have firstly let's talk about body
0:55
fat when we don't get enough sleep one
0:57
of the most commonly noted side effects
1:00
in research studies is an increase in
1:02
appetite
1:04
that's right not sleeping enough makes
1:06
you hungry researchers think that the
1:07
changes in appetite are caused by
1:09
changes in satiety hormones such as
1:11
leptin which reduces appetite and
1:13
ghrelin which increases food intake one
1:15
study showed that a few days of sleep
1:17
deprivation caused leptin levels to drop
1:19
by 18
1:20
and ghrelin to increase by 28 and that
1:23
caused a 23 increase in hunger other
1:26
studies have shown that only one night
1:28
of reduced sleep leads to increased food
1:31
cravings greater food reward in the
1:33
brain and cause participants to choose
1:35
larger food portion sizes and what's
1:38
really interesting is that the lack of
1:39
sleep seems to not only increase hunger
1:42
but it makes people hungry for high
1:44
calorie hyper palatable that's a fancy
1:47
word for very tasty ultra processed
1:49
foods that are high in both fat and
1:52
carbs think of it like this if you're
1:54
trying to diet and lose body fat if you
1:56
don't get enough sleep then your
1:57
appetite is likely going to be a lot
1:59
higher and you're going to want a lot of
2:01
processed food couple that with the fact
2:03
that we live in a world where processed
2:05
food is everywhere
2:07
then not getting enough sleep can make
2:09
dieting unnecessarily difficult nobody
2:12
wants to walk around feeling hungry all
2:13
the time to add insult to injury studies
2:16
have even shown that if you're losing
2:18
weight and not getting enough sleep
2:19
you're more likely to lose muscle
2:21
instead of body yep you heard that right
2:24
in fact one study showed that people
2:26
sleeping only five and a half hours
2:28
during a diet made them lose 55 percent
2:31
less fat and 60
2:33
more lean mass or muscle than people
2:35
sleeping eight and a half hours on top
2:37
of that a lack of good sleep can make it
2:39
a lot harder to build muscle short term
2:42
modest sleep loss so going from say
2:43
eight hours to just six hours a night
2:45
can lead to increases in substances in
2:47
our body called pro-inflammatory
2:49
cytokines higher levels of those
2:51
substances are associated with muscle
2:53
loss in other studies sleep loss can
2:55
also mess up the way our body releases
2:57
hormones for example it can lead to high
2:59
levels of the stress hormone cortisol
3:01
after just two nights of four hours of
3:03
sleep each chronically high cortisol can
3:05
cause an increase in muscle protein
3:07
breakdown which is not ideal if you're
3:09
trying to build muscle on top of that
3:11
one experiment with eight nights of just
3:13
five hours of sleep showed a reduction
3:15
in testosterone of about 10 to 15 but
3:18
wait there's more other research has
3:20
shown that people who don't get enough
3:22
sleep are a lot more likely to have
3:24
adverse health behaviors basically they
3:27
did more things that weren't good for
3:29
them like smoking being physically
3:31
inactive heavy drinking poor sleep can
3:33
also lead to higher levels of stress and
3:35
anxiety and that makes people less
3:37
likely to have healthy behaviors like
3:39
having regular breakfasts or eating
3:41
vegetables so not only does a lack of
3:43
sleep make it physically harder to build
3:45
muscle and lose fat it also makes you a
3:47
lot less likely to do the things that
3:49
you need to do in the first place to
3:51
improve your body composition it makes
3:53
you less likely to exercise and eat well
3:55
so now that you know how essential sleep
3:57
is for your body composition how much
3:59
sleep should we be getting well the
4:00
truth is we don't know exactly but if
4:03
you constantly have trouble waking up
4:06
don't wake up feeling rested and feel
4:08
tired throughout the day there's a good
4:09
chance you're not getting enough sleep
4:11
the common guideline is between seven
4:13
and nine hours of sleep per night and i
4:14
would say if you're quite physically
4:16
active or exercise regularly then aiming
4:18
for the upper end of that range is
4:20
probably a good idea because you simply
4:22
need more rest and recovery in fact
4:25
recently there was one very interesting
4:27
paper that compared natural sleep
4:28
duration in primates our closest animal
4:31
relatives and determined that based on
4:33
different biological factors humans
4:36
should potentially be sleeping around
4:37
nine and a half hours every night while
4:40
it's not proven by any means it kind of
4:42
hints at the fact that our modern 24 7
4:44
lifestyle might not be allowing us as
4:47
much sleep as we should naturally get so
4:49
what can we actually do to try and make
4:51
sure we're getting enough quality sleep
4:53
there are a lot of tips out there and
4:55
i'm going to mention a few but i really
4:57
want to point out that you don't have to
4:59
and you might not be even able to use
5:02
all of them a small improvement is still
5:04
an improvement so do what you can okay
5:06
first off have a set sleep and wake time
5:09
our bodies like to maintain a stable
5:11
circadian rhythm that's a cycle
5:13
controlled by biological clock genes in
5:15
our cells if you keep going to bed and
5:16
waking up at different times it makes
5:18
getting to sleep difficult don't eat
5:21
large or heavy meals right before bed if
5:23
you're struggling to digest a heavy meal
5:25
at night you're going to find it tough
5:26
to sleep try and eat at least three
5:28
hours before sleeping and keep your last
5:30
full meal relatively light lowering
5:32
calories and food volume just to throw
5:34
it in there i know a lot of people like
5:35
to take some protein before going to bed
5:37
that's probably okay because it's
5:39
relatively easy to digest the next one
5:41
kind of goes without saying avoid
5:43
caffeine close to bedtime caffeine has a
5:45
half-life of about six hours that means
5:47
that if you take a pre-workout with 200
5:49
milligrams of caffeine six hours later
5:51
there's still 100 milligrams of caffeine
5:53
floating around your system it's best to
5:54
keep caffeinated drinks like coffee tea
5:56
and pre-workout to the early part of the
5:58
day next one avoid blue light at night
6:01
blue light from the sun is essential for
6:03
maintaining our circadian rhythm but if
6:05
we have lots of blue light from electric
6:07
lights or computers tvs and phone
6:09
screens entering our eyes late at night
6:12
our brains simply don't know when to
6:14
shut off consider using blue blocker
6:16
glasses or blue blocking apps for your
6:18
phone and computer screens in the
6:20
evenings next one make sure your room is
6:23
dark because light in your bedroom from
6:25
street lamps or even digital clocks can
6:27
make it harder to sleep you could use
6:29
blackout blinds or you could do what i
6:30
do and use a cheap eye mask oh and if
6:33
your bedroom is noisy a pair of earplugs
6:35
can be a lifesaver it's also important
6:38
to make sure your bedroom isn't too hot
6:39
or too cold as both can make it harder
6:41
to sleep cold feet especially can keep
6:44
people awake and apparently wearing
6:45
socks in bed can help keep them warmer
6:47
and help you sleep socks in bed also
6:49
have the added advantage of ensuring
6:50
nobody will ever get in bed with you to
6:52
keep you awake win-win right regular
6:54
exercise is also associated with better
6:57
sleep only caveat here is for some
6:59
people exercising close to bedtime might
7:01
actually make it harder to drift off
7:04
you'll likely know if late night
7:05
exercise has that effect on you and if
7:07
it does it might be time to switch up
7:09
your routine to exercise a little
7:10
earlier and if you're the kind of person
7:12
that can't get to sleep because you
7:14
always have a million thoughts running
7:16
through your mind there are two things
7:18
that might help one is writing a to-do
7:20
list of things you need to do the next
7:22
day that means you won't forget them and
7:24
you don't need to keep them in your mind
7:26
all night the other is pre-sleep
7:28
meditation
7:31
while that might sound a little bit
7:32
hippy-dippy to a lot of people there is
7:34
a lot of research showing the benefits
7:36
of meditation for improving sleep there
7:38
are also plenty of apps to choose from
7:39
that might help you to start a
7:41
meditation habit and it can have a lot
7:43
of other benefits in other aspects of
7:44
your life and what about sleep
7:46
supplements well while a lot of
7:49
supplements are marketed as helping
7:51
improve sleep there isn't a lot of
7:53
evidence to prove those claims one
7:55
supplement many recommend is magnesium
7:57
which plays a role in neural
7:59
transmission in the brain and it may
8:01
genuinely benefit people who are
8:02
deficient in magnesium however if you're
8:04
not deficient supplementing won't help
8:07
if you're worried about low magnesium
8:08
levels it's worth looking out for really
8:10
bioavailable forms like magnesium
8:12
glycinate and magnesium citrate like i
8:14
said earlier you're probably not going
8:16
to be able to make use of all of these
8:17
dips but start with what you can and
8:20
build up from there it's also really
8:21
important to remember that there are
8:23
probably no quick solutions to poor
8:26
sleep and long-term habit change is the
8:28
best way to make an impact just like the
8:30
long-term changes you need to make to
8:32
your diet and exercise habits so did
8:35
this answer your questions about sleep
8:36
as always if you have any more let me
8:38
know in the comments below and remember
8:39
to like and subscribe to the my protein
8:41
youtube channel for more great
8:42
evidence-based nutrition information
8:46
action
8:47
oh it's it's rolling all right okay
8:50
i want a photograph of this
8:52
you know you're supposed to get plenty
8:53
of sleep
8:57
[Music]
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